Napoleon: Hero or Tyrant? | Teen Ink

Napoleon: Hero or Tyrant?

January 19, 2023
By shreeji26 SILVER, Parsippany, New Jersey
shreeji26 SILVER, Parsippany, New Jersey
7 articles 1 photo 0 comments

Napoleon was a wise man in most ways, with big plans, big actions, and big passions. Throughout Napoleon’s political and military career, he accomplished many goals that made him a hero for France. From freedom of religion to eliminating hereditary privileges, Napoleon achieved great feats. King Louis XVI was executed for treating the people poorly and because of mass executions during the time of the French Revolution, he ended those mass executions which ultimately brought order to France. Furthermore, the second and third estates were not as wealthy as the first estate, since they had to pay all the taxes while the first estate did not pay any. Bonaparte made tax collection fairer throughout the three estates. This led to the government having a steady supply of money. As expressed, Napoleon’s good acts and exceptional leadership qualities led him to be one of the biggest heroes in history and for the people of France.

Twisted by his immense passions and absurd ideas, Napoleon was consumed by his craving for power and obsession with taking over Europe. This horrible infatuation led him to hurt France, and especially the people that he said he would protect and nurture. Bonaparte tried to take over Russia but he failed. Still, Russia had burned fields and their livestock had been killed. The restoration of slavery for colonies and an attempt to hurt the British economy were also done by Napoleon. Lastly, he was not fair to both genders; Napoleon deprived women of their rights. His egotistical and oppressive ways led him to be one of the most threatening tyrants in France.

Based on the heroic and hateful actions that Napoleon completed, in my opinion, he is more of a tyrant than a hero. He ended freedom of the press, constrained freedom of association, and created a new, greedy nobility. Napoleon was responsible for a lot of death and destruction. This resulted in more than 410000 deaths and a lot of wounded. The central reason that caused his downfall and really showed his wicked side was that he spread democratic and literal ideas through war. This in particular is a really wonderful idea, but the evil part was that he spread democratic and literal ideas through war. As a result, this caused the downfall of his rule and the defeat of France. Napoleon Bonaparte would always approach violence in every situation rather than peace, making him more of a tyrant than an actual hero.


The author's comments:

This is an opinionated paragraph about if Napoleon was a hero or tyrant.


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