Napoleon had an immense impact on the social, economic, and political systems of France, although those impacts were both positive and negative. Napoleon was a military genius, as well as being a completely dominant and powerful leader of a country. He was the perfect choice in a leader at the point in France's history, as William Milligan Sloane summarized in his biography about Bonaparte in Century Magazine in 1894 by saying, "The Jacobins needed a man, they found him in the unscrupulous Bonaparte; the Directory needed a needed a man, they found him in the expert artillerist; France needed a man, she found him in the conqueror of Italy."
One of Napoleon's most important influences on the social system in France was his choice to establish a system of meritocracy, getting a job based on your skills, not just based on connections. This choice allowed people who were truly qualified for a specific job to be able to get that job and not be beat out by other competition simply because they were more wealthy or higher up in social standings. This not only benefited those people, but also benefited the country as well because the jobs were done better and at a higher standard/quality because the people who were doing those jobs were more qualified and prepared for them. Under Napoleon's rule, citizens also had the rights to a formal education, and could own property. This helped people to be more independent and feel as though they had more control over their own lives by being able to own their own property. Giving all citizens education also allowed the country to benefit because the more educated the population was, the more inventions were created, and the better people would be at doing their own specialized jobs.
Napoleon had a huge impact on the economic system of France as well. Napoleon controlled trade as an emperor, so that allowed France's economy to continue to grow because of the constant importing of different items not able to be obtained in their native France, and the exportation of goods to countries outside of France which France received profit from. Napoleon also encouraged new industry which was beneficial to France's economy because there were more jobs for people to do, which created many new sources for income for the people of France. Napoleon also built many new bridges and canals which improved the flow of trade and gave the country more means of importing and exporting goods, therefore improving the economy. Finally, Napoleon stole many riches from Italy when he conquered it, which gave France much more wealth.
The area which becomes more controversial and hard to define success-wise for Napoleon and his leadership of the country is regarding the political systems in France and how he changed them, because there are more negatives involved in his political changes. To begin, Napoleon intended to overthrow the Directory, the leaders of France at the time who abused their power for their own benefits. They discovered his intentions to overthrow them, and in 1799, the five members of the Directory resigned. The resignation of the members of the Directory allowed Napoleon to form his own form of government in which the people of France had more rights and freedom, as stated by Marshal Michel Nay, an officer of the French army, in his speech to his fellow troops in 1815, "Liberty triumphs in the end, and Napoleon, our august emperor, comes to confirm it." However, some people, particularly the nobility because Napoleon stripped them of their power and privileges, believed that Napoleon was selfish in becoming emperor and took over the country without taking into account the rights and desires of the people. One particularly vocal former noble, Madame de Staël, represented the majority of the nobles' view of Napoleon's way of ruling in her book Ten Years of Exile, saying, "His system was to encroach daily upon France's liberty and Europe's independence... By alternating between cunning and force he has subjugated Europe."
Although some of Napoleon Bonaparte's ways of running France were questioned by some members of French society, Napoleon was an amazing leader and military genius, failing in the end only based on exhaustion.
Napoleon Bonaparte. Painting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon#mediaviewer/File:Jacques-Louis_David_-_The_Emperor_Napoleon_in_His_Study_at_the_Tuileries_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
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