Napoleon Bonaparte was a dictator who marked the end of the French Revolution, although he did attempt to keep some of the same ideas. He became the first consul in France, and soon took the role of dictatorship. This sudden rise to power was known as Coup d’etat, or blow to the state.
After Napoleon's rise to power he then created a constitution that strengthened the central government in 1800. It consisted of his own set of laws which he called the Napoleonic Code. These laws limited the people, though, because freedom of speech and freedom of the press were not allowed. He also restored slavery in French colonies. His power was increasing vigorously fast.
On December 2, 1804 Napoleon was crowned emperor. Typically the tradition was that the pope crowned you himself, but Napoleon, being the controlling, dictating man he was, walked down the aisle in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and took the crown off the pope’s head and crowned himself. This shows that Napoleon felt as if he was above the church and only cared about himself. Thus, proving that his empire was of little interest to him; he was all about the fame.
Napoleon was not satisfied ruling just France alone; he wanted the whole Europe to be under his dictatorship. He had already invaded the Austria Netherlands and parts of Italy and had a small government in Switzerland, but he craved more. So not only does he want things his way, he's also a greedy man.
Napoleon felt as if he had it all, but little did he know that the more power he craved, the more he was sending his empire into a black hole. He made three major mistakes that devastated his empire. The first was the Continental System.
The Continental System was basically a tactic Napoleon used to mess up Great Britain's financial system. He wanted to block all goods from Great Britain, imported and exported. His plan didn't work well because people still managed to get merchandise from Great Britain. This damaged Great Britain so...