Question 9

To what extent did Napoleon’s reforms during the Consulate apply the principles of the French Revolution?

• Discuss reforms in the government, education, religion and the law in relation to the principles of the French Revolution.
• Draw on the principles of popular sovereignty, liberty and equality in the main, though you may take a more sophisticated view of the French Revolutionary period and its ideas.
• Test the Constitutions of the Years VIII and X against the principle of popular sovereignty and are likely to argue that although there were elements of democracy (universal male suffrage, plebiscites, apparently representative institutions) the reality was the creation of a centralised and authoritarian regime.
• In relation to liberty, the judgement may well be harsh: although there was religious toleration, there was no real freedom of speech or assembly.
• Discuss censorship and other elements of the ‘police state’.
• In relation to equality, there may be a more favourable judgement, pointing to the basic equality of rights that imbues the civil code and the apparent espousal of equality of opportunity (meritocracy)
• Discuss the unequal treatment of women and workers