The Napoleonic Empire: Collaboration and Resistance

  • Martyn Lyons
Chapter
Part of the European Studies book series (EUROSTUD)

Abstract

French rule brought old regime Europe face to face with revolutionary notions of equality and individualism, the end of privilege and seigneurialism, and the secular state. One effect of this was to impose a uniform system of values on a very wide variety of European cultures and traditions. European societies under French rule were given the same law codes, the same system of secondary education, similar fiscal structures, and a version of the Concordat with the Catholic Church. The Napoleonic bureaucracy was inspired by a passion for rational regulation which could, at its worst, smother independent initiatives and inhibit the development of a pluralistic Europe. The French even recommended this standardising tendency as a virtue. The rulers of Bavaria and Baden were advised that “the adoption of the Napoleonic Code will be a blessing for the peoples of these states as it will eliminate the variety of customs that rule them.”1 Local customs were here identified with feudal obscurantism.

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Notes

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© Martyn Lyons 1994

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  • Martyn Lyons

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