Up to now, Napoleon is still regarded as a genius commander-in-chief. He used his army to give France unprecedented strength. He began to fight in European countries and almost controlled the whole of Europe in his heyday. Nothing and no one can stop him from moving forward. When he completely wiped out the Prussian army in 1806, thus ending the history of "the holy Roman Empire of the German nation" which lasted for thousands of years, Louise, queen of Prussia, described the French emperor like this: "He is not sincere when talking about good things and good people. His ideas and ambitions are only for self-interest. People can admire him, but they cannot love him. He was blinded by luck and thought that everything could be realized. But he doesn't know how to control it. Whoever doesn't control it will lose his balance and fall to the ground. "

The Queen of Prussia is right, because like all uncontrolled conquerors, Napoleon also experienced his Waterloo-this has become an idiom to commemorate his ultimate failure. This ending began with his 18 12 expedition to Russia. In order to explore Russia, he assembled 600,000 troops. With the largest army in history, the whole world expects him to win soon. But the result is just the opposite. Russian troops avoided every battle and repeatedly withdrew to the hinterland. In September, Napoleon's "army" approached Moscow, which was almost an empty city. A few days later, Russian troops set fire to the whole city. Napoleon knew that his army could not spend the winter in Russia without adequate accommodation and supplies. He proposed a truce to the czar-but there was no response. He had no choice but to order a retreat. However, the retreat was a disaster for his "army". Thousands of soldiers die every day from hunger, fatigue and Russian counterattacks. In the end, only 5,000 people returned to their hometown.

Napoleon's defeat, which has always been famous for his invincibility, greatly inspired his enemies and urged them to unite. Prussia, Austria, Russia, Britain and Sweden declared war on France together. 181310/October 16 to 19, the famous "National Congress War" was held near Leipzig. Napoleon's newly formed army was unable to compete with the allies and suffered a second fiasco. 18 14, when the allies entered Paris, Napoleon had to abdicate and was exiled to the island of Elba. A year later, he made a comeback and returned to Paris again, overthrowing the newly established king and taking power. He established another army, but was completely defeated by Prussia and British troops near Waterloo in 18 15. As a prisoner of the British government, Napoleon finally 182 1 died on the Atlantic island of St. Helena on May 5th.

Emperor Napoleon's rule lasted only ten years, and then his great empire collapsed like a house of cards. What he left to future generations was not his achievements as commander-in-chief, but his reforms as head of government. Among them, especially the civil code promulgated by 1804, which realized many important demands of the revolution: to implement unified laws for all French people; All citizens are equal before the law; Personal freedom; Cancel the hierarchy; Entering public office can only be based on performance, not on birth; Freedom of operation; Freedom to choose a job; Owning property; Religious freedom and civil marriage. The civil code has become a model of civil law in Europe and other countries in the world.

Similarly, the administrative reform also won Napoleon a lot of praise. France is divided into 98 administrative regions, which are not independent, but accept the instructions of Paris. Also controlled by the central government is the education system under the unified supervision of the state, which implements a unified teaching plan nationwide-until today, the graduation standards of French schools are still unified nationwide.

Napoleon also carried out reforms after his military victory in Germany. For example, the secularization of the church management area, that is, giving management power to secular managers; The original 1 12 imperial parish disappeared from the political map. In addition, 350 imperial knight jurisdictions and many imperial cities are no longer independent kingdoms, but are under the jurisdiction of princes. The era of fragmented empire composed of hundreds of small countries and the smallest territory is over; A stronger and more vital medium-sized country was born. In this "administrative clean-up", the main winners are Baden, Wü rttemberg and Bavaria, and their territories have obviously expanded. The lifestyle of citizens has also been reorganized and standardized according to the new French law. This is a great progress, although citizens are deprived of the right to make political decisions, because Germany does not have a parliament elected by the people.

Prussia and Austria also failed to get rid of the influence of French thought and fell into the pressure of reform. "In order to prevent the outbreak of the revolution, we must reform. We must help those who are protected by God. " A Prussian official described the situation like this. Von Stein and Baron von Hardenbergh set out to draft a reform plan, which was mainly based on the French model. The educational reform in middle schools and universities mainly implements the thought of william von humboldt, a famous scholar. To this day, Humboldt spirit still runs through German university education. The general idea of the reform is to make Prussia's subjects become independent citizens who can participate in the work of the country with a sense of responsibility-perhaps at some point, there will be a people's representative body on an equal footing with the king.

In another field, Napoleon was also a great reformer-of course, not out of his will: the French-occupied vassal countries repeatedly had resistance movements; For the war, Napoleon paid more and more attention to money and soldiers. The more obvious his desire, the stronger his resistance. Especially in Germany, this resistance has become a national movement against Napoleon. If the poets and philosophers in this country have long regarded themselves as members of a "cultural nation", now they also want to be a "nation state". In his speech to the German nation, the philosopher John gottlieb Ficht asked his compatriots to "mold their own qualities" and become Germans again. "Let's worship in front of our bodies and spirits and become their prisoners." This desire to maintain national characteristics is also one of the reasons for the outbreak of the "war of liberation" that led to the end of French hegemony in Europe. The growing and sometimes too strong national consciousness of Germans also has its historical origin here.