Deviations, Weaknesses and Failures Of Napoleon;

1. Violation of the Concordat

Napoleon is accused for acting in an uncivilized manner towards the Pope. In 1804, He declared himself emperor and
invited the Pope to officiate and crown him. However, when the Pope was on the verge of crowning him. Napoleon snatched
the crown from him and crowned himself. He did this just to show that nobody including the Pope was above him. This was
not only a national scandal but a humiliation to the Pope and Catholic religion. Napoleon also abrogated the Concordat by
arresting and imprisoning the Pope. By 1808, there was a serious conflict between Napoleon and the Pope because of
Napoleon's anti-catholic behaviors and policies such as the continental system. Consequently, in 1808, Napoleon occupied
the Papal States and officially added Rome to the French empire in 1809. The Pope reacted by excommunicating Napoleon
from the church to which Napoleon reacted by arresting and imprisoning him. This disappointed the Catholics and liberals in
France and all over Europe.NB. In 1814, pressure from within and outside France forced Napoleon to hand over the Pope to
the Austrians who released him. He was eventually restored to his former position.
Besides, the concordat was received with mixed feelings. Die-hard Catholics could never forget the church Status and
privileges during the Bourbon monarchy and therefore rejected it. On the other hand, fanatic revolutionaries  denounced the
concordat as a betrayal of the revolutionary reforms and a drive to the pre-1789 church privileges, which they had shed
blood to abolish. They considered payment of the clergy by the state as unnecessary wastage of state resources. It was not
surprising that one  of the revolutionaries commented; “the only person missing at this ceremony are the  million men dead
who died to get rid of this nonsense".NB. Napoleon was not a deeply devoted religious person who cared about life after
death. His feeling was that spiritual forces controlled the lives of the peasants and soldiers and that is why he decided to
influence and control those forces. To him, religion was not to be dismissed like an outdated theory in Chemistry. He
considered religion as a political instrument to consolidate his power. This is why Napoleon was a multi-religious person as
he confessed that; I am a Moslem in Egypt, a Jew in Syria and a Catholic in France".

2. Dictatorship
 Napoleon adopted dictatorship, in his administration of France. He centralized all powers to himself and left no room for
democracy at higher levels of administration. In 1804, he violated the constitution and declared himself a life emperor. There
was no election and parliament which deprived the Frenchmen of a representative government. Worst of all, he revived the
system of Lettress de-Cachet especially from 1810. Napoleon manipulated some codes/laws to strengthen his dictatorship.
For instance, he used the Penal and criminal codes to arbitrarily arrest and imprison his political opponents. All these turned
France into a fascist state from 1810, contrary to the expectations of the revolutionaries.

3. Revolutionary Subjects
Napoleon was an "intellectual coward." He is blamed for abolishing the teaching of revolutionary liberal subjects like history,
philosophy, political science and literature. This is because, these subjects sharpen the reasoning capacity of people, which
would incite them to criticize and expose his weaknesses. He admitted his weakness when he said; "I fear an Insurrection
caused by Shortage of Bread. I would fear them more than a battle of 200,000 men." Napoleon was generally too fearful of
parliamentary debates and liberal critics from higher institutions which made him to ban the teaching of revolutionary
subjects.The ban on revolutionary subjects violated article IV of declaration of rights of man, which provided that "Liberty
consists in being allowed to do whatever does not injure other people". This undermined France's capacity to produce future
revolutionary leaders and betrays Napoleon as a true son of the French revolution.

4. Education of the Girl Child

Napoleon's education system segregated girls in favour of boys. He commented that; I do not think we need to trouble
ourselves with any plan of instruction for young females...Public education is not suitable for them, because they are never
called upon to act in public. Manners are all in all to them and marriage is alt they look to. To him, women should be taught
religion and morals to indoctrinate them with the spirit of tolerance, forgiveness, love and submission to their husbands. This
is why he stated that; "What we ask of education is that girls should not think, but that they should believe…. Napoleon
believed that women should not play any public role nor hold any public office apart from the "Kitchen". This is against the
principle of equality of all men by nature and denied France of talents that could have been exploited from women.

5. The Continental System

The continental system that was designed as a strategy of defeating Britain failed and had negative consequences for
France and Europe. The system blocked the British superior and cheap manufactured products to European Countries,
France inclusive. Worst of all, the substitute to British goods were of poor quality and very expensive, which lowered the
demand in the market. This made the French and European businessmen to .close their businesses and industries. The end
result was famine, inflation, unemployment industrial breakdown and financial crisis.

6. Repressive Laws against women

Napoleon used repressive laws that neglected the principle of equality and violated the rights of women.The code Napoleon
was a conservative instrument that legally made women inferior to men. Napoleon remarked that; The angle told Eve to
obey her husband...it should be written in our code..! The Penal Code provided for severe punishment for women who
disobeyed their husbands. Women were to be under total control of their husbands and could not acquire or sell property
without the consent of their husbands.This denied women their right to equality, liberty, fraternity and property.NB Divorce
was permitted by mutual consent such as adultery, violence, grave criminal offences. This was contrary to the doctrine/
teaching of the Catholic Church that prohibited divorce for whatever reason:

7. Repressive Laws against Children

Apart from women, the Code-Napoleon also ignored and abused children s rights. Girls of less than 21 years were not
allowed to make any decision such as on marriage without the approval of their father and the same applied to boys below
25 years old. Children of less than 18 years were to surrender their income to their fathers. The code also gave fathers
power to imprison their children for any unlawful behaviour. All these consolidated the dictatorship of fathers over their
children and thus undermined their rights.

8. Favouritism and Nepotism

Napoleon practiced Favouritism and Nepotism in his domestic as well as foreign policy. The electoral process that was
instituted to check favouritism was reduced to Colleges i.e. Electoral College, which gave Napoleon a chance to impose his
family members and relatives to key positions of responsibility in France and the conquered States. For instance, his
brothers; Louis Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte and Jerome Bonaparte were made kings of Holland, Italy and West-Phalia
respectively. This was not different from the hereditary system of appointment of the Bourbons and betrays Napoleon as a
true son of the French Revolution.

9. Press Censorship
Napoleon suppressed and restricted freedom of the press through his Police chief, Fouche. Napoleon's view was that
Liberty was not for the common people. Consequently, he limited the number of Printers in Paris and their proprietors were
made to swear oath of obedience to the government. The number of legal newspapers in Paris was also reduced from 70 in
1800 to only 04 (four) by 1810. Those who defied the government order and published anti-government ideas were either
hanged or imprisoned. This explains why the defeat of Trafalgar in 1805 was not published in any newspaper till after
Napoleon was overthrown. Thus, Napoleon denied the Frenchmen the right to information (Press Freedom) and
undermined the revolutionary principle of liberty.
 
10. Aggressive foreign policy
Napoleon is blamed for his numerous unending wars that were due to his burning ambition to conquer Europe. The wars
that he provoked such as the Spanish (1808) and Moscow campaigns (1812) costed France thousands of soldiers and a lot
of financial resources. These ambitions also made European powers to join hands in a series of coalition that climaxed into
his final defeat and down fall in 1815. Thus, Napoleon's aggressive war policy led to economic decline in France, heavy
losses of lives, destruction of property and isolation of France in Europe.

11. Conscription into the army

Lastly Napoleon conscripted (forceful recruitment) the Frenchmen into the army just to raise a big army to fulfill his ambition
of conquering the whole Europe. By 1812, he had enacted a law that entitled all abled bodied men to join the army. As
European powers hardened on fighting him and depleted his soldiers, Napoleon resorted to conscripting young boys who
were hurriedly trained and sent to the battle field. Most of such conscripted boys and men were cowards who fought
reluctantly and often withdrew from the battle field or fraternized with Napoleon's enemies. For instance, about
80,000French conscripts defected to the allied powers on the eve of the Moscow campaign. This was because they were
forced to join the army against their consent/will. It should be noted that Napoleon's army was also heterogeneous with
conscripts from Belgium, Portugal, Denmark, Italian States, and German States etc. It became impossible to have proper
command and instill discipline in the army because they were from different historical, cultural and linguistic backgrounds.