The legacy of Napoleon is much more complex than that. Want it or not, he's both a terrible conqueror animated by a thirst for power at all cost and also a buil

The legacy of Napoleon is much more complex than that. Want it or not, he's both a terrible conqueror animated by a thirst for power at all cost and also a builder of modern institutions still in use today. The same things could be said of most kings, queens and emperors of Europe across the ages. Reigns without mercy, enslaving and conquering, abusing and torturing, yet they cemented the future and a good portion of the institutions they set up are still in use today in one form or another. And yet people still honour their memory and their legacy. Napoleon's reign caught up because the state was in trouble at the end of the XVIII century (insecurity, lack of funds, a general state of disarray). The rapid change in political structure -with all its instabilities- after the Revolution made (some) people yearn for stability. And thus Napoleon seized power through a coup. And that's how the country got governed by a dictator, who proclaimed himself Emperor and started to chip away at people's freedoms in the name of stability. A somewhat still-current cautionary tale...