At the end of 1799, the state of France was catastrophic. Administrative anarchy reigns, taxes do not reach the coffers of the state, robbery has developed, the roads are rutted, the border regions devastated because of the war, trade is at its worst, the industry (notably that of silk in Lyon) ruined, unemployment made a breakthrough, the price of bread was too high for the workers, the hospitals were not working... This was when Bonaparte, who was at the era still a revolutionary general, chooses to abandon his army in Egypt and to go up to Paris, to foment a coup d'etat, on November 10, 1799. Surrounded by a halo of prestige (he has just emerged victorious from the Italian campaign and the campaign of Egypt is, for the moment, still a success), it finds only little resistance and the public opinion does not disavow it. But Republicans are worried. Did Napoleon allow the Revolution to settle in time, or did he on the contrary destroy the revolutionary heritage? It solidifies the legacy of the revolution; Napoleon finished with the Republic and stopped the revolutionary movement but not the Revolution, of which the Consulate would be the three parties.
The Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, thanks to a series of measures, allows the revolution to settle in time. First Bonaparte creates new institutions, which have survived until today. The new constitution that he had drafted strengthened the executive power to the detriment of the legislative power, created a centralized administration, organized into specialized and standardized directorates and ministries (including the new interior ministry, entrusted to Fouché). It keeps the administrative divisions created during the Revolution. These solid institutions allow a strengthening of the authority of the State, revive the country and further remove the risk of a return to the Old Regime. The state coffers are bailed out.
Then, Napoleon Bonaparte is part of the line of the Revolution. After the coup, the institutions changed, but the majority of the people who were to occupy positions were already in place during the Directory:in the assemblies created by the Constitution of Year X, most of the senators, tribunes or members of the Council of State already had positions of responsibility under the previous regime, the prefects were chosen from the revolutionary assemblies... This enabled Bonaparte to better control the opposition. The reforms he put in place were the logical continuation of those already undertaken during the Revolution. The financial and commercial reforms attributed to him were, for some of them, imagined by the members of the Directory.
These had already attempted the Continental Blockade that Napoleon would implement against the United Kingdom in 1806. Even certain war techniques used by Napoleon and of which he is considered the inventor had already been applied during the revolution. The drafting of a French Civil Code itself had already been undertaken during the revolution. In addition, he stabilizes the political landscape by pacifying the country and thus guarantees the long-term existence of his government. The peace signed with the royalists of Vendée, in December 1799, marks a great step forward in the appeasement of the country, no government before had succeeded in obtaining it.
The signing of the Concordat in 1801 allowed Napoleon to secure the support of many Catholics who had been hesitant until then, and the royalists lost as many, one of the fundamental reasons for the support of the population for this movement being the anti-Catholic character of the Revolution. This Concordat, which does not establish Catholicism as the dominant religion and which could have been seen as a desire to return to the Old Regime, allows Bonaparte to obtain new legitimacy and to establish his authority a little more. The Concordat maintains the sale of national property. Thanks to these two treaties, Bonaparte neutralized the royalist opposition and seemed to be part of the revolutionary heritage.
Finally, the French Civil Code is a revolutionary work. Started in 1800 and finally published in 1804, it replaces all previous law, and retains meritocracy, equal taxation, conscription, freedom of enterprise and competition as well as work, consecrates the disappearance of feudal aristocracy , and in principle equality before the law. By preserving and enshrining in the Code all these achievements of the revolution, Bonaparte allowed them to cross the regimes and reassured a large part of the population.
But Napoleon also suppressed a good number of revolutionary gains. First of all, revolutionary cults are abolished. The freedoms of expression, assembly, movement and the press are suppressed in favor of an authoritarian state and very increased surveillance of the population, orchestrated by Fouché. The equality proclaimed in the Civil Code is not respected:the woman depends on her husband; the bosses have great power over the workers; the worker's booklet reducing them to quasi-serfs; slavery is restored in the colonies; civil servants are privileged in matters of Justice... Then, the establishment of prefects, who are the equivalent of intendants, the creation of the Council of State, equivalent to the king's council, of a new nobility based on notability , the false plebiscites organized (votes are invented, there is no secrecy of the vote, we ratify a fact already accomplished...) make the Jacobins fear the worst. The specter of a return to the monarchy haunts them.
Finally, by becoming first consul, consul for life and then emperor, he ended the Republic. Public favor allows him to write the Constitution of Year VIII, which gives him real powers and above all does not mention national sovereignty. This constitution divides the legislative power, which from this moment will lose all influence. It was during the year X that the transformation of the still republican regime into a despotism which lacked only a crown took place. The post of first consul for life sounds the death knell of the Republic. Nevertheless, when he was crowned emperor in 1804, he respected the spirit of the Revolution, he only changed the external appearances of the executive power:indeed, between first consul and emperor, the difference was essentially symbolic. Above all, these regime changes allowed Napoleon to be less and less dependent on his successes or failures and gave him another dimension vis-à-vis other European leaders. Napoleon therefore also temporarily buried a good number of revolutionary achievements.
Napoleon stops the revolutionary movement but not the Revolution. By obtaining the confidence of the bourgeois (thanks to the sale of national assets, maritime and continental peace, the creation of a meritocratic nobility...), thanks to the prestige of great victories (Marengo 1800), to the good resolution crises such as that of 1802 (starvation and unemployment), Napoleon obtained popular support and gradually freed himself from the revolutionary process, which was no longer necessary for him. Over the years, as his popularity continues to grow, he will grow in power and move away from the Republic. In 1804, after various plots aimed at his assassination and the resumption of hostilities with the United Kingdom, he was seen as the only bulwark against the enemies of the Revolution, and the question of heredity became a subject of concern. He took the opportunity to be crowned Emperor (or rather, crowned himself). What could be seen as the culmination of a tyrant's project is not. Indeed, during the coronation, Napoleon declared to be in the continuity of the revolution, and was supported by the revolutionaries themselves, despite the end of the revolutionary process.
Imperial wars perpetuated the Revolution. In all conquered countries, Napoleon Ist imposes the Civil Code and consequently all the revolutionary notions that are part of it. He is considered at first as the liberator of Europe. But from the Fourth Coalition, which begins in 1806, the aim of these wars will no longer be the propagation of revolutionary ideas. Despite the Napoleonic defeat of 1815, the ideas of freedom and equality would remain firmly established in the countries that had been conquered, and many upheavals throughout the 19th century would ensue.
Thanks to the modernization of French and European institutions, to the pacification of the country, to his military victories and the conquest of most of Europe, Napoleon allowed the expansion and perpetuation of the Revolution. Thus, despite the many changes of regime during the 19th century, the French Civil Code will remain in force throughout Europe, and the many revolutionary principles it contains. Napoleon is therefore more the continuator than the assassin of the revolution, despite the impasse he made on the Republic. By suppressing revolutionary cults and other revolutionary achievements that endangered the work of the revolution itself, he allowed others to cross the ages.