The Napoleonic Code in France
The present work shows us how France was before the Napoleonic code, during and after. The Napoleonic Code has undergone changes according to the modernity of the population, but the most important thing is the impact that the Napoleonic Code contributed to humanity on human rights and the division of powers in: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
The way in which France was constituted in the seventeenth century was of social injustice extrema. At this time I was divided into three states. The third state was formed by workers, peasants and the small commercial bourgeoisie. Taxes were paid only by that social segment with the aim of maintaining the luxuries of the nobility. The king ruled with absolute power, controlled the economy, justice, politics and even the religion of the subjects. The life of workers and peasants was of extreme misery, therefore, they wanted improvements in the quality of life and work.
The social situation was so serious and the level of popular dissatisfaction so great that the people went to the streets with the aim of taking power and removing the monarchy headed by King Louis XVI. The first objective of the revolutionaries was the Bastille. The taking of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 marks the beginning of the revolutionary process, since that prison was the symbol of the French monarchy. Inspired by the movement of the Enlightenment, the motto of the revolutionaries was "freedom, equality and fraternity"
During the revolutionary process, much of the nobility left France, but the royal family was captured when trying to flee the country. Prisoners, members of the monarchy, including King Louis XVI and his wife María Antoinette were guillotined in 1793. The clergy did not leave without punishment, because the assets of the church were confiscated during the revolution. In August 1789, the Constituent Assembly canceled all feudal rights that existed and promulgated the declaration of the rights of man and citizen. This important document brought significant social advances, guaranteeing rights equal to citizens, in addition to greater political participation for the people. However, despite revolutionary, the statement did not recognize the equality of women and did not grant them citizenship rights.
In 1804 the known as Napoleonic Code was approved, this Civil Code means the consolidation of the conquests of the French Revolution of 1789. That is to say: legal equality for all citizens, the individuality of property, freedom of work, the principle of secularism, freedom of conscience and separation in three powers (executive, legislative and judicial). The regime implanted by Napoleon took some revolutionary reminiscences and certain external signs of the Republic, was synthesized in the Napoleonic Code (1804) and the Imperial Catechism (1806);New study plans were developed and new teaching centers were created (institutes and universities, 1806);In economic policy, customs reform stands out, the empowerment of new crops (especially beet), support for the incipient industrialization and the opening of large public works (reurbanization of Paris).
The great support was the army;Napoleon’s military genius shone during the Empire;The strategic conception revolutionized and laid the foundations for what military art would be until the beginning of the 20th century. The three basic principles of their military conception rested on the power, security and economy of forces. Napoleon was finally defeated by the seventh coalition in the battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815, in Belgium). A few days later he was exiled to the British island of Santa Elena, where he died six years later.
In conclusion, through this Civil Code, the revolutionary spirit of the bourgeoisie was consolidated. There was economic and personal freedom, equality before the law, individual character of property, civil marriage and divorce. The State had a secular character and religious laws had no place in the state field;It was the proof of the final separation between the Church and the State. In addition, commercial exchanges were guaranteed and legislation was established to facilitate economic freedom.
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