Chapter 19
Building a Greater (Middle Class) France
In This Chapter
Bringing legal order
Reforming education
Improving the economy
Expanding the infrastructure
M ost of the governments of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries were by, of, and for the nobility. The French Revolution changed that situation in France. For all its radical imagery, it was really a revolution of the middle class, ultimately rejecting both the elitism of the nobility and clergy and the radical working class upheaval sought by the Parisian workers and others.
When Napoleon took power in late 1799, he sought to secure those middle class values. To do that, he had to provide for stability in government, something that had been absent for some time. After he achieved this stability, he could turn to providing what he considered the most important element of the ideals of the French Revolution: equality. At the heart of middle class values is the idea that all people can rise or fall based on their merits, rather than on the accident of their birth. France alone at the time promoted this concept in Europe. It was joined in this principle only by the United States of America, far across the Atlantic Ocean.
In this chapter, I look at some of Napoleon’s primary areas of reform and progress. Without success in these areas, Napoleon would never have been able to stay in power, regardless of his military successes.
Creating a Legal Legacy
Though France had a long history of centralized government, it had almost no legacy of centralized laws. Generally speaking, Germanic law dominated in the north, while Roman law held sway in the south. More specifically, there was an incredible mixture of regional codes, royal decrees (some 15,000 to be exact), and other documents. Many of these so-called laws actually contradicted one another. Small wonder, then, that Napoleon once exclaimed, “We are a nation with 300 books of laws, yet without laws.” He made legal reform one of his primary goals.
No country could be truly unified if its legal system was not the same throughout. Napoleon knew that in order for France to be run in an efficient, orderly manner, its legal system needed a complete overhaul.
Writing new civil law: The Code Napoléon
Any legal system has different types of laws, including criminal and civil. Napoleon made civil law his primary priority. As he would do in so many areas, Napoleon called on the best and brightest to help him in this project.
In early 1800, Napoleon formed a committee of legal scholars. In only four months, that committee produced a draft, which was then considered by the Council of State in a long series of meetings. As busy as he was, Napoleon managed to chair about half of the meetings and played a very active role in committee deliberations. You can well imagine that no one dozed off while he was chairing the meetings!
Secularization of society: The new code provided for a complete separation of church and state, something France had not known prior to the French Revolution. The privileges of the clergy were removed, and religious freedom was guaranteed. This was especially important for the Jews, as I explain in Chapter 23.
Elimination of the feudal order: Prior to the Revolution, France had been dominated by the hereditary nobility. The new Civil Code removed all vestiges of this throwback to the Middle Ages. Moreover, it provided that feudal (and church) lands that had been confiscated during the French Revolution and distributed or sold to common people would never be returned to their original owners. This action increased stability and made Napoleon all the more popular.
Individual freedom: Equality and individual freedom were hallmarks of the Revolution, and the Civil Code sought to assure their continued role in French society. The right of individuals to choose any profession was written into law, along with the ability to engage in free enterprise. People were guaranteed freedom of conscience. However, the ability of workers to organize was limited.
Marriage and the family: The most well-known part of the Civil Code was also the source of the most controversy. Women gained some significant property rights within marriage, with husbands no longer in complete charge of community property (itself a new concept in French law, promoted by Napoleon). More importantly, the right to divorce was guaranteed. This part of the code was very difficult to get approved, as the conservative Catholic Church and other traditionalists were bitterly opposed. In the end, however, Napoleon was able to exert his will and have it included.
Women didn’t do so well in other areas, however. In matters of family law, the code generally followed the Roman traditions that held that the husband was the head of a household. Thus, husbands were generally in charge of their wives’ lives. A classic example of this was the matter of infidelity: Husbands who were caught having an affair were not generally punished for it, while wives caught in the same situation were.
In general, Napoleon was more progressive in what he wanted in the code than were the rest of the people involved in its approval. Thus, his efforts to increase the marriage age were successful, but his efforts to eliminate the dowry system and equalize the inheritance rights of all children (male and female) failed. Many conservatives in society — and in government — resented Napoleon’s effort to make French society more progressive and fought him every step of the way. Even so, the code was a major step forward and was finally passed (over conservative objections) in 1804. In 1807, it was renamed the Code Napoléon in recognition of his major role in its development.
Overhauling the rest of the system
Along with any legal system comes a system of courts. Napoleon overhauled the French court system completely. He created a system of prefects, which were chief administrators in charge of upholding the law in each department, or administrative area. Prefects and judges were to be fair and objective in administering the law, and all French were to be treated equally.
In time, the entire legal system was overhauled with a combination of progres- sive and conservative elements found in the Civil Code. The Code of Civil Procedure was adopted in 1806, the Commercial Code in 1807, the Criminal Code in 1808, and the Penal Code in 1810. These codes accomplished many improvements, including
Promoting better trade by making trade arrangements more efficient and effective, thus helping both workers and merchants
Setting up a system of justice that was logical and organized the same throughout France
Increasing the use of juries and making soldiers subject to civil law as well as military law
Educating the People
Besides law, education may be the most fundamental institution in a society, and it is certainly the institution most necessary for the formation of a solid middle class. For most of French history, however, education was primarily reserved for the clergy and the nobility, with far fewer educational opportunities for common folk. Moreover, much of the education was provided by the Catholic Church, leading to an emphasis on education on religious dogma rather than on the basic skills necessary to advance in society. And even though educational administration was centralized in Paris, curriculum and educational standards varied widely across France.
The French Revolution led to some changes in France’s educational system. These changes included removing religious influence as much as possible, as well as increasing teacher training. A new system of public secondary schools — called école centrales (central schools) — was created: One school was established for every 300,000 people.
Becoming a Napoleonic priority
When Napoleon took power (see Figure 19-1), education was high on his list of priorities. Central to his beliefs was the concept of equality and the ability of people to rise or fall based on their merit. For people to have that opportunity, they must be given the chance to receive a good education. Moreover, education was important to the development of a strong middle class. Centralized control of the curriculum would afford an opportunity to include patriotism in the curriculum as well.
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Figure 19-1: This 19th-century snuffbox shows a young Napoleon at the peak of his game. |
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Napoleon wanted to reintegrate the Catholic Church into society, albeit not nearly at the pre-Revolutionary level (see Chapter 23). One way to do this was to give the Church major responsibility for elementary education, especially for girls. When it came to education for girls, Napoleon was both good news and bad news:
The good news was that he believed girls should be educated in a curriculum that included language, history, geography, and science, along with the more traditional domestic arts. In this, Napoleon was quite progressive.
The bad news was that Napoleon didn’t think that education for girls was nearly as important as that for boys. Like most people of his day, Napoleon saw education for girls primarily as a step toward finding a husband. Even so, he provided universal education for girls, a more progressive stance than could be found anywhere else in Europe at the time.
Educating the best and brightest
In 1802, when Napoleon essentially ran the French government as the First Consul, France created a new educational system. As before, elementary education was split between a few state schools and many religious schools. But the heart of any middle class educational system is secondary education, which is where Napoleon concentrated his reforms.
The basic secondary schools, covering students from roughly ages 10 to 16, were a mixture of public and private schools, many of the latter being religious. In spite of this mixture, the curriculum was tightly controlled in Paris; even the religious schools had to toe the line. The purpose of these schools was to provide a good basic education and to identify students worthy of moving to the next level. Teachers were given incentives to find and properly prepare the best students. These students would ultimately provide the leadership core in both military and civilian fields, and Napoleon was anxious that the pool of such talent be as large as possible.
One of the most important changes brought by Napoleon’s reforms was the establishment of a new level of post-secondary schools: the lycées. Thirty of these schools were established. They received complete funding from the state, which completely controlled their curriculum and other matters. Napoleon established a system of scholarships for these schools. Two-thirds of those scholarships went to the best students coming out of the secondary schools, and the other third was split between sons of the military and of government employees.
Teachers for these schools were carefully selected and well-paid by the standards of the day. They were offered incentives and a pension; a teaching position at one of the lycées was highly desired.
Thirty post-secondary schools may seem a bit on the light side for a nation the size of France, but they were augmented by hundreds of regular schools, both public and private. The very best students, the ones with the best futures, worked hard to be admitted to these elite schools.
Centralizing educational authority
When Napoleon became emperor in 1804, education continued to be a major priority. France was becoming more and more centralized under his control, and education was no exception. In 1808, he created the Imperial University, which was given responsibility over every aspect of French education. Nothing was done that didn’t first move through the Imperial University. Thus, this institution was both an elite university and a central governing body. I suppose it would be something like having a central university with hundreds of branch campuses, each directly responsible to the central campus.
The basic educational system remained much as it was under the reforms begun in 1802. The major difference was in the addition of several new levels of schools, most notably the colleges, or municipal secondary schools, and their private equivalent, institutes. Though their names suggest higher education, they were really just a bit below the lycées, which were still the heart of the system.
Having a lasting impact
The changes that Napoleon brought to French education were a great improvement over what had existed prior to his reforms. The standardization of the curriculum meant that students throughout France were learning the same basic skills, and a cadre of graduates ready to assume positions in the government and the military was being produced. Literacy rates went up, and the quality and employability of the workforce was improved. The role of the Church in education was reduced, thus contributing to the secularization of society. Most importantly of all, the new system gave an opportunity for young people of merit to climb as far as their merit would take them.
To be sure, his reforms had critics. The Church was not happy to lose its former position of preeminence in educational matters. When Napoleon was emperor, students had to swear an oath of allegiance to him. And Napoleon really couldn’t win when it came to women. Those conservatives who didn’t want women to have much education complained that Napoleon went too far in that regard. And those people who wanted women treated equally to men complained (and are still complaining today) that he didn’t go far enough. But despite these complaints, Napoleon’s education reforms are among the best of his legacies.
Reforming the Economy
One word likely expresses the root cause of the French Revolution: the economy. Okay, I know that’s two words, but you get the idea. The economy was in the toilet, and the people finally got sick of it and tried to do something about it (see Chapter 3).
Unfortunately for the people, the regimes that replaced Louis XVI were not much better in dealing with France’s economic problems. There were still awful shortages, extreme poverty, bread riots, and the like. One of the few economic highlights in the years just before Napoleon took power was the continuing flow of wealth being sent back to Paris from other nations by — you guessed it! — General Bonaparte. (See Chapters 6 and 7 for examples of the bounty that Napoleon sent home from his military campaigns.) Small wonder, then, that the people were quite willing to turn to him to solve their economic problems.
Dealing with massive debt
N: How many men are in the army?
A: We don’t know.
N: Then check the payroll records.
A: We do not pay the army.
N: Ration lists?
A: We do not feed the army.
N: Clothing lists?
A: We do not clothe the army.
Napoleon understood that it would be necessary to raise a great deal of money. Some came from bank loans, but the key to success was to raise funds that did not involve increased debt. To do that, as soon as he became First Consul, Napoleon
Instituted a national lottery to raise funds (much as lotteries do today)
Created a new, full-time cadre of tax collectors
Created incentives to insure that all taxes were properly collected
Increased taxes on some items
Had the government buy bread and other items to distribute to the poor
Organized interest-free loans and other government programs
Provided scholarships for education (as I discuss in the previous section)
Instituted the Bank of France, giving the government better control over the nation’s economy
Replaced paper money with coins, which increased people’s faith in their currency
Rebuilding France (literally)
The list of economic reforms in the previous section is missing one rather important item. Nothing helps an economy like putting people to work. And the easiest and quickest way to put people to work is through a public works program. Two thousand years ago, Julius and Augustus Caesar understood that fact, and ancient Rome is filled with their construction projects. In the 20th century, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt comprehended the idea, and the public works program he instituted started the United States on its road to recovery from the Great Depression. And between these two leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte understood it as well.
One of the most important types of public works is a nation’s transportation system. Roads and canals tie a nation together and allow trade to move smoothly throughout a country or a region. Throughout his time in power, Napoleon undertook a number of important transportation projects:
He built key canals linking major river systems, allowing inexpensive and easy transport of goods.
Seaports are important, and he ordered three major ones built at Cherbourg, Brest, and Antwerp.
Major road systems were developed, including several through important passes in the Alps. He ordered trees to line many of them, providing shade for travelers.
He paved the streets of Paris (a first) and instituted the odd-even numbering system for house addresses.
To protect Paris, he started its first fire brigade.
In Paris and throughout the lands he controlled, Napoleon built triumphal arches, buildings, and other structures to improve the quality of life for the people.
These projects improved France’s economy at the time and continued to be important into the 20th century. Many of the road systems developed under Napoleon are the basis of modern roads in France, and his improvements to Paris can still be enjoyed today. (Visitors there will note that they still use the odd-even system for numbering houses, an idea that has spread to much of the world.) Napoleon’s seaports are still used today. The canals still have some economic use, and tourists can take romantic boat trips across France in them. Finally, of course, the triumphal arches and buildings are still very much around today, and the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph) he started is second only to the Eiffel Tower as a symbol of Paris.