Although probably not motivated by personal religious conviction, he
did believe that good relations with the Catholic Church were essential
to maintaining order and guaranteeing his own legitimacy. Some conflicts
over religion continued, but the pope had granted Napoleon more or less
everything he wanted in exchange for bringing France back into the Catholic
fold. Napoleon reaffirmed the principle of religious toleration for Protestants,
who were organized in a number of consistories under state control. After
1804 the state paid the salaries of Protestant pastors, just as it paid
those of Catholic priests. In 1806 Napoleon organized French Jews into
a system of government-supervised consistories like those that regulated
Protestant worship. He did everything possible to encourage Jewish assimilation
to French ways. As was typical of Napoleon, he hoped to guarantee law
and order by organizing all the groups in society under state control.

At the same time that these important restructurings of the state and
its relations with France's main religions were taking place, Napoleon
won great prestige by coming to terms first with Austria in 1801, which
had resumed the struggle in 1799, and then making peace with Britain,
Spain, and the Dutch Republic in 1802, ending a decade of nearly nonstop
war. Peace gave him the breathing room to send an army to Saint Domingue
to reestablish slavery in the colonies and capture Toussaint L'Ouverture;
even though the army captured Toussaint and sent him to die in a French
prison, Napoleon's army succumbed to yellow fever and to the tenacity
of the former slaves, who established the Republic of Haiti and severed
all connections with France. Although the peace in Europe proved short-lived
too, it gave Napoleon time to have himself declared Consul for Life in
a referendum in 1802.

By the end of 1802, the Republic had essentially ceased to exist and
a new authoritarian state was taking shape. Elections no longer had much
meaning. Napoleon set up a Legion of Honor to reward military and bureaucratic
service to his state. It was the embryo of a new nobility. Newspapers
were suppressed, unruly theaters closed, and critical authors sent into
exile. Finally, the new direction became clear: on 2 December 1804, Napoleon
crowned himself Emperor with the pope watching. A new civil code consolidated
revolutionary legislation by confirming all the sales of property undertaken
since 1789 and guaranteeing equality under the law. But the Napoleonic
Code also installed a more paternalistic legal system than that envisioned
by the revolutionaries: husbands and fathers gained nearly complete control
over their wives and children, and employers wielded great authority over
their workers. Even while confirming some of the legal gains of the revolutionary
decade, Napoleon labored assiduously to cultivate the loyalties of those
who had suffered during the Revolution such as the old regime nobility.
In some large measure, he succeeded.

Emperor Napoleon I had created a new kind of hybrid state in which certain
revolutionary ideas (equality under the law, careers open to merit rather
than birth, the abolition of the remains of feudalism) were combined with
an authoritarian state structure and a new nobility open to those who
served the state well. As time passed, Napoleon increasingly emulated
the court of the old regime monarchy. He hoped to take his place among
the legitimate monarchs of Europe and even married a Habsburg to establish
his credentials. Although this hybrid state enjoyed broad support among
the French people, neither the state nor the popular support survived
defeat in war.

Foreign Policies and War

Napoleon's dramatic rise and fall depended from beginning to end on his
fortunes at war. His unexpected successes in Italy in 179697 made
him an instant legend, both among the French people at home and among
his soldiers in the Army of Italy. Yet from the very start of his ascent,
overreaching ambition proved to be a potentially fatal flaw. When Napoleon
returned from Italy in 1797, the Directory government wanted to send him
off to invade England, mainly to get him out of town. Napoleon convinced
them that an invasion of Egypt would suit their purposes better, for it
would open the route to India where Great Britain had earlier expelled
the French and established an important empire. Napoleon focused his ambition
on Egypt because of its historical importance, not because it was a viable
strategic objective: "We must go to the Orient," he insisted.
"It is there that great glory has always been gained." His search
for glory nearly ended his career.

Napoleon invaded Egypt in early July 1798 on the pretense that he was
reasserting the Ottoman sultan's authority there against the local Mameluke
rulers. In the Battle of the Pyramids outside Cairo, Napoleon's soldiers
smashed the Mameluke cavalry. It was one of the few glorious moments of
the Egyptian campaign. He was so confident of his ultimate success that
he brought with him scores of scientists, engineers, and archaeologists
to study the treasures and riches of the Orient.