Why Did Napoleon Build His Empire

One of the methods that Napoleon used to create his empire was his conquest of many territories, and then parceling out conquered lands to his family. Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph, ruled the kingdom Naples which had just been established, but then left Naples to take over as king of Spain; Louis (younger brother), was proclaimed king of Holland; Caroline (sister) and her husband, General Joachim Murat, were made queen and king of Naples; Eugene de Beauharnais (twenty-three-year-old stepson) was made viceroy of Italy. Since Napoleon did not have an heir, he divorced Josephine and married Marie-Louise of Austria who bore him a son; Napoleon proclaimed his son king of Rome.

To ensure no opposition to his rule, Napoleon surrounded himself with trusted/loyal men who he installed as officials throughout his government. His administration, based on a patron-client relationship with him as the patron, comprised of men who had served with him in the army. Even the senators were hand-picked by Napoleon; these men were of noble birth, the ‘cream of the crop’. Napoleon then established the Legion of Honor whose blue-blooded members were given pensions for life along with their new titles; these monetary gifts often came in the form of land properties in the
This new law glorified Napoleon’s persona of an all-powerful man by reestablishing the patriarchal system of male supremacy over females, and it enforced/strengthened the authority of fathers over their children. If a child (male or female) refused to comply with the demands of his/her father, that child could be sent to prison for up to thirty days without a hearing. The code afforded adult men many advantages such as the assurance of fair and equal rights, safeguarded their ability to freely manage their properties as they saw fit, and allowed men to select the careers of their choosing. For women, the Civil Code provided no such