Did Napoleon Benefit or Harm the World During his Reign?

This portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte shows how he was the most powerful ruler in all of Europe.
http://psi.historicusinc.com/media/export/im_12281_screen.jpg

Napoleon Bonaparte was an influential military leader from France who conquered almost all of Europe during his lifetime.  Between the time of his death and now, Napoleon has developed several reputations from various countries.  In class, we explored different primary and secondary sources to discover whether or not his reputation should be good or bad.  From this activity, I learned that he actually helped France a lot during his reign, and although he took unfair control of most of Europe, the countries mostly benefitted from his rule over them.  Although all the countries he conquered despised Napoleon for ruling them for so forcefully, his impact on the social, political, and economical systems in Europe was mostly positive.

The first primary source we looked at in class was from Madame de Stael, a member of the king's court, whose power was wrecked when Napoleon became emperor.  Madame de Stael thought of Napoleon as a powerful ruler who intruded on the independence of France and Europe, and who persuaded countries with force and cunning.  She thought that Napoleon was ruining people's lives everywhere by controlling their countries in a forceful way.  Next, we looked at a source from Marshal Michel Ney,  one of Napoleon's soldiers, who thought highly of his commander.  He believed that Napoleon had the right to rule over France, and that he would help France's government move forward.  He thought Napoleon was the best person to rule Europe and that he was a wonderful leader.  Madame de Stael and Marshal Michel Ney had contrasting views of Napoleon that were influenced by their relation to him, and show how varied Napoleon's impact was between different people.  Looking at a secondary source is a better representation of his impact because the authors didn't personally know Napoleon.

The article The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians (link below) is a collection of views on Napoleon written by various historians.  Most of these historians have a positive view of Napolean, and believe that he primarily helped France and Europe.  These people say that Napoleon was a military genius and a skilled leader, who was given the opportunity to display his skills when he became ruler of France. These historians believe that Napoleon had enlightening views of government that he shared with the countries under his reign, and was definitely devoted to his rule, but as smart as he was, he eventually became too dominant and his power began to exhaust.  Although he was defeated after many years, Napoleon was a genius who was able to manage almost all the countries in Europe under one empire and improve their social, political, and economical systems.

After looking at these sources, I came to the conclusion that Napoleon's impact was mostly positive.  He balanced France's budget, established the bank of France, abolished serfdom, nobility, and people's titles, allowed freedom of religion, gave more citizens access to education, and gave people property rights.  During  his rule, he accomplished a lot and solved many problems in the political, social, and economical systems in every country he touched.  Except when his power became exhausted towards the end of his life, Napoleon made a great impact on the world and should have a better reputation than he currently does.  Napoleon Bonaparte improved the social, political, and economical systems in Europe, and made a good impact during his reign.

Link to The Lost Voices of Napoleonic Historians:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/c_historians.html