Napoleon: Military Genius Or Sexist, Slaving Autocrat?
By
AFP News
on May 04 2021 1:25 PM
The jury is still out on Napoleon Bonaparte. He modernised France and won some of the most famous battles in history, but he also enshrined the subordination of women into law and re-established slavery.
Ahead of Wednesday's bicentenary of his death in exile on the remote island of St. Helena, we ask if the man who dominated Europe and declared himself an emperor was a hero or villain...
Both before and after he rose to power in 1799 in a military coup, Napoleon clocked up a series of historic victories, most notably the Battle of Austerlitz.