Even two centuries after the Battle of Waterloo, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte evokes ambivalent feelings - some accuse him of being a conqueror and dictator, while others defend him by claiming that he achieved great things, such as the French Civil Code (Code civil).
The former criticize him for "boundless power", the latter point out that he "spread the values of the French Revolution".
Under the dome of the Palais Invalides in Paris, where his casket is kept, visitors express the ambivalent feelings that the famous emperor still inspires in his country, two centuries after the defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
"For me, Napoleon is both evil and good," explains Alom Udri, a history student who came with a friend to tour the mausoleum. "Napoleon implemented significant reforms, he restored the glory of France, but still too many people were sacrificed for his dreams of greatness," he pointed out.
"Napoleon Bonaparte causes fascination in France, but also repulsion," concludes David Shanteran, historian and editor of the magazine "Napoleon the First".
As in Russia, China, Poland, and even Great Britain, France's archenemy, "there is great interest in Napoleon, a man who made his way to the top on his own," he says.
Reconstructions of Napoleon's battles always attract a huge number of curious people, his fans make collections of manuscripts, shirts, and even night dishes with his image.
His extraordinary fate, his death on St. Jelena, his wives, from Josephine to Maria Valevska, fueled the "legend".
"Every day at least one book or article is published about him, and so far more than 1.000 films have been made in which the character of 'The Eagle' appears," says historian Jean Tillard, who held the chair of Napoleonic studies at the Sorbonne University from 1961 to 2002. .
On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Waterloo, four major exhibitions are currently dedicated to Napoleon in France.
There is not a small number of those who feel a strong repulsion towards the famous emperor and military leader, which is a consequence of sad historical facts such as the return of slavery in 1802 and 700.000 dead in the Napoleonic wars.
Maybe that's why there are many streets in Paris in honor of his victories, but no avenues, no boulevards that bear his name, just one modest street of Bonaparte.
For Shanteran, the turning point came after World War II. Before him, "Napoleon's extraordinary life path, his pursuit of the emancipation of the masses" was mostly glorified. But after the war, the French "began to consider him a forerunner of the great dictators of the XNUMXth century and to compare him with Hitler and Stalin," he explained.
Napoleon capitulated on June 18, 1815 on the battlefield of Waterloo, defeated by the Seventh Coalition commanded by the Duke of Weligton and Gebhard von Blicher.
But what would have happened if Napoleon had won that battle?, asked some historians who have no doubt that the "Eagle" would have immediately prepared for the next conquest, dreaming of a French empire that extends to China.
When asked what kind of country that would be, the German historian Helmut Stube da Luz states that "Napoleon was a dictator, but not a reactionary ruler like the Russian emperor".
According to him, Napoleon's rule of Europe might not be so bad.
"The dictatorship that Napoleon 'exported' to the countries under his domination was a regression compared to the progress of the French Revolution, but it was not bad for the new subjects in Germany, Holland, Italy and Spain," said Stube da Luz, recalling the "equal rights for all religious communities, the right to vote for men, the introduction of a new legal system and the expansion of economic space".
If by any chance France had established its dominance over Europe in the XNUMXth century, Germany would never have become so strong at that time.
"Germany would probably not even be in a position to cause two world wars," the German historian concluded.
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