ABSTRACT
Corsica had only become French in 1768, the year before Napoleon's birth, when France purchased it from the Italian city state of Genoa. The final pillar of Napoleon's internal policy is the one that he pointed to later in life as his greatest accomplishment: the Civil Code, promulgated in 1804 and renamed the Code Napoleon in 1807. It is a sign of Napoleon's incredible energy that at the same time that he was restructuring the internal administration of France, he was also renewing the expansion of the French state in Europe. Yet, when Napoleon became First Consul in 1799, France continued to face two quite different rivals, England and Austria, united in the Second Coalition. It is easy to view Napoleon's authoritarian streak and compulsion to conquer as a rejection of the principles of the French Revolution, yet Napoleon was also part of the process by which the French Revolution became a worldwide phenomenon.
