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Napoleon Bonaparte: Hero or monster?

Ever since his death on St Helena in 1821, controversy has raged about Napoleon Bonaparte: a Corsican of Italian extraction who became emperor of the French and, briefly, the master of Europe.

Was he a wicked despot or a tragic hero? Was he the greatest military commander who has ever lived or a madman who led hundreds of thousands to their deaths by charging down a historical dead end? Was he a man of peace and a European idealist whose Napoleonic Code laid the administrative and judicial foundations for much of the world, or was he a tyrant who cared nothing for freedom and laid the groundwork for the great European wars of the 20th century?

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Douglas Wright
It's not entirely dissimilar to the situation that led to Hitlers rise and the second world war. Germany was happy to cease hostilities but the allies demanded reparations which basically crippled Germany. If you dent a countries pride in this way they are bound to bite back. It was also a fear of the anti-monarchy ideals spreading to England. A revolution was definitely on the cards with Britains social structure at the time.