Against his enemies, Napoleon was ruthless. He invaded Austria, outmaneuvering a force twice the size of his; then after an armistice with Austria he marched against the Pope himself, and forced the Papal States into a treaty. He crushed the Turkish army, over 18,000 men, in a single battle in Egypt. But when taking the throne as the newly-installed Emperor of France, he exhibited a remarkably progressive spirit.

On this day, March 21, in 1804, the Napoleonic Code was published as the supreme law of the land. Its foundational principle, which differed completely from the feudal sets of laws that each town and province used for their own justice, was that every person, regardless of class or rank, was equal before the law.

The Napoleonic code essentially replaced the numerous local state and municipal laws. In addition to equality in the law, it allowed for freedom of religion, separating out the religious aspect from the legal procedure of divorce. There were limits to his progressive spirit, however: women were still subjected to the rule of men, and freedom of the press was unheard of, as Napoleon quickly closed and censored publications critical of him.