Napoleon: Revolution to Empire

It is a noble and beautiful spectacle to see man raising himself, so to speak, from nothing by his own exertions; dissipating, by the light of reason, all the thick clouds in which he was by nature enveloped; mounting above himself; soaring in thought even to the celestial regions.

– Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, 1750

The eighteenth century was marked by the emergence of new ideas and philosophies that underpinned the ideals of the French Revolution: religion, superstition and irrational beliefs were being replaced by science, reason and new theories about the rights of man. Observation and experiment were revealing Nature’s secrets, and inventions were changing the shape of society and work.

Thinkers such as Voltaire (1694–1778) advocated civil rights, freedom of religion and the separation of Church and State. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) wrote of the reciprocal obligation between the government and the people, of the rights of man and equality between people, and of the benefits of public education for all children. He wrote that the true nature of humanity was fundamentally good, but that the constructs of society corrupt us. Free will, he said, endowed humankind with dignity and equality.

The American War of Independence (1775–1782) in which the American colonists, supported by the French Army, overcame British rule and created an independent Republic, provided a concrete example that the inalienable rights of man could be achieved with constitutional reform.

Exploration, both real and imagined, captured the public imagination.  Works of fiction such as Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Robinson Crusoe (1719) and the Marvellous Adventures of Baron Munchhausen (1785) examined the themes of exploration and encounters with different cultures and customs through tales of discovery of new places and people. Likewise Captain Cook's voyages and the first hot-air balloon (Montgolfier) in 1783 were inspirational.

The growth in the publication of print materials meant that ideas could be spread quickly and widely through pamphlets, magazines and newspapers as well as through books. Ideas and knowledge were no longer exclusive to the privileged classes.