Pride and Prejudice: The Napoleonic Empire through the Eyes of Its Rulers

Abstract

There is a pronounced irony at the heart of Napoleonic imperialism. Its makers espoused universalist principles, yet its juste milieu, the imperial core, was limited to specific areas of western Europe, beyond which its public institutions and the ethos that powered them failed to take root. More than this, its makers sought to impose a uniform template in their hegemony, while carrying with them a set of pronounced prejudices about those they ruled.