Other reforms

• Centralized administration with professional bureaucrats appointed on merit
• Established the Bank of France, stabilizing the currency
• Reformed education, creating state schools (the lycées)
• Reconciled with the Catholic Church through the Concordat of 1801, while keeping it subordinate to the state
• Established equal taxation under law

The Napoleon paradox: Napoleon ended the political freedoms of the Revolution (no free press, no genuine elections, secret police). But he preserved and exported the social and legal reforms (equality before the law, end of feudal privilege, religious toleration). For peasants and the bourgeoisie outside France, his conquests often meant liberation from local lords or Church land monopolies, even if it meant submission to a foreign emperor. This is why Beethoven dedicated the Eroica Symphony to Napoleon, then angrily scratched out the dedication when Napoleon crowned himself emperor.