At the end of the French Revolution, the hopes of the early stages of the Revolution were crushed, leading to the Reign of Terror. France had dissolved into anarchy, with internal and international unrest. It was thanks to foreign wars that Napoleon came to power. Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power, victory after victory, eventually becoming Emperor of France, creating a strong central government while continuing foreign wars, creating a massive French empire. Although Napoleon was a product of the French Revolution and maintained the image of "son of the Revolution", idealism always fell into pragmatism as Napoleon's main aim was to create a strong and unified France. Napoleon's policies reflected some of the ideals of Enlightenment thought and he sought to spread them throughout Europe as he conquered. One of the fundamental beliefs of the Enlightenment is that the universe is ordered and that there are natural laws that apply to everyone. While it was still a matter of debate what these rights were, the central idea was that everyone should have them. When Napoleon conquered Europe he applied the same laws to everyone, everywhere. This set of laws is known as the Napoleon Code. Some of the laws enforced by the Napoleonic Code can be seen in Napoleon's Imperial Decree in Madrid, where Napoleon abolished feudal rights, such as trivialities, as well as seized church lands to be distributed among the people. Other actions he took were the creation of “constitutions” that created laws that applied to all people equally and could not be changed on a whim. These are the same actions taken during the French Revolution applied to all other areas. Indeed, the promises of these reforms gave Napoleon's forces supporters in the countries he controlled... middle of paper...gery used by him. Napoleon's government was strongly influenced by Enlightenment ideas, but he was not a "child of the Revolution". Louis Bergeron considered Napoleon an enlightened despot, stating: "Bonaparte's dynamism and his rigorous administration revived the experiment in enlightened despotism, somewhat belatedly, since in the context of Western Europe it was already somewhat antiquated." Napoleon resembled an enlightened despot as he advocated absolute power while encouraging legal and social equality for all classes of people (who were not himself). What makes Napoleon unique among the despots of the Enlightenment is that he formed his image to look like something else. The discrepancies between the image he presented and the person he was creates room for interpretation as to whether Napoleon was a dictator, an enlightened despot, or a champion of revolution.