12. Napoleon had no desire to conquer the world
Due largely to British propaganda of the day, Napoleon Bonaparte is often depicted as a madman bent on conquering all of Europe, followed by the rest of the world. In reality, Napoleon wanted to create a modern Europe unified under his Code Napoleon as a buffer against the ever expanding British Empire. His act of selling all of France’s continental possessions in North America attests to his focus, not on world conquest but to the containment of Great Britain and its Empire. Nor did Napoleon intend to conquer Russia. Instead he merely wanted to defeat the Russian influence in the German and Polish regions of Europe.