Final answer:
Napoleon both advanced and buried the ideals of the French Revolution, promoting legal equality and meritocracy while also ruling autocratically and reinstating slavery.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question of whether Napoleon advanced or buried the ideals of the French Revolution is complex. Napoleon did embrace some revolutionary principles such as legal equality, promoting a merit-based system rather than one based on nobility, and spreading these ideas through his conquests across Europe.
He established the Napoleonic Code, centralized government, a constitution, and improved access to education and property rights in France. However, his regime was autocratic; he declared himself emperor, reinstated slavery in France's colonies, and indulged personal ambitions over revolutionary democratic ideals. The impact of Napoleon's legacy is indeed significant, considering both the progressive reforms and authoritarian rule that characterized his reign.
Examining Napoleon's foreign campaigns, he drastically overextended his reach, most notably in the catastrophic invasion of Russia, which decimated his army and revealed limitations in his military leadership.