Two hundred years after his death, Napoleon Bonaparte – the outsider whose meteoric rise heralded France's conquest of Europe – is remembered as both a hero and tyrant. To his supporters, he was a visionary who replaced the corrupt Ancien Régime with a new order based on merit. To his detractors, he was a military dictator and despot. In the first of a two-part series, Paris Perspective unpacks the legacy of the Corsican soldier who brought Europe to its knees.