Towards the end of his life Napoleon Bonaparte said: “"I wanted to found a European system, a European code of laws, a European judiciary: there would be only one people in Europe,” and although he never fully realized this vision, his attempts to do so would irrevocably transform the European political landscape. Driven by the reforming ideals of the Enlightenment, Napoleon overhauled the traditional hierarchies entrenched in the areas of Europe that he conquered and overthrew many of the ruling dynasties across the continent in his quest for a uniform Europe. In their place he built and imposed on much of Europe a form of modern nation-state that would redraw the European political map. In 1799 Napoleon inherited a nation that had already experienced rapid political transformation. The intense political disharmony over equality and liberty that characterized the French Revolution had led to a series of constitutions aimed at strengthening national unity that had radically changed the relationship between people and state. The policies and reforms of the Napoleonic era, while questionable to a modern mind accustomed to participatory democracy, were, in many ways, a continuation of revolutionary reforms. The key principles of the Revolution were enshrined in Napoleon's Civil Code: appointment and promotion based on merit, all men equal before the law, freedom of religion and the right to work in any profession. Firmly believing in the universal applicability of rational, scientifically constructed government, Napoleon's domestic policy changes and administrative reorganization in France paralleled changes in external territories. In 1810, after years of military conquest in what became k.. .... half of the document ......d new orders” The Congress of Vienna of 1915, sought to prevent the revolution from continuing, established a new international framework with the aim of maintaining the balance of power between European states. Although not all of the political adjustments made in Napoleon's Europe had a lasting impact, in those regions directly absorbed by the French empire, the institutions imposed by Napoleon remained long after 1815, particularly the Napoleonic Code, which became the foundation of local law in Belgium, Rhineland and Italy. years, although Napoleon's bureaucracy had been dismantled, rulers seeking to increase efficiency in their states looked to Napoleon's highly organized bureaucracy for direction.--Ford notes the adjustment that must be made in the conception of Europe of historians when moving from the 18th to the 19th century due to the fundamental transformation.