Was Napoleon a tyrant or a hero?

Napoleon Bonaparte was both a tyrant and a hero depending on perspective, time period, and who is judging him, which is why historians still debate him 200 years later. He can be seen as a hero because he preserved and spread many achievements of the French Revolution, created the Napoleonic Code in 1804 which established equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, and merit-based advancement, and this code still forms the basis of law in France, Louisiana, Quebec, and much of Europe and Latin America. He ended feudalism in many parts of Europe, established efficient administration, built roads and schools, and rose from modest Corsican nobility to emperor through talent rather than birth, embodying meritocracy. His military genius and charisma inspired deep loyalty. He can also be seen as a tyrant because he seized power in a coup in 1799, crowned himself emperor in 1804, shut down free press, censored newspapers, created a secret police, imprisoned opponents, re-established slavery in French colonies in 1802 after it had been abolished, and waged wars of conquest that killed an estimated 3.5 to 6.5 million people. He placed his relatives on thrones against popular will and refused to make peace when compromise was possible, leading to France's invasion and ruin. Most historians today view him as an enlightened despot, a complex figure who was both a progressive reformer and an authoritarian warmonger, making him simultaneously a hero to some and a tyrant to others.