Napoleon's list of accomplishments (for better or for worse).

 From my Answer on Quora.

1. The Corsican Established the Code Napoleon which serves as the legal system for France and several other modern day nations to this day.
2. Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine would play an unexpected part in sparking the German Unification movement that would see success in the 1860s and 1870s (albeit at some expense to Gallic Pride).
3. He played a key role in the forming of a modern day Switzerland that would transition through his Helvetian Republic.
4. Napoleon’s military tactics revolutionized the use of artillery in warfare. The Emperor himself was a staunch student of the discipline having earned his spurs as an artillery commander.
5. The Royal Line of Sweden today is descended from the Napoleonic branch.
6. In many of his earlier conquests in particular his forces spread many of the ideals of the French Revolution (Liberté, égalité, fraternité). This however would take on more of an authoritarian feel as time progressed. Regional nationalist movement across the continent spread out in reaction to the territorial expansion of the French. In combination with Liberalism these would inspire a series of Revolutions in Europe in 1830 and 1848.
7. Like the movement for German Unification the drive for Italian Unification was catalyzed by the events of the Napoleonic Era and the futile attempts at the Congress of Vienna to stuff the changes of this turbulent period back into the box.
8. Napoleon’s emphasis on searching for individual merit with respect to his officers represented a sharp shift from the domination by the elite classes of the armed forces.
9. It was also as a consequence of the Napoleonic War that Britain would increase her naval footprint setting in motion the Era of Pax Britannica.
10. Napoleon set up the model for the first modern day police state initially under the guidance of Joseph Fouché (unfortunately many other future dictators - influential and tin pot - would continue in the same manner).
11. The British conquest of the Cape Colony and the War of 1812 both have roots (to varying extent) in the Napoleonic Wars.
12. In European circles Napoleon cemented France as a continental power extending with even broader significance a drive that had begin in the 17th century with Louis XIV.
13. He perhaps more than any before him laid the foundation for the notion of Total War.
14. His Egyptian campaign would lead to the discovery of the invaluable Rosetta Stone and the foundations for the academic field of Egyptology.
15. It was through the need to prevent food spoilage for the French Army (in their numerous campaigns) that Nicolas Appert (1809) developed the modern day canning approach - that included the sterilization of the content with heat before its placement in a hermetically sealed container.