Question

How did most Europeans view the Napoleonic era?

Answer 1

I'm actually ending this unit of Napoleon in class tomorrow. 
Basically Napoleon was a dictator of France who loved to carry out conquests. During the beginning of his reign he had man victories, heck in the battle of Austerlitz he was able to beat an even large Austrian and Russian army with only the french army. I'm not sure how many people were in the armies. This battle ended in a peace treaty by Austria, Treaty of Pressburg. So you can say that the Europeans thought of him as a god, for the first handful of battles. However later on he was just a shell of his glorious past. He became too selfish and ignorant in his victories, and pursued to fight England and Prussia, at the battle of waterloo. Two of the major citis that posed a threat to his conquests. 

To answer your question, Europeans would have though of him differently during his first years of his ruling, and his last years of his ruling because of the victories and losses he had in battles to try to take over all of Europe. He was a crazy dictator.