Why did the people oppose the napoleonic rule?
Answers
Answer:
Which people do you refer to? Frenchmen or foreigners.
First, if you refer to Frenchmen, there were two groups of dissidents.
The royalists wanted to restore the ancient French monarchy, which had been overthrown between 1789 and 1792 (French revolution). For these people, whoever ruled France and was not the rightful heir of the Capetian kings was a usurper. These people were even ready to side with the enemies of France in times of war to restore the monarchy (e.g. there were about 4,000 French soldiers on the side of the Allies at Austerlitz).
The republicans/jacobins wanted to restore the republic, without a head of state and with a Parliament. They did not want to restore democracy or the rule of law (see Robespierre and the infamous Terror about how they envisioned republic). These people thought that France should have the same regime as right after the overthrowing of the French monarchs.
Napoleon was not particularly violent or cruel towards French people, who genuinely loved him in general and voted for the creation of the Empire in 1804. But this was not the issue. For republicans and royalists, Napoleon did not have any right to rule France in the first place. Imagine, for instance, that a person becomes emperor of the USA. Maybe he rules well, increases GDP, makes the USA greater and more powerful, etc. Some people who like the current regime would still fight this king, because they want the republican regime back (and I do not blame them).
Second, if you refer to foreigners, the question should be rephrased as “what were the reasons for people opposing FRENCH rule”.
Napoleon came to power as the head of a triumvirate with a still inflluential legislative body (senate included) at the end 1799. He reached the peak of his power at the end of 1804, crowning himself emperor. The French loved him and massively approved his coming to power and the coronation. One may consider that the French were wrong to prefer him over the weak French monarchs and the corrupt republican government but the people genuinely supported him.
At that time, France had been at war with the rest of Europe since 1792. To a certain extent, the French genuinely intended to promote their modern ideas (Enlightenment) and free people from feudalism, monarchy, religioon (including proptestants), etc. The foreign monarchs and lords which fought France certainly hoped to defend their own ideology.
However the war also had a definite imperialistic streak to it. The French also wanted to rule all of Europe because they were so much stronger than any other individual country. Many people resisted France because they wanted their country to remain free of French hegemony. These people had fought the French republic before Napoleon’s coming to power and they would have fought whoever ruled France at that time, just like their ancestors had fought Louis XIV.