Constitutional Republic: The Directory, 1795-1799

Section 9.45

Thermidorian Reaction

1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1804

Robespierre Executed (7/28/94)

-Thermidorian Reaction Begins

Rule of the Directory

Price Controls

Abolished

Constitution of 1795

Coup d etat of Fructidor

(September 4) 1797

•Coup d’ etat of Brumaire (11/9/1799)

•-Consulate begins

•End of Revolution?

Napoleon crowned Emperor

-Restoration Begins

White Terror attacks

Jacobins

The Weakness of the Directory• Constitution of 1795

– Supported manly by Wealthy– Restricted the politically active class– Universal male suffrage selected

electors– Electors were usually wealthy– Electors chose department officials

and members of the Legislative Assembly

– Lower Chamber= Council of the 500– Upper Chamber= Council of

Ancients (250)• Chose the Directory (5 executives)

Council of Ancients

Council of 500

Enemies of the Directory

Gracchus Babeuf & Lower Class

(hurt by Laissez Faire); Declaration of Verona

and Conspiracy of Equals; the Count of Provence;

Jacobins; Herbertists; Royalists

The Directory

Directory’s Enemies on the Right• Louis XVIII

– Count of Provence – Directed royalists against Directory

from Verona, Italy– not too politically bright– Declaration of Verona

• announced his intention to restore Old Regime and punish revolutionaries since 1789 (duh)

– “Bourbons learned nothing and forgot nothing.”

– French don’t love Con of 1795 but Restoration to them means

• Return of privileged nobility• Reimplementation of the

manorial system

Directory’s Enemies on the Left• Conspiracy of Equals (1796)• group led by Gracchus

Babeuf • Wanted to overthrow the

Directory with a dictatorship• called it democratic• Wanted to abolish private

property, equality decreed• a precursor to communism• Babeuf is guillotined• Yet Directory ignored

hardships of lower classes Gracchus Babeuf

Fashion: Convention v Directory Periods

Radical Period Thermidorian Period

Napoleon• Educated in a French military school

• Barras, head of state security, selected Napoleon to defend the Convention against

attacks by royalists

• Married Josephine de Beauharnais, a leader of society

• In two years he defeated theAustrians, won control of most of Italy, and made the Peace of Campo Formio

• French royalists won elections

• Republicans worked a coup d’etat, with Napoleon's help, the “Coup d’etat de Fructidor”

• Directory annulled the 3/1797 elections and made peace with Austria

• France also annexed Belgium and the west bank of the Rhine

The Political Crisis of 1797: Summary

Coup d’etat of Fructidor: Details

• 3/1797- first free election is held:

• Royalists win many seats and are gaining political control

• Republicans, regicides, and Napoleon can not let royalists get control

(Napoleon, for one, never would have risen in “Old Regime”)

Coup d’etat of Fructidor (September 4, 1797):

The Fructidorian government, orDirectory, annuls the elections of

the spring to keep the royalists out and Directors violate their own

Constitution of the year III.Directory first purges 2 Directors:

One, Lazare Carnot, driven into exile

To save the republic (they said), they had to violate their own

constitution…

• Expansion continues:• 10/1797- Treaty of Campo

Formio • Austria recognizes French

annexation of Belgium (former Austrian Netherlands) & Northern Italy

• Pope deposed and Roman Republic declared

• Only England is still at war with France

• Napoleon’s aggression is directed toward Egypt

Foreign Policy of Directory

Young Napoleon

The Coup d’Etat of 1799 Bonaparte

• After Fructidor coup constitutionalism is given up

• Directory becomes an ineffective dictatorship

– They repudiate debts– Guerrilla activity in Vendee flares up– Religious schism becomes more acute as

Directory persecutes refractory clergy• Napoleon feints toward India with the

invasion of Egypt (indirect strike at British)• British fleet cuts off French army in Egypt• Napoleon abandons his army and returns

to Paris on his own.

Egypt

• Directory is looking for a general to keep a lid on France

• Abbe Sieyes says “confidence from below, authority from above”

• Coup d’ etat of Brumaire (11/9/1799)

• Napoleon is chosen as a member of the Consulate (3) and becomes first Consul 11/1799

The Coup d’Etat of 1799: Bonaparte