- The First Republic is gradually giving way to the Terror. The extreme violence of the Montagnards endangers the kingdom and their execution is a sign of appeasement.
- The Directory, a five-headed government, was created to prevent any risk of tyranny. The people are freed and morals too, the Thermidorians indulge in idleness and a certain hedonism.
- But unlike the wealthy bourgeoisie, recently in power, the people are hungry and misery is spreading.
- The Directory is constantly caught between two waters, either between the Jacobins and the Royalists, or between the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders. Unable to ensure stability, he called on the army several times, which carried out coups against the royalists to keep the regime in place – on 13 Vendémiaire Year IV (5 October 1795) and 18 Fructidor Year V ( September 4, 1797).
18 and 19 brumaire year VIII (9 and 10 November 1799)
Characters
Napoleon Bonaparte
Paul Barras
Roger Ducos
Jean-Francois Moulin
Louis Gohier
Charles Leclerc
Victor Moreau
Joachim Murat
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès
Procedure
Cleverly prepared in secret by Talleyrand and Sieyès who wanted to change the Constitution of Year III to strengthen the executive, the coup d'etat carried out by Bonaparte took place on 18 Brumaire of Year VIII.
The two conspirators spread the rumor of a royalist threat to knowingly move the two assemblies of the Directory – the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders – from Paris to Saint-Cloud, thus justifying the presence of the army and Bonaparte to escort them. Among the five directors who manage the executive, Sieyès and Ducos resign. Talleyrand enjoins Barras to do the same, while the last two, Gohier and Moulin, refusing to leave their posts, are retained by Moreau.
The next day, 19 Brumaire, Bonaparte called for a new constitution. While he was shouted down, his brother Lucien gave him his support and had the deputies kicked out by the grenadiers led by Murat and Leclerc. The power of the Directory is vacant, the general makes the deputies present vote the end of the regime and ratifies the birth of the Consulate which must vote for a new constitution. The provisional consuls are Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos.
Contrary to Sieyès' predictions, the military coup worked and Bonaparte became the strong man. Indeed, on December 15, 1799, he proclaimed the Constitution of the year VIII which gave full powers to the First Consul. He himself became First Consul, then, in 1802, he was appointed consul for life.
Consequences
- The coup d'état of 18-19 Brumaire led to Bonaparte's seizure of power, which upset the power in place.
- The Directory gave way to the Consulate, which was only the antechamber of the First Empire (adopted by a senatus-consultum on May 18, 1804) which would proclaim Napoleon, Emperor of the French, sole and unique ruler.
- His coronation took place on December 2, 1804 at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Before Pope Pius VII, Napoleon crowns himself and obtains the family inheritance of the imperial title. A new dynasty has just been born.