constitutional republic: the directory, 1795-1799 section 9.45
TRANSCRIPT
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