The French Revolution

The Directory, 1795-1799McKay 711-714, Palmer 9.45

Moderate Period

• 1789-1792• “Age of

Montesquieu”• Constitution

al Monarchy– Liberal

moderates in control

• National Assembly/Legislative Assembly

• Limited Change

• Limited enfranchise-ment

Restoration Period

• 1799-1804• “Age of

Voltaire”• Enlightened

Despotism• Consulate• Government

centralized with enlightened ideals

• Old Order returns to power

Radical Period• 1792-1794• “Age of Rousseau”• Republic

– Strong central government

– Radicals in control

• Convention• Major Change• Total enfranchise-

ment• Terror• Command

economy• Utopian/ idealized

vision

Thermidorian Period• 1794-1799• “Age of Smith”• Oligarchy

– Moderates Bourgeoisie government

• Directory• Reactionary

stage• Idealized visions

of Rev forgotten– Period of

decadence

• Free Market economy– High Inflation

• Reliance on Strong Man

Crane Brinton & The Anatomy of Revolution

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 “The “ThermidorianThermidorian Reaction”Reaction”• Named based on execution of

Robespierre on the 9th of Thermidor (Revolutionary calendar)

• Curtailed the power of the Committee for Public Safety

• Closed the Jacobin Clubs

• Churches were reopened

• Freedom of religion granted

• Economic restrictions were lifted in favor of laissez-faire policies

• Constitution of 1795

• more conservative republicanism

Characteristics of the Directory• Paris Commune was outlawed

• Law of 22 Prairial was revoked

•Reign of Terror over

• “White” Terror

•People involved in the original Terror were now attacked

• Inflation skyrocketed

•Price of bread, shoes

• Rule by rich bourgeois liberals

• Period of Self-indulgence

•frivolous culture, salons reopen, wild fashions

• Political corruption/instability

• Catholicism Revived

Jeunesse Doree (Gilded Youth) flaunted their wealth at the Bals des victimes, or

victims' balls

Madame Madame Tallien Tallien (Notre (Notre

Dame de Dame de Thermidor) Thermidor)

came to came to opera opera

wearing a wearing a semi see-semi see-through through dress.dress.

The Directory• Constitution of 1795

– Supported mainly by wealthy (bourgeoisie)

– Restricted to the politically active class

– Universal male (over 21) suffrage selected electors

– Electors were usually wealthy– Electors chose department officials

and members of the Legislative Assembly

– Lower Chamber= Council of the 500• Initiate legislation

– Upper Chamber= Council of Ancients (250)

• married or widowed males over 40 married or widowed males over 40 years of ageyears of age

• Chose the Directory (5 executives)

Council of Ancients

Council of 500

Enemies of the DirectoryThe

Directory

Revolutionaries Moderates Reactionaries

• Gracchus Babeuf & Conspiracy of Equals

• Jacobins• Herbertists• Sans Cullottes

• Royalists• Count of

Provence• Peasants• Spain, Austria,

GB, Prussia

Political Instability: 1795-1796 April, 1795 Inflation; bread riots

Price of bread rose 13xs

Fire wood went from 20 to 500 assignats

October, 1795 :

Vendée and Brittany revolted

Royalist coup stopped by Napoleon Bonaparte

13 Vendémiaire

Revolt by Royalist and Catholics against the Directory

Napoleon stopped them “with a whiff of grapeshot”

Directory relies of strongman to survive

May, 1796 First “communist” revolt

Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of Equals”

Directory’s Enemies on the Right• Louis XVI’s son died in prison in 1795• Louis XVIII (16’s brother became heir)

– 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)

– Planned armed uprising on Floréal 22, year IV (11 May 1796)

– Gracchus Babeuf • Led group of Jacobins and

socialists• radical journalist • Father of anarchists,

communists– Wanted to abolish private

property, install political & economic equality

– Tried to overthrow the Directory with a dictatorship

• Captured & guillotined in 1796• Yet Directory ignored hardships

of lower classesGracchus Babeuf

• The aim of the French Revolution is to destroy inequality and the to reestablish the general welfare…The Revolution is not complete because the rich monopolize all the property and govern exclusively, while the poor toil like slaves, languish in misery, and count for nothing in the state.– The Conspiracy of Equals (Circa 1795)

Fashion of the Directory Periods• Directory period mores

turned against values of Convention– Phrygian cap became

so yesterday• Jeunesse doree (gilded

youth) set cultural standards

• Square collars, fancy clothes

• Long flowing white robes with plunging necklines

• Familiar tu dropped in favor of vous (Old Regime)

• “Dance of the Victims”– A ball in which relatives

of those killed in the Terror partied

Radical Period

Thermidorian Period

Napoleon Background

Coup d’etat of Fructidor• Directory seizure of power• First free election was held in March 1797 • Royalists won many seats and on verge

of political control (Council of 500)• Republicans, regicides, and Napoleon

could not let royalists get control– Nap never would have risen in Old

Regime• Coup d etat of Fructidor (September 4)

1797• Fructidorian government

– Directory annuled the elections of the spring to keep the royalists out

– Ironically violate their own Constitution of the year III

• Exiled 2 Directors• To save the republic (they say) they had

to violate their own constitution

• Proclamation of the Directory to the French People• 9 September 1797 (23 Fructidor Year V)• The French people have entrusted the custody of

their Constitution primarily to the fidelity of the Legislative Body and the executive power.

• A royalist plot, whose organization has been long in the making and which has been skillfully woven and patiently sustained, has threatened the integrity of this trust. The Executive Directory discovered the plan and arrested the guilty parties, while the Legislative Body immediately took the necessary measures.

• The Legislative Body and the Executive Directory have performed their duty.

• Expansion continues• 10/1797 treaty of

Campo Formio • Austria recognized

French annexation of Belgium (former Austrian Netherlands) & Northern Italy

• Pope deposed and Roman Republic declared

• First Coalition collapses

• Now only England is still at war with France

Foreign Policy of Directory

The Coup d’etat Brumaire• After Fructidor coup

constitutionalism is given up• Directory becomes an

ineffective dictatorship– Repudiated debts– guerrilla activity in Vendee

flares up– Religious schism became

more acute as Directory persecuted refractory clergy

• Napoleon invades Egypt (indirect strike at British)

– Discovers Rosetta Stone• British fleet cuts off French

army in Egypt• Napoleon abandons his army

and returns to Paris

British caricature of the 18th of Brumaire. “The Corsican Crocodile

dissolving the Council of Frogs.”

Egypt

• Napoleon’s seizure of power• Directory needs a

“strong man” • Abbe Sieyes

– “confidence from below, authority from above”

– Selects popular general Napoleon Bonaparte

– Sieyes thinks he will be the real “power behind the throne”

• Coup d’ etat of Brumaire (11/9/1799)– Napoleon seized power– chosen as a member of the

Consulate (3) and becomes first Consul 11/1799

• France becomes an Enlightened Despotism

The Coup d’etat Brumaire

First Consul