#frenchdirectory

Coup of 18 Brumaire

The Coup of 18 Brumaire (9-10 November 1799) was a bloodless coup d'état in France that overthrew the government of the French Directory and replaced it with the French Consulate. The coup brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power and, in the view of many historians, marked the end of the French Revolution (1789-1799).

War of the Second Coalition

The War of the Second Coalition (1798-1802), part of the broader French Revolutionary Wars, was the second attempt by an alliance of major European powers to defeat Revolutionary France. The Second Coalition, which included Russia, Austria, Great Britain, Naples, Portugal, and the Ottoman Empire, was defeated by the French Republic, and hostilities ended with the Treaty of Amiens in 1802.

French Directory

The French Directory, or Directorate (French: le Directoire), was the government of France from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, a period that spanned the last four years of the French Revolution (1789-1799). The Directory was unpopular, despite military successes, and faced economic crises and social unrest. It was ultimately toppled in the Coup of 18 Brumaire.

Established in response to the chaotic and bloody Reign of Terror (1793-94), the Directory sought to restore stability to France by resurrecting the initial revolutionary principles of 1789. This did little to please anyone besides the dominant bourgeois class; the leftwing Jacobins and conservative royalists both attempted to seize control of the government and engaged in a sort of political tug-of-war with the Directory in the middle. While it was fighting to survive attempted coups, the Directory also had to deal with France's economic troubles that stemmed from mountainous national debt and the depreciating value of the Revolution's paper currency, the assignat.

Prairial Uprising

The Uprising of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795) was the last major popular insurrection during the French Revolution (1789-1799). It was the final time that the sans-culottes played an important role in French politics until the revolutions of the 19th century, and it dashed any hopes that the Jacobins would regain power after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre.

The Prairial Uprising was sparked by the conservative policies of the Thermidorian Reaction. The Thermidorians, who had overthrown Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) and ended the Reign of Terror, had been intent on erasing the extremist Jacobin ideology from French politics. This included ending the Law of the General Maximum, which had placed a price cap on bread and other essential supplies, keeping them somewhat affordable. The removal of such regulations, coupled with a particularly brutal winter, led to mass starvation and worsened rates of poverty.

13 Vendémiaire

The Revolt of 13 Vendémiaire Year IV (5 October 1795) was a royalist uprising in Paris during the French Revolution (1789-1799). In response to the anti-royalist policies of the Thermidorian Reaction, 25,000 Parisians rose in revolt but were crushed by French Republican soldiers under the command of General Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), who famously used grapeshot to disperse the insurrectionists.

The goals of the rebels were just as anti-Thermidorian as they were pro-royalist. The Thermidorians were the faction that had overthrown Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, ending the Reign of Terror. After taking control of Revolutionary France's provisional government, the National Convention, the Thermidorians implemented unpopular policies that worsened rates of starvation and poverty, causing many citizens to feel nostalgia for the comparatively stable days of the monarchy. As royalist sentiment rose, the Thermidorians passed a law that effectively prevented royalists from gaining a majority in the upcoming government, the National Directory. In response to this exclusion, 7 out of Paris' 48 sections rose in revolt on 5 October 1795, making their way toward the Tuileries Palace, where the Convention met.