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REACTION PHASE: THE DIRECTORY 1795 - 1799
REPUBLIC
I TIMELINE OF THE DIRECTORY (1795 – 1799)
27 July 1794
Robespierre is arrested and guillotined the next
morning ending “Reign of Terror”.
July 1794-22
Aug. 1795
5 Oct. 1795
The National Convention reorganizes the government
and writes the new Constitution of 1795.
“The whiff of grapeshot” a monarchist counter
revolution is crushed when Napoleon used cannon on
the Paris mob.
#4
The National Convention disbands, replaced by the
Directory.
The Directory takes formal control of the govt.
26 Oct. 1795
2 Nov. 1795
11 Mar. 1796
26 Mar. 1796 –
17 Oct. 1797
Oct. 1797
Napoleon appointed commander of the Army of Italy
Napoleon defeats the Austrian army during the 1st
Italian Campaign.
Treaty of Campo Formio ends the War of the First
Coalition
19 May 1798 –
30 Aug. 1801
Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt and Syria. Admiral
Nelson destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the
Nile, left Napoleon stranded in Egypt.
12 Mar. 1799
Mar – Aug 1799
The War of the Second Coalition begins.
French armies are defeated in Germany and Italy losing
all territory taken during the War of the First Coalition.
The French defeat a Russian army in Switzerland.
Napoleon abandons the Army of Egypt and returns to
France.
Napoleon arrived in southern France.
Coup de Brumaire. The Consulate is formed.
“The Revolution is over. I am the revolution.”
Napoleon
24 Aug. 1799
9 Oct. 1799
9 – 10 Nov 1799
Nov. 1799
II THERMIDORIAN REACTION, 1794 - 1795
1. Opposition to Robespierre mounted in July, 1794
a. Robespierre was feared more than counter-revolution.
b. In a speech before the Convention, Robespierre suggested there
were still “traitors” within the assembly. Delegates feared they
would be next before the guillotine.
c. Opposition to Robespierre consisted of numerous groups across
the full political spectrum. The only thing these groups had in
common was fear of Robespierre and the desire to end the
excesses of the Terror.
2. July 27, 1794, Robespierre was denounced in the Convention and
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arrested. He was executed the next day, along with his close
associates. The sans-culottes happily sat by and did nothing.
3. The Thermidorian Convention (National Convention) continued until
ran the govt. until Oct. 1795 when a new constitution was adopted.
a. The Paris Commune was outlawed.
b. The Law of Prairial, which created the Revolutionary Tribunals,
was revoked’
c. The Law of the Maximum was revoked ending the planned
economy.
d. People involved in the Terror were now attacked, the White
Terror, until the Directory was created.
e. Girondins were readmitted to the Convention.
4. Thermidorian Reaction (1794).
a. Constituted a significant swing to the right (conservatism).
b. Respectable bourgeois middle-class lawyers and professionals
who had led liberal Revolution of 1789 reasserted their
authority.
c. Ended the reign of Terror
d. Reduced powers of the Committee of Public Safety and closed the
Jacobin club.
III THE DIRECTORY 1795-1799
1. The Constitution of 1795.
a. New constitution written in 1795 which set up a republican form
of govt.
1) Bicameral legislature: the Council of Five Hundred and the
Council of Ancients.
a) The representatives in each were split between moderate
Jacobins and monarchists.
b) Once again power struggles prevented anything from
being accomplished.
2) Executive was the Directory, made up of 5 directors.
a) It’s aim was to avoid dictatorship and excessive
democracy.
b) The Directors were usually dominated by Paul Barras.
3) Almost all adult males were able to vote but they only voted
for “electors.”
4) Office holding reserved to property owners.
5) It guaranteed freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and
freedom of labor, but forbade armed assemblies and even
public meetings of political societies.
b. This was a four-year period of lack of strong government and a
series of coup d'etats. The leaders were not strongly ideological,
but did not want to turn the clock back.
2. Middle class controlled the government.
a. This became the Directory’s major weakness as it’s support came
from a narrow band of French society.
b. Their chief aim was to perpetuate their own rule.
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c. All economic controls were removed which ended the influence
of the sans-culottes.
1) More paper money was printed.
2) Allowed prices to rise sharply.
3) Middle class sought peace in order to gain more wealth and to
establish a society where money and property determined
prestige and power.
d. Directory in 1795 disbanded women’s workshops and urged
women to tend to their homes
e. A frivolous culture came into being. e.g. women’s fashions;
Salons re-opened; relatives of terror victims going to parties
wearing red scarves or ribbons around their neck.
f. Peasants were now a major landowning group in society.
3. Challenges to the Directory.
a. October, 1795, the aristocracy attempted a royalist uprising.
1) Reaction to a provision in the constitution stated that 2/3 of
men elected to the legislature had to be ex-members of the
National Convention of 1789-91.
2) Barras gave Napoleon command of the Paris garrison (5000
troops) with orders to defend the government
3) Napoleon stole 40 cannon from the National Guard and, using
grapeshot, opened fire on the mob in the narrow city streets.
One volley was enough to disperse the mob.
4) This was the first time anyone used cannon on the sansculottes.
5) Known as “the whiff of grape shot,” it was a turning point in
the revolution.
a) The sans-culottes learned mob uprisings would be
crushed.
b) The Directory made itself dependent on military
protection to retain power.
c) Removed the sans-culottes, or Paris mob, as a major
force in politics.
b. Conspiracy of Equals led by “Gracchus” Babeuf formed to
overthrow the Directory and replace it with a dictatorial
“democratic” govt. which would abolish private property and
enforce equality.
1) Regarded as a precursor to modern communism.
2) Directory repressed the Conspiracy of Equals without
difficulty and guillotined Babeuf
c. Growing inflation and mass public dissatisfaction mounted but
ignored by the Directory. Govt. was bankrupt, corrupt and
unwilling to control inflation that severely hurt the impoverished
masses of French peasants.
d. Elections in April 1797 resulted in victory for royalists right but
the results were annulled by the Directory.
e. Idea of maintaining the republic as a free or constitutional govt.
was abandoned.
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Napoleon
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4. Military successes during the Directory enabled it to remain in
power until 1799.
a. The War of the First Coalition ended in 1797
1) French campaigns in Germany and Holland reclaimed lost
territory from Austria & Prussia.
2) Napoleon’s 1st Italian Campaign:
a) During a 7-month campaign Bonaparte’s rag tag understrength army recaptured most of northern Italy from 6
numerically superior Austrian armies. Napoleon defeated
the Austrians at Lodi, Castiglione, Arcole, & Rivoli.
When his troops advanced to within 100 miles of Vienna
the Austrians sued for peace.
b) Without authority Napoleon made a treaty with Austria
ending the War of the First Coalition
c) He returned to Paris a national hero and a threat to the
Directory.
b. England was isolated; removed its army from the Continent.
c. Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign May 1798 - Aug. 1801:
1) Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt was intended to threaten
English trade.
2) He conquered Egypt by defeating the Mamelucks at the Battle
of the Pyramids (1798), but failed to take Syria.
3) On 29 July 1798 Admiral Horatio Nelson’s British fleet
found the French fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay and
destroyed all 13 ships in the Battle of the Nile (1798).
4) Napoleon’s army was stranded in Egypt. The campaign
turned into a disaster.
5) In Aug. 1799 word arrived of the imminent collapse of the
Directory. Napoleon abandoned the army (AWOL) and
secretly sailed away for France.
5. The War of the Second Coalition March 1799 - March 1802.
a. With Napoleon trapped in Egypt England engineered a coalition
with Russia, Austria, Ottoman Empire, & Portugal to resume war
with France.
b. The French army suffered defeat everywhere. All France’s gains
in Germany and Italy from 1796 & 1797 were lost.
c. Defeat undermined The Directory. Paris was full of plots to
overthrow the govt. The Directory was in danger of collapsing.
6. End of the Directory.
a. A conspiracy emerged to save the Revolution and prevent a
royalist return to power.
1) Napoleon returns to France. His success on the battlefield,
combined with skillful manipulation of the press, made him a
hero and popular with the people. The govt. ignored his
AWOL status.
2) Abbé Sieyès was the leader of a conspiracy, which included
several Directors, to overthrow the Directory.
a) The conspirators wanted a stable government and an end
of foreign wars.
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Horatio Nelson
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b) They needed the support of a popular military leader and
Bonaparte appeared to be the leader France needed
c) Napoleon’s brother Lucien, a Deputy in the legislature,
had set up a vote to end the Directory.
b. Coup d’Ètat de Brumaire, November, 1799
1) Lucien’s measure to end the Directory met with resistance and
debate.
2) Waiting outside the building with his guard troops and no
news from Lucien, Napoleon grew increasingly impatient.
3) Napoleon became exasperated by the delay Napoleon and
entered the assembly with his troops (remember Charles I and
Cromwell).
4) Many legislators denounced Napoleon and fled. A core group
of supporters voted for the end of the Directory.
c. A new constitution established beginning the Consulate Era.
d. A plebiscite (general referendum) overwhelmingly approved:
3,011,007 to 1,562.
Notes
IV ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DIRECTORY:
1. Removed the sans-culottes, or Paris mob, as a major force in
politics.
2. Created the Constitution of 1795 making France a republic.
3. Concluded peace treaties with Prussia and Spain but war continued
with Austria & England
4. Allowed a revival of Catholicism.
“The Revolution is over.
I am the Revolution.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
The arrest of Robespierre
Napoleon during the Coup de Brumaire
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