Fall of the Directory

Fall of the Directory
1. 1788-9 - Directory clearly losing support and control
2. Nov 1799 - Coup of Brumaire - Napoleon and Sieyes
  1. 1. Moved councils to St Cloud
  2. 2. Soldiers kicked out deps
  3. 3. Rump approved a new executive committee of 3 membs (Consulate)
Why was Napoleon able to seize power in the coup of Brumaire?
1. Directory's (long term) failures
2. Lawlessness of 1798/99 (Directory's short term failures)
3. Napoleon (popularity, success, charisma, ambition)
4. Abbe Sieyes (planned the coup)
Directory's long term failures
1. Constitution of Year III
  1. Deadlock (exec / leg)
  2. Link to Fructidor (Nat Convention unpopular - therefore new govt may be unpopular); separation of powers
2. Reliance on army and war - Prairial (1795), Vendemaire (1795) and Fructidor (1797)
3. Alienation of possible supporters
  1. 'Bankruptcy of 2/3'
    1. 2/3 Of Nat debt 'written off' = annoyed middle class
Govt collapse of 1798-99
1. Popularity collapsed
  1. 1. Sept 1798 - conscription (only 74,000/230,000 turned up in 1st draft)
  2. 2. 1799 - Only 66/187 new councilors in 500 Ancients were govt candidates
  3. 3. June 1799 - Jourdans Laws (levee en masse for 20-25 yr olds) - only 248,000 / 402,000 turned up
2. Alienated possible supporters
  1. 1. Forced loan on rich (only 10% of expected revenue collected)
  2. 2. Law of Hostages (rarely applied)
    1. Families held hostage until they showed up for conscription
3. Led to collapse of govt control + law and order in provs
  1. 1. Local notables refused to serve govt
  2. 2. Army abroad and Nat Guard small
  3. 3. Govt commissionaires killed
  4. 4. Brigandage / collapse of law and order
    1. Civil war in Ardeche by Nov 1799
White Terror
1. Throughout 1794/5 royalists and other former rebels from Vendee, Brittany, Lyon, the South East etc (areas that suffered during Terror) attacked Jacobins who had been responsible
  1. Largely revenge attacks (vendetta in South East) although some organised by royalists
2. Gilded Youth - Groups of young chaps dressing as dandies and beating up Jacobins and sans - culottes
  1. Seen in most provs during 1794 / 5
Babeuf Plot (1796)
1. Babeuf = Left - wing radical in Paris
  1. Played on eco woes of sans - culottes
2. Proposed - Personal property should be abolished and shared in common (1 of the first modern Communists)
3. Urged uprising amongst sans - culottes to force adoption of 1793 Constitution (allowed right to insurrection)
4. Sans - culottes failed to carry out uprising, partly because orgs (48 Sections) had been abolished
  1. Journees almost impossible w/out org
Coup d'Etat of Fructidor (1797)
1. 1. More monarchists elected (new 1/3)
2. 2. Monarchists elected as Presidents of both councils (500 and Ancients) and as new Director (Barthelemy)
  1. Carnot (existing Director) also sympathetic of royalism)
3. 3. Only 2 fervent repub Directors left
4. 4. Napoleon / army arrested 2 Directors (Carnot and Barth) and 53 Deps
5. 5. Forced through new laws (through 'rump' purged councils) - removing and persecuting royalists)
6. 6. Purged and exiled royalists, emigres and refractory priests
7. Fructidor can be seen as a victory of executive and republicans in army over legislature
Coup of Floreal (May 1798)
1. Directors persuaded councils to annul elections of resurgent Jacobins - showing clear contempt for Constitution (Jacobins not a major threat)

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Fall of the Directory

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	Created by megan langdon almost 10 years ago