Constitutional Republic: The Directory, 1795-1799

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Constitutional Republic The Directory, 1795-1799
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S T A R T E R
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Thursday, 25 June 2015
Why was the Directoire overthrown?
KI3 Radical Revolution 1793-1799.
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Thursday, 25 June 2015
Session Aims

• identify the reasons why the Directory was unable
  to continue
• assess the role of different groups in the
  downfall of the Directors

Events of 1789.
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Thermidorian Reaction

• Coup detat of Brumaire (11/9/1799)
• Consulate begins
• End of Revolution?

Robespierre Executed (7/28/94) -Thermidorian
Reaction Begins
Constitution of 1795
Rule of the Directory
Consulate of NB
1794 1795 1796 1797
1798 1799 1804
Napoleon crowned Emperor Restoration Begins
White Terror attacks Jacobins
Coup detat of Fructidor (September 4) 1797
Price Controls Abolished
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The Weakness of the Directory

• Constitution of 1795
• Supported mainly 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
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Opposition to the Directory
STRENGTHS
FAILURES
The Directory
WEAKNESSES
THREATS
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Opposition to the Directory
The Directory
Gracchus Babeuf Lower Class (hurt by Laissez
Faire) Declaration of Verona and Conspiracy of
Equals the Count of Provence Jacobins
Hebertists Royalists
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Directorys 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 (doh!)
• Bourbons learned nothing and forgot nothing.
• French dont love Con of 1795 but Restoration to
  them means
• Return of privileged nobility
• Reimplementation of the manorial system

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Directorys 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
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Fashion Convention v Directory Periods
Radical Period
Thermidorian Period
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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 the
• Austrians, won control of most of
• Italy, and made the Peace of
• Campo Formio unilaterally!

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The Political Crisis of 1797 Summary

• French royalists won elections
• Republicans worked a coup detat, with Napoleon's
  help, the Coup detat of Fructidor
• Directory annulled the 3/1797 elections and made
  peace with Austria
• France also annexed
• Belgium and the
• west bank of the
• Rhine

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Coup detat 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)

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• Coup detat of Fructidor (September 4, 1797)
• The Directory 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, also Bathelemy.
• To save the republic (they said), they had to
  violate their own constitution

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Foreign Policy of Directory

• 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
• Napoleons aggression is directed toward Egypt

Young Napoleon
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Who had deserted the Directory after 1797? Why?
WHO? WHY?





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The Coup dEtat of 1799 Bonaparte

• After Fructidor 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.

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The Coup dEtat of 1799 Bonaparte

• 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

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Steps to Brumaire
1797
1798
1799
COUP OF BRUMAIRE
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