The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member
committee
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
in the
French First Republic
In the history of France, the First Republic (french: Première République), sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, and officially the French Republic (french: République française), was founded on 21 September 1792 ...
from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
in the
Coup of 18 Brumaire
The Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and led to the Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. This bloodless ''coup d'état'' overt ...
and replaced by the
Consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...
. ''Directoire'' is the name of the final four years of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
. Mainstream historiography also uses the term in reference to the period from the dissolution of the
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
on 26 October 1795 (4 Brumaire) to Napoleon's coup d’état.
The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions, including
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, the
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. It annexed
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and the
left bank of the Rhine, while Bonaparte conquered a large part of Italy. The Directory established 196 short-lived sister republics in Italy,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. The conquered cities and states were required to send France huge amounts of money, as well as art treasures, which were used to fill the new
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
museum in Paris. An army led by Bonaparte tried to conquer
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and marched as far as
Saint-Jean-d'Acre
Acre ( ), known locally as Akko ( he, עַכּוֹ, ''ʻAkō'') or Akka ( ar, عكّا, ''ʻAkkā''), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.
The city occupies an important location, sitting in a natural harb ...
in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. The Directory defeated a resurgence of the
War in the Vendée
The war in the Vendée (french: link=no, Guerre de Vendée) was a counter-revolution from 1793 to 1796 in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the river Loir ...
, the royalist-led civil war in the Vendée region, but failed in its venture to support the
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influence ...
and create an Irish Republic.
The French economy was in continual crisis during the Directory. At the beginning, the treasury was empty; the paper money, the
Assignat
An assignat () was a monetary instrument, an order to pay, used during the time of the French Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
France
Assignats were paper money (fiat currency) issued by the Constituent Assembly in France from 1 ...
, had fallen to a fraction of its value, and prices soared. The Directory stopped printing assignats and restored the value of the money, but this caused a new crisis; prices and wages fell, and economic activity slowed to a standstill.
In its first two years, the Directory concentrated on ending the excesses of the
Jacobin
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = Pa ...
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
; mass executions stopped, and measures taken against exiled priests and royalists were relaxed. The Jacobin political club was closed and the government crushed an armed uprising planned by the Jacobins and an early socialist revolutionary,
François-Noël Babeuf
François-Noël Babeuf (; 23 November 1760 – 27 May 1797), also known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French proto-communist, revolutionary, and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper ''Le tribun du peuple'' (''The Tribune of ...
, known as "''
Gracchus
The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later in ...
'' Babeuf". But after the discovery of a royalist conspiracy including a prominent general,
Jean-Charles Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru (, 16 February 1761 – 5 April 1804) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars. Under his command, French troops overran Belgium and the Netherlands before fighting on the Rhine front. His royalist positions led to h ...
, the Jacobins took charge of the new Councils and hardened the measures against the Church and émigrés. They took two additional seats in the Directory, hopelessly dividing it.
In 1799, after several defeats, French victories in the Netherlands and Switzerland restored the French military position, but the Directory had lost all the political factions' support. Bonaparte returned from Egypt in October, and was engaged by
Abbé Sieyès
''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...
and others to carry out a parliamentary coup d'état on 8–9 November 1799. The coup abolished the Directory and replaced it with the
French Consulate
The Consulate (french: Le Consulat) was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 10 November 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term ''The Con ...
led by Bonaparte.
Background
![Max Adamo Sturz Robespierres](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Max_Adamo_Sturz_Robespierres.JPG)
The period known as the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
began as a way of harnessing revolutionary fervour, but quickly degenerated into the settlement of personal grievances. On 17 September 1793, the
Law of Suspects
:''Note: This decree should not be confused with the Law of General Security (french: Loi de sûreté générale), also known as the "Law of Suspects," adopted by Napoleon III in 1858 that allowed punishment for any prison action, and permitted the ...
authorised the arrest of any suspected "enemies of freedom"; on 10 October, the
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
recognised the
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety (french: link=no, Comité de salut public) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. S ...
under
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...
as the
supreme authority, and suspended the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
until "peace was achieved".
According to archival records, from September 1793 to July 1794 some 16,600 people were executed on charges of counter-revolutionary activity; another 40,000 may have been summarily executed or died awaiting trial. At its peak, the slightest hint of counter-revolutionary thoughts could place one under suspicion, and even his supporters began to fear their own survival depended on removing Robespierre. On 27 July,
he and his allies were arrested and executed the next day.
In July 1794, the Convention established a committee to draft what became the
1795 Constitution. Largely designed by
Pierre Daunou
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
and
Boissy d'Anglas, it established a
bicameral legislature
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
, intended to slow down the legislative process, ending the wild swings of policy under the previous unicameral systems. Deputies were chosen by indirect election, a total franchise of around 5 million voting in primaries for 30,000 electors, or 0.5% of the population. Since they were also subject to stringent property qualification, it guaranteed the return of conservative or moderate deputies.
It created a legislature consisting of the
Council of 500
The Council of Five Hundred (''Conseil des Cinq-Cents''), or simply the Five Hundred, was the lower house of the legislature of France under the Constitution of the Year III. It existed during the period commonly known (from the name of the e ...
, responsible for drafting legislation, and
Council of Ancients
The Council of Ancients or Council of Elders (french: Conseil des Anciens) was the upper house of the French legislature under the Constitution of the Year III, during the period commonly known as the Directory (French: ''Directoire''), from 2 ...
, an upper house containing 250 men over the age of 40, who would review and approve it. Executive power was in the hands of five Directors, selected by the Council of Ancients from a list provided by the lower house, with a five-year mandate. This was intended to prevent executive power being concentrated in the hands of one man.
D'Anglas wrote to the Convention:
We propose to you to compose an executive power of five members, renewed with one new member each year, called the Directory. This executive will have a force concentrated enough that it will be swift and firm, but divided enough to make it impossible for any member to even consider becoming a tyrant. A single chief would be dangerous. Each member will preside for three months; he will have during this time the signature and seal of the head of state. By the slow and gradual replacement of members of the Directory, you will preserve the advantages of order and continuity and will have the advantages of unity without the inconveniences.
Drafting the new Constitution
The 1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789, links=no), set by France's National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is a human civil rights document from the French Revolu ...
was attached as a preamble, declaring "the Rights of Man in society are liberty, equality, security, and property". It guaranteed freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of labour, but forbade armed assemblies and even public meetings of political societies. Only individuals or public authorities could tender petitions.
![François Boissy d-Anglas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Fran%C3%A7ois_Boissy_d-Anglas.jpg)
The judicial system was reformed, and judges were given short terms of office: two years for justices of the peace, five for judges of department tribunals. They were elected, and could be re-elected, to assure their independence from the other branches of government.
The new legislature had two houses, a
Council of Five Hundred
The Council of Five Hundred (''Conseil des Cinq-Cents''), or simply the Five Hundred, was the lower house of the legislature of France under the Constitution of the Year III. It existed during the period commonly known (from the name of the e ...
and a
Council of Ancients
The Council of Ancients or Council of Elders (french: Conseil des Anciens) was the upper house of the French legislature under the Constitution of the Year III, during the period commonly known as the Directory (French: ''Directoire''), from 2 ...
with two hundred fifty members. Electoral assemblies in each
''canton'' of France, which brought together a total of thirty thousand qualified electors, chose representatives to an electoral assembly in each
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
, which then elected the members of both houses. The members of this legislature had a term of three years, with one-third of the members renewed every year. The Ancients could not initiate new laws, but could veto those proposed by the Council of Five Hundred.
The Constitution established a unique kind of executive, a five-man Directory chosen by the legislature. It required the Council of Five Hundred to prepare, by secret ballot, a list of candidates for the Directory. The Council of Ancients then chose, again by secret ballot, the Directors from that provided list. The Constitution required that Directors be at least forty years old. To assure gradual but continual change, one Director, chosen by lot, was replaced each year. Ministers for the various departments of State aided the Directors. These ministers did not form a council or cabinet and had no general powers of government.
The new Constitution sought to create a
separation of powers
Separation of powers refers to the division of a state's government into branches, each with separate, independent powers and responsibilities, so that the powers of one branch are not in conflict with those of the other branches. The typic ...
; the Directors had no voice in legislation or taxation, nor could Directors or Ministers sit in either house. To assure that the Directors would have some independence, each would be elected by one portion of the legislature, and they could not be removed by the legislature unless they violated the law.
[Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard, Alfred Fierro, ''Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française'', Robert Laffont, Paris, 1998, pp. 198–199. (In French)]
Under the new
Constitution of 1795
The Constitution of the Year III (french: Constitution de l’an III) was the constitution of the French First Republic that established the French Directory, Executive Directory. Adopted by the convention on 5 Fructidor Year III (22 August 1 ...
, to be eligible to vote in the elections for the Councils, voters were required to meet certain minimum property and residency standards. In towns with over six thousand population, they had to own or rent a property with a revenue equal to the standard income for at least one hundred fifty or two hundred days of work, and to have lived in their residence for at least a year. This ruled out a large part of the French population.
The greatest victim under the new system was the City of Paris, which had dominated events in the first part of the Revolution. On 24 August 1794, the committees of the sections of Paris, bastions of the Jacobins which had provided most of the manpower for demonstrations and invasions of the Convention, were abolished. Shortly afterwards, on 31 August, the municipality of Paris, which had been the domain of Danton and Robespierre, was abolished, and the city placed under direct control of the national government. When the Law of 19 Vendémiaire Year IV (11 October 1795), in application of the
new Constitution, created the first twelve ''
arrondissement
An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands.
Europe
France
The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissements' ...
s'' of Paris, it established twelve new committees, one for each ''arrondissement''. The city became a new
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
, the
department of the Seine
Seine was the former department of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. It is the only enclaved department of France at that time. Its prefecture was Paris and its INSEE number was 75. The Seine department was disbanded in 1968 a ...
, replacing the former department of Paris created in 1790.
Political developments (July 1794 – March 1795)
![Paul Barras directeur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Paul_Barras_directeur.jpg)
Meanwhile, the leaders of the still ruling
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
tried to meet challenges from both neo-Jacobins on the left and royalists on the right. On 21 September 1794, the remains of
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...
, whose furious articles had promoted the Reign of Terror, were placed with great ceremony in the
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
, while on the same day, the moderate Convention member
Merlin de Thionville
Antoine Christophe Merlin (13 September 1762 in Thionville, Moselle (department), Moselle – September 1833 in Paris) was a member of several legislative bodies during the era of the French Revolution. He is usually called Merlin de Thionville ...
described the Jacobins as "A hangout of outlaws" and the "knights of the guillotine". Young men known as
Muscadins
The term Muscadin (), meaning "wearing musk perfume", came to refer to mobs of young men, relatively well-off and dressed in a dandyish manner, who were the street fighters of the Thermidorian Reaction in Paris in the French Revolution (1789-17 ...
, largely from middle-class families, attacked the Jacobin and radical clubs. The new freedom of the press saw the appearance of a host of new newspapers and pamphlets from the left and the right, such as the royalist ''L'Orateur du peuple'' edited by
Stanislas Fréron Stanislav and variants may refer to:
People
* Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.)
Places
* Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine
* Stanislaus County, C ...
, an extreme Jacobin who had moved to the extreme right, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, the ''Tribun du peuple'', edited by
Gracchus Babeuf
The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later in ...
, a former priest who advocated an early version of
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
. On 5 February 1795, the semi-official newspaper ''
Le Moniteur Universel
was a French newspaper founded in Paris on November 24, 1789 under the title by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke, and which ceased publication on December 31, 1868. It was the main French newspaper during the French Revolution and was for a long tim ...
'' (''Le Moniteur'') attacked Marat for encouraging the bloody extremes of the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
. Marat's remains were removed from the Panthéon two days later. The surviving
Girondin
The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...
deputies, whose leaders had been executed during the Reign of Terror, were brought back into the Convention on 8 March 1795.
The Convention tried to bring a peaceful end to the Catholic and royalist
uprising in the Vendée. The Convention signed an amnesty agreement, promising to recognize the freedom of religion and allowing territorial guards to keep their weapons if the ''Vendéens'' would end their revolt. On a proposal from Boissy d'Anglas, on 21 February 1795 the Convention formally proclaimed the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
Foreign policy
Between July 1794 and the October 1795 elections for the new-style Parliament, the government tried to obtain international peace treaties and secure French gains. In January 1795 General
Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru (, 16 February 1761 – 5 April 1804) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars. Under his command, French troops overran Belgium and the Netherlands before fighting on the Rhine front. His royalist positions led to h ...
took advantage of an extremely cold winter and invaded the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
. He captured
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
on 18 January, and on 14 February units of French cavalry captured the Dutch fleet, which was trapped in the ice at
Den Helder
Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base.
From here the Royal TESO fe ...
. The Dutch government asked for peace, conceding
Dutch Flanders,
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
and
Venlo
Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherland ...
to France. On 9 February, after a French offensive in the Alps, the
Grand Duke of Tuscany
The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region.
Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface
:These were origin ...
signed a treaty with France. Soon afterwards, on 5 April, France signed a peace treaty, the
Peace of Basel
The Peace of Basel of 1795 consists of three peace treaties involving France during the French Revolution (represented by François de Barthélemy).
*The first was with Prussia (represented by Karl August von Hardenberg) on 5 April;
*The seco ...
, with
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
, where
King Frederick William II was tired of the war; Prussia recognized the French occupation of the western bank of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
. On 22 July 1795, a peace agreement, the "Treaty of Basel", was signed with Spain, where the French army had marched as far as
Bilbao
)
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize = 275 px
, map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao
, pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption ...
. By the time the Directory was chosen, the coalition against France was reduced to Britain and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, which hoped that
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
might be brought in on its side.
Failed Jacobin coup (May 1795) and rebellion in Brittany (June–July)
![Louis Lazare Hoche1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Louis_Lazare_Hoche1.jpg)
On 20 May 1795 (1 Prairial Year III), the Jacobins attempted to seize power in Paris. Following the model of Danton's seizure of the National Assembly in June 1792, a mob of
sans-culottes
The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . The ...
invaded the meeting hall of the Convention at the Tuileries, killed one deputy, and demanded that a new government be formed. This time the army moved swiftly to clear the hall. Several deputies who had taken the side of the invaders were arrested. The uprising continued the following day, as the sans-culottes seized the ''
Hôtel de Ville'' as they had done in earlier uprisings, but with little effect; crowds did not move to support them. On the third day, 22 May, the army moved into and occupied the working-class neighborhood of the
Faubourg Saint-Antoine
The Faubourg Saint-Antoine was one of the traditional suburbs of Paris, France.
It grew up to the east of the Bastille around the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, and ran along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
Location
The Faubourg Saint-Ant ...
. The sans-culottes were disarmed and their leaders were arrested. In the following days the surviving members of the Committee of Public Safety, the committee that had been led by Robespierre, were arrested, with the exception of
Carnot and two others. Six of the deputies who had participated in the uprising and had been sentenced to death committed suicide before they were taken to the guillotine.
On 23 June 1795, the
Chouan
Chouan ("the silent one", or "owl") is a French nickname. It was used as a nom de guerre by the Chouan brothers, most notably Jean Cottereau, better known as Jean Chouan, who led a major revolt in Bas-Maine against the French Revolution. Part ...
s, royalist and Catholic rebels in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
, formed an army of 14,000 men near
Quiberon
Quiberon (; , ) is a commune in the French department of Morbihan, administrative region of Brittany, western France.
It is situated on the southern part of the Quiberon peninsula, the northern part being the commune of Saint-Pierre-Quiberon. It ...
. With the assistance of the British navy, a force of two thousand royalists was landed at Quiberon. The French army under General
Hoche
Louis Lazare Hoche (; 24 June 1768 – 19 September 1797) was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on ...
reacted swiftly, forcing the royalists to take refuge on the peninsula and then to withdraw. They surrendered on 21 July; 748 of the rebels were executed by firing squad.
Adoption of the new Constitution
The new
Constitution of the Year III
The Constitution of the Year III (french: Constitution de l’an III) was the constitution of the French First Republic that established the Executive Directory. Adopted by the convention on 5 Fructidor Year III (22 August 1795) and approved ...
was presented to the Convention and debated between 4 July – 17 August 1795, and was formally adopted on 22 August 1795. It was a long document, with 377 articles, compared with 124 in the first French Constitution of 1793. Even before it took effect, however, the members of the Convention took measures to assure they would still have dominance in the legislature over the government. They required that in the first elections, two hundred and fifty new deputies would be elected, while five hundred members of the old Convention would remain in place until the next elections. A national referendum of eligible voters was then held. The total number of voters was low; of five million eligible voters, 1,057,390 electors approved the Constitution, and 49,978 opposed it. The proposal that two thirds of members of the old Convention should remain in place was approved by a much smaller margin, 205,498 to 108,754.
October 1795 royalist rebellion
![Attaque de la Convention nationale, 1790](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Attaque_de_la_Convention_nationale%2C_1795.jpg)
The new
Constitution of the Year III
The Constitution of the Year III (french: Constitution de l’an III) was the constitution of the French First Republic that established the Executive Directory. Adopted by the convention on 5 Fructidor Year III (22 August 1795) and approved ...
was officially proclaimed in force on 23 September 1795, but the new Councils had not yet been elected, and the Directors had not yet been chosen. The leaders of the royalists and constitutional monarchists chose this moment to try to seize power. They saw that the vote in favor of the new Constitution was hardly overwhelming. Paris voters were particularly hostile to the idea of keeping two-thirds of the old members of the Convention in the new Councils. A central committee was formed, with members from the wealthier neighborhoods of Paris, and they began planning a march on the center of the city and on the Tuileries, where the Convention still met.
The members of the Convention, very much experienced with conspiracies, were well aware that the planning was underway. A group of five republican deputies, led by
Paul Barras
Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras (, 30 June 1755 – 29 January 1829), commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.
Early ...
, had already formed an unofficial directory, in anticipation of the creation of the real one. They were concerned about the national guard members from western Paris, and were unsure about the military commander of Paris,
General Menou. Barras decided to turn to military commanders in his entourage who were known republicans, particularly
Bonaparte, whom he had known when Bonaparte was successfully fighting the British in Toulon. Bonaparte, at this point a general of second rank in the Army of the Interior, was ordered to defend the government buildings on the right bank.
The armed royalist insurgents planned a march in two columns along both the right bank and left bank of the Seine toward the Tuileries. There on 5 October 1795, the royalists were met by the artillery of ''sous-lieutenant''
Joachim Murat
Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...
at the Sablons and by Bonaparte's soldiers and artillery in front of the church of Saint-Roch. Over the next two hours, the "
whiff of grapeshot" of Bonaparte's cannons and gunfire of his soldiers brutally mowed down advancing columns, killing some four hundred insurgents, and ending the rebellion. Bonaparte was promoted to General of Division on 16 October, and General in Chief of the Army of the Interior on 26 October. It was the last uprising to take place in Paris during the French Revolution.
History
Directory takes charge
Between 12 and 21 October 1795, immediately after the suppression of royalist uprising in Paris, the elections for the new Councils decreed by the new Constitution took place. 379 members of the old Convention, for the most part moderate republicans, were elected to the new legislature. To assure that the Directory did not abandon the Revolution entirely, the Council required that all of the members of the Directory be former members of the Convention and
regicides
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
, those who had voted for the execution of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
.
Due to the rules established by the Convention, a majority of members of the new legislature, 381 of 741 deputies, had served in the Convention and were ardent republicans, but a large part of the new deputies elected were royalists, 118 versus 11 from the left. The members of the upper house, the Council of Ancients, were chosen by lot from among all of the deputies.
On 31 October 1795, the Council of Ancients chose the first Directory from a list of candidates submitted by the Council of Five Hundred. One person elected, the
Abbé Sieyès
''Abbé'' (from Latin ''abbas'', in turn from Greek , ''abbas'', from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is the title for lowe ...
, refused to take the position, saying it didn't suit his interests or personality. A new member,
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
, was elected in his place.
The members elected to the Directory were the following:
*
Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras
Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras (, 30 June 1755 – 29 January 1829), commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.
Early ...
, a member of a minor noble family from
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
, Barras had been a revolutionary envoy to Toulon, where he met the young Bonaparte, and arranged his promotion to captain. Barras had been removed from the
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety (french: link=no, Comité de salut public) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. S ...
by Robespierre. Fearing for his life, Barras had helped organize the downfall of Robespierre. An expert at political intrigue, Barras became the dominant figure in the Directory. His leading opponent in the Directory, Carnot, described him as "without faith and without morals... in politics, without character and without resolution... He has all the tastes of an opulent prince, generous, magnificent and dissipated."
*
Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux
Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux (24 August 1753 – 24 March 1824) was a deputy to the National Convention during the French Revolution. He later served as a prominent leader of the French Directory.
Life
He was born at Montaigu (Vend ...
was a fierce republican and anti-Catholic, who had proposed to execute Louis XVI after the
flight to Varennes
The royal Flight to Varennes (french: Fuite à Varennes) during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant event in the French Revolution in which King Louis XVI of France, Queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family unsuccessfull ...
. He promoted the establishment of a new religion,
theophilanthropy
The Theophilanthropists ("Friends of God and Man") were a Deistic sect, formed in France during the later part of the French Revolution.
Origins
Thomas Paine, together with other disciples of Rousseau and Robespierre, set up a new religion, in ...
, to replace Christianity.
*
Jean-François Rewbell
Jean-François Reubell or Rewbell (6 October 1747 – 24 November 1807) was a French lawyer, diplomat, and politician of the Revolution.
The revolutionary
Born at Colmar (now in the ''département'' of Haut-Rhin), he became president of the local ...
had an expertise in foreign relations, and was a close ally of Paul Barras. He was a firm moderate republican who had voted for the death of the King but had also opposed Robespierre and the extreme Jacobins. He was an opponent of the Catholic church and a proponent of individual liberties.
*
Étienne-François Le Tourneur was a former captain of engineers, and a specialist in military and naval affairs. He was a close ally within the Directory of Carnot.
*
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
: when the Abbé Sieyés was elected by the Ancients, but refused the position, his place was taken by Carnot. Carnot was an army captain at the beginning of the Revolution, and when elected to the Convention became a member of the commission of military affairs, as well as a vocal opponent of Robespierre. He was an energetic and efficient manager, who restructured the French military and helped it achieve its first successes, earning him the title of "The Organizer of the Victory." Napoleon, who later made Carnot his Minister of War, described him as "a hard worker, sincere in everything, but without intrigues, and easy to fool."
The following day, the members of the new government took over their offices in the
Luxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...
, which had previously been occupied by the Committee of Public Safety. Nothing had been prepared, and the rooms had no furniture: they managed to find firewood to heat the room, and a table in order to work. Each member took charge of a particular sector: Rewbell diplomacy; Carnot and Le Tourneur military affairs, La Révellière-Lépeaux religion and public instruction, and Barras internal affairs.
The Council of Ancients was attributed the building at the Tuileries Palace formerly occupied by the Convention, while the Council of Five Hundred deliberated in the ''
Salle du Manège
The indoor riding academy called the ''Salle du Manège'' () was the seat of deliberations during most of the French Revolution, from 1789 to 1798. It was demolished in 1804 to make way for the rue de Rivoli.
History
Before the Revolution
...
'', the former riding school west of the palace in the
Tuileries Garden
The Tuileries Garden (french: Jardin des Tuileries, ) is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in ...
. One of the early decisions of the new parliament was to designate uniforms for both houses: the Five Hundred wore long white robes with a blue belt, a scarlet cloak and a hat of blue velour, while members of the Ancients wore a robe of blue-violet, a scarlet sash, a white mantle, and a violet hat.
Gallery
File:Paul Barras.jpg, Paul Barras
Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras (, 30 June 1755 – 29 January 1829), commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.
Early ...
(here in the ceremonial dress of a Director) was a master of political intrigue
File:La Révellière-Lépeaux Directeur.JPG, Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux
Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux (24 August 1753 – 24 March 1824) was a deputy to the National Convention during the French Revolution. He later served as a prominent leader of the French Directory.
Life
He was born at Montaigu (Vend ...
File:Jean-François Reubell.JPG, Jean-François Rewbell
Jean-François Reubell or Rewbell (6 October 1747 – 24 November 1807) was a French lawyer, diplomat, and politician of the Revolution.
The revolutionary
Born at Colmar (now in the ''département'' of Haut-Rhin), he became president of the local ...
File:Étienne-François Le Tourneur - Directeur.jpg, Étienne-François Le Tourneur
File:Portrait Lazare Carnot.jpg, Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
, a brilliant organizer and mathematician but poor intriguer, was the enemy of Barras
Finance and economy
The new Director overseeing financial affairs, La Réveillière-Lépeaux, gave a succinct description of the financial state of France when the Directory took power: "The national Treasury was completely empty; not a single sou remained. The
assignats
An assignat () was a monetary instrument, an order to pay, used during the time of the French Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
France
Assignats were paper money (fiat currency) issued by the Constituent Assembly in France from 1 ...
were almost worthless; the little value which remained drained away each day with accelerated speed. One could not print enough money in one night to meet the most pressing needs of the next day.... The public revenues were nonexistent; citizens had lost the habit of paying taxes.
..All public credit was dead and all confidence lost.
..The depreciation of the ''assignats'', the frightening speed of the fall, reduced the salary of all public employees and functionaries to a value which was purely nominal."
The drop in value in the money was accompanied by extraordinary inflation. The ''
Louis d'or
The Louis d'or () is any number of French coins first introduced by Louis XIII in 1640. The name derives from the depiction of the portrait of King Louis on one side of the coin; the French royal coat of arms is on the reverse. The coin was re ...
'' (gold coin), which was worth 2,000
₶. in paper money at the beginning of the Directory, increased to 3,000₶. and then 5,000₶. The price of a liter of wine increased from 2₶.10
s. in October 1795 to 10₶. and then 30₶. A measure of flour worth 2₶. in 1790 was worth 225₶. in October 1794.
The new government continued to print ''assignats'', which were based on the value of property confiscated from the Church and the aristocracy, but it could not print them fast enough; even when it printed one hundred million in a day, it covered only one-third of the government's needs. To fill the treasury, the Directory resorted in December 1795 to a forced loan of 600 million-₶. from wealthy citizens, who were required to pay between 50₶. and 6,000₶. each.
![France](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/France._5_francs_coin%2C_1795-1796%2C_First_Republic.jpg)
To fight inflation, the government began minting more coins of gold and silver, which had real value; the government had little gold but large silver reserves, largely in the form of silverware, candlesticks and other objects confiscated from the churches and the nobility. It minted 72 million
écus, and when this silver supply ran low, it obtained much more gold and silver through military campaigns outside of France, particularly from Bonaparte's
army in Italy. Bonaparte demanded gold or silver from each city he conquered, threatening to destroy the cities if they did not pay.
These measures reduced the rate of inflation. On 19 February 1796, the government held a ceremony in the
Place Vendôme
The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is ...
to destroy the printing presses which had been used to produce huge quantities of ''assignats''. This success produced a new problem: the country was still flooded with more than two billion four hundred million (2.400.000.000) ''assignats'', claims on confiscated properties, which now had some value. Those who held ''assignats'' were able to exchange them for state mandates, which they could use to buy châteaux, church buildings and other
biens nationaux
The biens nationaux were properties confiscated during the French Revolution from the Catholic Church, the monarchy, émigrés, and suspected counter-revolutionaries for "the good of the nation".
''Biens'' means "goods", both in the sense of "obj ...
(state property) at extremely reduced prices. Speculation became rampant, and property in Paris and other cities could change hands several times a day.
Another major problem faced by the Directory was the enormous public debt, the same problem that had led to the Revolution in the first place. In September–December 1797, the Directory attacked this problem by declaring bankruptcy on two-thirds of the debt, but assured payment on the other third. This resulted in the ruin of those who held large quantities of government bonds, but stabilized the currency. To keep the treasury full, the Directory also imposed new taxes on property owners, based on the number of fireplaces and chimneys, and later on the number of windows, of their residences. It refrained from adding more taxes on wine and salt, which had helped cause the 1789 revolution, but added new taxes on gold and silver objects, playing cards, tobacco, and other luxury products. Through these means, the Directory brought about a relative stability of finances which continued through the Directory and Consulate.
Food supply
The food supply for the population, and particularly for the Parisians, was a major economic and political problem before and during the Revolution; it had led to food riots in Paris and attacks on the
Convention. To assure the supply of food to the
sans-culottes
The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . The ...
in Paris, the base of support of the
Jacobins
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = Pa ...
, the Convention had strictly regulated grain distribution and set maximum prices for bread and other essential products. As the value of the currency dropped, the fixed prices soon did not cover the cost of production, and supplies dropped. The Convention was forced to abolish the
maximum
In mathematical analysis, the maxima and minima (the respective plurals of maximum and minimum) of a function, known collectively as extrema (the plural of extremum), are the largest and smallest value of the function, either within a given ran ...
on 24 December 1794, but it continued to buy huge quantities of bread and meat which it distributed at low prices to the Parisians. This Paris food distribution cost a large part of the national budget, and was resented by the rest of the country, which did not have that benefit. By early 1796, the grain supply was supplemented by deliveries from
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and even from
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
. Despite the increased imports, the grain supply to Paris was not enough. The Ministry of the Interior reported on 23 March 1796 that there was only enough wheat to make bread for five days, and there were shortages of meat and firewood. The Directory was forced to resume deliveries of subsidized food to the very poor, the elderly, the sick, and government employees. The food shortages and high prices were one factor in the growth of discontent and the
Gracchus Babeuf
The Gracchi brothers were two Roman brothers, sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who was consul in 177 BC. Tiberius, the elder brother, was tribune of the plebs in 133 BC and Gaius, the younger brother, was tribune a decade later in ...
's uprising, the
Conspiracy of the Equals
The Conspiracy of the Equals (french: Conjuration des Égaux) of May 1796 was a failed coup d'Etat during the French Revolution. It was led by François-Noël Babeuf, who wanted to overthrow the Directory and replace it with an egalitarian and p ...
, in 1796. The harvests were good in the following years and the food supplies improved considerably, but the supply was still precarious in the north, the west, the southeast, and the valley of the Seine.
Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals
![Attaque camp de Grenelle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Attaque_camp_de_Grenelle.jpeg)
In 1795, the Directory faced a new threat from the left, from the followers of
François Noël Babeuf
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, Kin ...
, a talented political agitator who took the name ''Gracchus'' and was the organizer of what became known as the
Conspiracy of the Equals
The Conspiracy of the Equals (french: Conjuration des Égaux) of May 1796 was a failed coup d'Etat during the French Revolution. It was led by François-Noël Babeuf, who wanted to overthrow the Directory and replace it with an egalitarian and p ...
. Babeuf had, since 1789, been drawn to the Agrarian Law, an agrarian reform preconized by the ancient Roman brothers,
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, of sharing
goods in common, as means of achieving economic equality. By the time of the
fall of Robespierre
The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and ...
, he had abandoned this as an impractical scheme and was moving towards a more complex plan. Babeuf did not call for the abolition of private property, and wrote that peasants should own their own plots of land, but he advocated that all wealth should be shared equally: all citizens who were able would be required to work, and all would receive the same income. Babeuf did not believe that the mass of French citizens was ready for self-government; accordingly, he proposed a dictatorship under his leadership until the people were educated enough to take charge. "People!", Babeuf wrote. "Breathe, see, recognize your guide, your defender.... Your tribune presents himself with confidence."
At first, Babeuf's following was small; the readers of his newspaper, ''Le Tribun du peuple'' ("The Tribune of the People"), were mostly middle-class far-left Jacobins who had been excluded from the new government. However, his popularity increased in the working-class of the capital with the drop in value of the ''assignats'', which rapidly resulted in the decrease of wages and the rise of food prices. Beginning in October 1795, he allied himself with the most radical Jacobins, and on 29 March 1796 formed the ''Directoire secret des Égaux'' ("Secret Directory of Equals"), which proposed to "revolutionize the people" through pamphlets and placards, and eventually to overthrow the government. He formed an alliance of utopian socialists and radical Jacobins, including
Félix Lepeletier
Felix may refer to:
* Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name
Places
* Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen
* Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
,
Pierre-Antoine Antonelle
Pierre-Antoine Antonelle (17 July 1747 – 26 November 1817) was a French journalist, politician, president of the Jacobin Club and revolutionary. He was the first democratically elected mayor of Arles. Although he came from an aristocratic family, ...
,
Sylvain Marechal Sylvain is the French form of Silvanus. It may refer to:
People
*Sylvain Archambault, Canadian director
*Sylvain Bied (1965–2011), French footballer and manager
*Sylvain Cappell (born 1946), American mathematician
*Sylvain Chavanel (born 1979) ...
,
Jean-Pierre-André Amar
Jean-Pierre-André Amar or Jean-Baptiste-André Amar (May 11, 1755 – December 21, 1816) was a French political figure of the Revolution and Freemason.
Life
Early activities
Born in a rich family of cloth merchants in Grenoble, Amar was the so ...
and
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet (2 May 1746 in Bernay, Eure – 17 February 1825) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period. His brother, Robert Thomas Lindet, became a constitutional bishop and member of the National Convention. Although ...
. The
Conspiracy of Equals
The Conspiracy of the Equals (french: Conjuration des Égaux) of May 1796 was a failed coup d'Etat during the French Revolution. It was led by François-Noël Babeuf, who wanted to overthrow the French Directory, Directory and replace it with an ...
was organized in a novel way: in the center was Babeuf and the Secret Directory, who hid their identities, and shared information with other members of the Conspiracy only via trusted intermediaries. This conspiratorial structure was later adopted by Marxist movements. Despite his precautions, the Directory infiltrated an agent into the conspiracy, and was fully informed of what he was doing. Bonaparte, the newly named commander of the
Army of the Interior
The Army of the Interior (''Armée de l'Intérieur'') was a name given to two field armies of the French Revolutionary Army.
1792
The first formation of this name was initially formed on 4 September 1792 under Anne François Augustin de La Bourd ...
, was ordered to close the
Panthéon Club
The Panthéon club was a French revolutionary political club founded in Paris the 6 November 1795. Its official name was Reunion of Friends of the Republic (''Réunion des Amis de la République''). It was composed of former Reign of Terror, terror ...
, the major meeting place for the Jacobins in Paris, which he did on 27 February 1796. The Directory took other measures to prevent an uprising; the Legion of Police (''légion de police''), a local police force dominated by Jacobins, was forced to become a part of the Army, and the Army organized a mobile column to patrol the neighborhoods and stop uprisings.
Before Babeuf and his conspiracy could strike, he was betrayed by a police spy and arrested in his hiding place on 10 May 1796. Though he was a talented agitator, he was a very poor conspirator; with him in his hiding place were the complete records of the conspiracy, with all of the names of the conspirators. Despite this setback, the conspiracy went ahead with its plans. On the night of 9–10 September 1796, between 400 and 700 Jacobins went to the 21st Regiment of Dragoons (''21e régiment de dragons'') army camp at
Grenelle
Grenelle () is a neighbourhood in southwestern Paris, France. It is a part of the 15th arrondissement of the city.
There is currently a Boulevard de Grenelle which runs along the North delimitation of the ''quartier'', and a Rue de Grenelle, ...
and tried to incite an armed rebellion against the Convention. At the same time a column of militants was formed in the working-class neighborhoods of Paris to march on the Luxembourg Palace, headquarters of the Directory. Director Carnot had been informed the night before by the commander of the camp, and a unit of dragoons was ready. When the attack began at about ten o'clock, the dragoons appeared suddenly and charged. About twenty Jacobins were killed, and the others arrested. The column of militants, learning what had happened, disbanded in confusion. The widespread arrest of Babeuf's militants and Jacobins followed. The practice of arresting suspects at their homes at night, stopped after the downfall of Robespierre, was resumed on this occasion.
Despite his arrest, Babeuf, in jail, still felt he could negotiate with the government. He wrote to the Directory: "Citizen Directors, why don't you look above yourselves and treat with me as with an equal power? You have seen now the vast confidence of which I am the center... this view makes you tremble." Several attempts were made by Babeuf's followers to free him from prison. He was finally moved to
Vendôme
Vendôme (, ) is a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Departments of France, department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest Communes of France, commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019).
It is one of the ...
for trial. The Directory did not tremble. The accused Jacobins were tried by military courts between 19 September and 27 October. Thirty Jacobins, including three former deputies of the Convention, were convicted and guillotined. Babeuf and his principal followers were tried in Vendôme between 20 February and 26 May 1797. The two principal leaders, Babeuf and
Darthé, were convicted. They both attempted suicide, but failed and were guillotined on 27 May 1797. However, in the following months, the Directory and Councils gradually turned away from the royalist right and tried to find new allies on the left.
War and Diplomacy (1796–1797)
The major preoccupation of the Directory during its existence was the war against the coalition of
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
. The military objective set by the Convention in October 1795 was to enlarge France to what were declared its natural limits: the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
, the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
and the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
, the borders of
Gaul
Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
at the time of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. In 1795,
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
quit
the War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succ ...
and made peace with France, but Great Britain refused to accept the French annexation of
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. Beside Britain and Austria, the only enemies remaining for France were the kingdom of
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
and several small Italian states. Austria proposed a European congress to settle borders, but the Directory refused, demanding direct negotiations with Austria instead. Under British pressure, Austria agreed to continue the war against France.
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
, the Director who oversaw military affairs, planned a new campaign against Austria, using three armies: General
Jourdan's Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
The Army of Sambre and Meuse (french: Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse) was one of the armies of the French Revolution. It was formed on 29 June 1794 by combining the Army of the Ardennes, the left wing of the Army of the Moselle and the right wing ...
on the Rhine and General
Moreau's
Army of the Rhine and Moselle
The Army of the Rhine and Moselle (french: Armée de Rhin-et-Moselle) was one of the field units of the French Revolutionary Army. It was formed on 20 April 1795 by the merger of elements of the Army of the Rhine and the Army of the Moselle.
The ...
on the Danube would march to
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and dictate a peace. A third army, the
Army of Italy under General Bonaparte, who had risen in rank with spectacular speed due to his defense of the government from a royalist uprising, would carry out a diversionary operation against Austria in northern Italy. Jourdan's army captured
Mayence
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
and
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, but on 14 August 1796 was defeated by the Austrians at the
Battle of Amberg
The Battle of Amberg, fought on 24 August 1796, resulted in an Habsburg victory by Archduke Charles over a French army led by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. This engagement marked a turning point in the Rhine campaign, which had previously seen Fre ...
and again on 3 September 1796 at the
Battle of Würzburg
The Battle of Würzburg was fought on 3 September 1796 between an army of the Habsburg monarchy led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and an army of the First French Republic led by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. The French attacked the archduke's ...
, and had to retreat back to the Rhine. General Moreau, without the support of Jourdan, was also forced to retreat.
Italian campaign
![Irish-Invasion-Gillray](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Irish-Invasion-Gillray.jpeg)
The story was very different in Italy. Bonaparte, though he was only twenty-eight years old, was named commander of the Army of Italy on 2 March 1796, through the influence of Barras, his patron in the Directory. Bonaparte faced the combined armies of Austria and Sardinia, which numbered seventy thousand men. Bonaparte slipped his army between them and defeated them in a series of battles, culminating at the
Battle of Mondovi
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
where he defeated the Sardinians on 22 April 1796, and the
Battle of Lodi
The Battle of Lodi was fought on 10 May 1796 between French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian rear guard led by Karl Philipp Sebottendorf at Lodi, Lombardy. The rear guard was defeated, but the main body of Johann Peter Beaulie ...
, where he defeated the Austrians on 10 May. The
king of Sardinia and Savoy was forced to make peace in May 1796 and ceded
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
and
Savoy
Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps.
Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south.
Savo ...
to France.
At the end of 1796, Austria sent two new armies to Italy to expel Bonaparte, but Bonaparte outmaneuvered them both, winning a first victory at the
Battle of Arcole
The Battle of Arcole or Battle of Arcola (15–17 November 1796) was fought between French and Austrian forces southeast of Verona during the War of the First Coalition, a part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle saw a bold maneuver b ...
on 17 November 1796, then at the
Battle of Rivoli
The Battle of Rivoli (14–15 January 1797) was a key victory in the French campaign in Italy against Austria. Napoleon Bonaparte's 23,000 Frenchmen defeated an attack of 28,000 Austrians under General of the Artillery Jozsef Alvinczi, en ...
on 14 January 1797. He forced Austria to sign the
Treaty of Campo Formio
The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The treat ...
(October 1797), whereby
the emperor ceded
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
and the
Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The p ...
to the French Republic in exchange for
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
and urged
the Diet to surrender the lands beyond the Rhine.
[Black, p. 173.]
Spanish alliance
The Directory was eager to form a coalition with Spain to block British commerce with the continent and to close the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
to British ships. By the
Treaty of San Ildefonso, concluded in August 1796, Spain became the ally of France, and on 5 October, it declared war on Britain. The British fleet under Admiral
Jervis defeated the Spanish fleet at the
Cape St Vincent
Cape St. Vincent ( pt, Cabo de São Vicente, ) is a headland in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the Algarve, southern Portugal. It is the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe.
History
Cape St. Vincent was already sacr ...
, keeping the Mediterranean open to British ships, but the United Kingdom was brought into such extreme peril by the mutinies in its fleet that it offered to acknowledge the French conquest of the Netherlands and to restore the French colonies.
Irish Misadventure
The Directory also sought a new way to strike British interests and to repay the 1707–1800
Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...
for the support it gave to royalist insurgents in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. A French fleet of 44 vessels departed
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
*Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
*Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
**Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Brest, ...
on 15 December 1796, carrying an expeditionary force of 14,000 soldiers, led by General Hoche to
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, where they hoped to join forces with Irish rebels to expel the British from the 1542–1800
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...
. However, the fleet was separated by storms off the Irish coast and, being unable to land on Ireland, had to return to home port with 31 vessels and 12,000 surviving soldiers.
Rise of the royalists and coup d'état (1797)
The first elections held after the formation of the Directory were held in March and April 1797, in order to replace one-third of the members of the Councils. The elections were a crushing defeat for the old members of the Convention; 205 of the 216 were defeated. Only eleven former deputies from the Convention were reelected, several of whom were royalists. The elections were a triumph for the royalists, particularly in the south and in the west; after the elections there were about 160 royalist deputies, divided between those who favored a return to an absolute monarchy, and those who wished a constitutional monarchy on the British model. The constitutional monarchists elected to the Council included
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours ( or ; ; 14 December 1739 – 7 August 1817) was a French-American writer, economist, publisher and government official. During the French Revolution, he, his two sons and their families immigrated to the Uni ...
, who later emigrated to the United States with his family, and whose son,
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (; ; 24 June 1771 – 31 October 1834) was a French-American chemist and industrialist who founded the gunpowder manufacturer E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the du Pont family, have ...
, founded the "E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company", now known as
DuPont
DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
. In Paris and other large cities, the candidates of the left dominated. General
Jean-Charles Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru (, 16 February 1761 – 5 April 1804) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars. Under his command, French troops overran Belgium and the Netherlands before fighting on the Rhine front. His royalist positions led to h ...
, a former Jacobin and ordinary soldier who had become one of the most successful generals of the Revolution, was elected president of the new Council of Five Hundred.
François Barbé-Marbois
François Barbé-Marbois, marquis de Barbé-Marbois (31 January 1745 – 12 February 1837) was a French politician.
Early career
Born in Metz, where his father was director of the local mint, Barbé-Marbois tutored the children of the Marquis d ...
, a diplomat and future negotiator of the sale of
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
to the United States, was elected president of the Council of Ancients.
![Pichegru](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Pichegru.jpg)
Royalism was not strictly legal, and deputies could not announce themselves as such, but royalist newspapers and pamphlets soon appeared, there were pro-monarchy demonstrations in theaters, and royalists wore identifying clothing items, such as black velvet collars, in show of mourning for the execution of Louis XVI. The parliamentary royalists demanded changes in the government fiscal policies, and a more tolerant position toward religion. During the Convention, churches had been closed and priests required to take an
oath to the government. Priests who had refused to take the oath were expelled from the country, on pain of the death penalty if they returned. Under the Directory, many priests had quietly returned, and many churches around the country had re-opened and were discreetly holding services. When the Directory proposed moving the ashes of the celebrated mathematician and philosopher
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...
to the ''
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
'', one deputy,
Louis-Sébastien Mercier
Louis-Sébastien Mercier (6 June 1740 – 25 April 1814) was a French dramatist and writer, whose 1771 novel ''L'An 2440'' is an example of proto-science fiction.
Early life and education
He was born in Paris to a humble family: his father was a ...
, a former
Girondin
The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...
and opponent of the Jacobins, protested that the ideas of Descartes had inspired the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
of the Revolution and destroyed religion in France. Descartes' ashes were not moved. ''Émigrés'' who had left during the Revolution had been threatened by the Convention with the death penalty if they returned; now, under the Directory, they quietly began to return.
![Augereau Coup d etat 18 Fructidor in Tuileries](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Augereau_Coup_d_etat_18_Fructidor_in_Tuileries.jpg)
Parallel with the parliamentary royalists, but not directly connected with them, a clandestine network of royalists existed, whose objective was to place
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...
, then in exile in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, on the French throne. They were funded largely by Britain, through the offices of
William Wickham, the British spymaster who had his headquarters in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. These networks were too divided and too closely watched by the police to have much effect on politics. However, Wickham did make one contact that proved to have a decisive effect on French politics: through an intermediary, he had held negotiations with General Pichegru, then commander of the Army of the Rhine.
The Directory itself was divided.
Carnot,
Letourneur and
La Révellière Lépeaux were not royalists, but favored a more moderate government, more tolerant of religion. Though Carnot himself had been a member of the
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety (french: link=no, Comité de salut public) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. S ...
led by Robespierre, he declared that the Jacobins were ungovernable, that the Revolution could not go on forever, and that it was time to end it. A new member,
François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy
François-Marie, Marquess of Barthélemy (20 October 1747, Aubagne3 April 1830 Paris) was a French politician and diplomat, active at the time of the French Revolution.
Biography
Diplomat and member of the Directory
Born in Aubagne, he was edu ...
, a diplomat, had joined the Directory; he was allied with Carnot. The royalists in the Councils immediately began to demand more power over the government and particularly over the finances, threatening the position of Barras.
Barras, the consummate intriguer, won La Révellière Lépeaux over to his side, and began planning the downfall of the royalists. From letters taken from a captured royalist agent, he was aware of the contacts that General Pichegru made with the British and that he had been in contact with the exiled Louis XVIII. He presented this information to Carnot, and Carnot agreed to support his action against the Councils. General
Hoche
Louis Lazare Hoche (; 24 June 1768 – 19 September 1797) was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on ...
, the new Minister of War, was directed to march the
Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
The Army of Sambre and Meuse (french: Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse) was one of the armies of the French Revolution. It was formed on 29 June 1794 by combining the Army of the Ardennes, the left wing of the Army of the Moselle and the right wing ...
through Paris on its way to Brest, on the pretext that they would be embarked for a new expedition to Ireland. Hoche himself resigned as Minister of War on 22 July. General
Pierre Augereau
Charles Pierre François Augereau, 1st Duke of Castiglione (21 October 1757 – 12 June 1816) was a French military commander and a Marshal of the Empire who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. After serving in ...
, a close subordinate and ally of Bonaparte, and his troops arrived in Paris on 7 August, though it was a violation of the Constitution for soldiers to be within twelve leagues of the city without permission of the Councils. The royalist members of the Councils protested, but could do nothing to send them away.
On 4 September 1797, with the army in place, the
''Coup d'état'' of 18 Fructidor, Year V was set in motion. General Augereau's soldiers arrested Pichegru, Barthélemy, and the leading royalist deputies of the Councils. The next day, the Directory annulled the elections of about two hundred deputies in 53 departments. Sixty-five deputies were deported to
Guiana
The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories:
* French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France
* ...
, 42 royalist newspapers were closed, and 65 journalists and editors were deported. Carnot and Barthélemy were removed from the Directory. Carnot went into exile in Switzerland; he later returned and became, for a time, Bonaparte's minister of war.
Barthélemy and Pichegru both were sent to exile in
French Guiana
French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...
(penal colony of Cayenne). In June 1798, they both escaped, and went first to the United States and then to England. During the
Consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...
, Pichegru returned secretly to Paris, where he was captured on 28 February 1804. He died in prison on 6 April 1804, either strangled or having committed suicide.
Second Directory and resurgence of the Jacobins
The coup was followed by a scattering of uprisings by royalists in
Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...
,
Tarascon
Tarascon (; ), sometimes referred to as Tarascon-sur-Rhône, is a commune situated at the extreme west of the Bouches-du-Rhône department of France in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Inhabitants are referred to as Tarasconnais or Tarasc ...
and other towns, particularly in the southwest and west. A commissioner of the Directory was assassinated in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
, and on 22 October counter-revolutionaries seized the city government of
Carpentras
Carpentras (, formerly ; Provençal Occitan: ''Carpentràs'' in classical norm or ''Carpentras'' in Mistralian norm; la, Carpentoracte) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
...
for twenty-four hours. These brief uprisings served only to justify a wave of repression from the new government.
With Carnot and Barthélemy gone from the Directory, and the royalists expelled from the Councils, the Jacobins were once again in control of the government. The two vacant places in the Directory were filled by
Merlin de Douai
Philippe-Antoine Merlin, known as Merlin de Douai (, 30 October 1754 – 26 December 1838) was a French politician and lawyer.
Personal and public life
Early years
Merlin de Douai was born at Arleux, Nord, and was called to the Flemish bar asso ...
, a lawyer who had helped write the
Law of Suspects
:''Note: This decree should not be confused with the Law of General Security (french: Loi de sûreté générale), also known as the "Law of Suspects," adopted by Napoleon III in 1858 that allowed punishment for any prison action, and permitted the ...
during the Reign of Terror; and
François de Neufchâteau
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King ...
, a poet and expert in industry inland navigation, who served only a few months. Eight of the twelve Directors and ministers of the new government were regicides, who as deputies of the Convention had voted for the execution of Louis XVI, and were now determined to continue the Revolution.
The central administration and city governments were quickly purged of suspected royalists. The next target was the wave of noble ''émigrés'' and priests who had begun to return to France. The Jacobins in the Councils demanded that the law of 1793 be enforced; ''émigrés'' were ordered to leave France within fifteen days. If they did not, they were to be judged by a military commission, and, on simple proof of their identity, were to be executed within twenty-four hours. Military commissions were established throughout the country to judge not only returning ''émigrés'', but also rebels and conspirators. Between 4 September 1797 and the end of the Directory in 1799, 160 persons were condemned to death by the military tribunals, including 41 priests and several women.
On 16 October 1797, the Council of Five Hundred considered a new law which banned political activities by nobles, who were to be considered as foreigners, and had to apply for naturalization in order to take part in politics. A certain number, listed by names, were to be banned permanently from political activity, were to have their property confiscated, and were to be required to leave immediately. The law called for certain exemptions for those in the government and military (Director Barras and General Bonaparte were both from minor noble families). In the end, resistance to the law was so great that it was not adopted.
The Jacobin-dominated councils also demanded the deportation of priests who refused to take an oath to the government, and an oath declaring their hatred of royalty and anarchy. 267 priests were deported to the French penal colony of Cayenne in French Guiana, of whom 111 survived and returned to France. 920 were sent to a prison colony on the
Île de Ré
Île de Ré (; variously spelled Rhé or Rhéa; Poitevin: ''ile de Rét''; en, Isle of Ré, ) is an island off the Atlantic coast of France near La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait.
Its highe ...
, and 120, a large part of them Belgians, to another colony on the
Île d'Oléron. The new government continued the anti-religious policy of the Convention. Several churches, including the cathedral
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
and the church of
Saint-Sulpice, were converted
Theophilanthropic
The Theophilanthropists ("Friends of God and Man") were a Deistic sect, formed in France during the later part of the French Revolution.
Origins
Thomas Paine, together with other disciples of Rousseau and Robespierre, set up a new religion, in ...
temples, a new religion based on the belief in the existence of God and the immortality of the human spirit. Religious observations were forbidden on Sunday; they were allowed only on the last day of the 10-day week (''décade'') of the
French Republican Calendar. Other churches remained closed, and were forbidden to ring their bells, although many religious services took place in secret in private homes. The National Guard was mobilized to search rural areas and forests for priests and nobles in hiding. As during the Reign of Terror, lists were prepared of suspects, who would be arrested in the event of attempted uprisings.
The new Jacobin-dominated Directory and government also targeted the press. Newspaper publishers were required to submit copies of their publications to the police for official approval. On 17 December 1797, seventeen Paris newspapers were closed by order of the Directory. The Directory also imposed a substantial tax on all newspapers or magazines distributed by mail, although Jacobin publications, as well as scientific and art publications, were excluded. Books critical of the Jacobins were censored;
Louis-Marie Prudhomme
Louis-Marie Prudhomme, (1752, Lyon, France - April 20, 1830, Paris, France) was a French journalism, journalist and historian.
A bookseller in Lyon, then in Paris, Prudhomme settled in Meaux as a bookbinder. He returned to Paris, and was arrested ...
's six-volume ''Histoire générale et impartiale des erreurs, des fautes et des crimes commis pendant la Révolution française'' ("General and impartial history of the errors, faults and crimes committed during the French Revolution") was seized by the police. The Directory also authorized the opening and reading of letters coming from outside of France.
Despite all these security measures, there was a great increase in brigandage and robbery in the French countryside; travelers were frequently stopped on roads and robbed; the robberies were often blamed on royalist bands. On 18 January 1798, the Councils passed a new law against highwaymen and bandits, calling for them to be tried by military tribunals, and authorizing the death penalty for robbery or attempted robbery on the roads of France.
The political repression and terror under the Directory were real, but they were on a much smaller scale than the Reign of Terror under Robespierre and the Convention, and the numbers of those repressed declined during the course of the Directory. After 1798, no further political prisoners were sent to French Guiana, and, in the final year of the Directory, only one person was executed for a political offense.
Elections of 1798
In the spring of 1798, not only a new third of the legislature had to be chosen, but the places of the members expelled by the revolution of had to be filled. 437 seats were open, out of 750. The elections took place between 9 and 18 April. The royalists had been disqualified, and the moderates were in disarray, while the radical Jacobins made a strong showing. Before the new deputies could take their seats, Barras and the other Directors, more moderate than the new Jacobins, organized a commission to review the elections, and disqualified many of the more extreme Jacobin candidates (''
Law of 22 Floréal Year VI
The Law of 22 Floréal Year VI () was a law—arguably constituting a bloodless coup—passed on 11 May 1798 (22 Floréal Year VI by the French Republican Calendar) by which 106 left-wing deputies were deprived of their seats in the Council of F ...
''), replacing them with moderates. They sent the list of candidates for Director to the Councils, excluding any radicals. François de Neufchåteau was chosen by a drawing of lots to leave the Directory and Barras proposed only moderate Jacobins to replace him: the choice fell on
Jean-Baptiste Treilhard
Jean-Baptiste Treilhard (; 3 January 1742 – 1 December 1810) was an important French statesman of the revolutionary period. He passed through the troubled times of the Republic and Empire with great political savvy, playing a decisive role at ...
, a lawyer. These political maneuvers secured the power of the Directory, but widened further the gap between the moderate Directory and the radical Jacobin majority in the Councils.
War and diplomacy (1798)
On 17 October 1797, General Bonaparte and the Austrians signed the
Treaty of Campoformio
The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The treaty ...
. It was a triumph for France. France received the left bank of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
as far south of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, and the islands in the
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...
that had belonged to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
. Austria in compensation was given the territories of Venice up to the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...
. In late November and December, he took part in negotiations with the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
and Austria, at the
Second Congress of Rastatt
The Second Congress of Rastatt, which began its deliberations in November 1797, was intended to negotiate a general peace between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, and to draw up a compensation plan to compensate those princes whose ...
, to redraw the borders of Germany. He was then summoned back to Paris to take charge of an even more ambitious project, the invasion of Britain, which had been proposed by Director Carnot and General Hoche. But an eight-day inspection of the ports where the invasion fleet was being prepared convinced Bonaparte that the invasion had little chance of success: the ships were in poor condition, the crews poorly trained, and funds and logistics were lacking. He privately told his associate
Marmont
Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont (20 July 1774 – 22 March 1852) was a French general and nobleman who rose to the rank of Marshal of the Empire and was awarded the title (french: duc de Raguse). In the Peninsular War Marmont succeede ...
his view of the Directory: "Nothing can be done with these people. They don't understand anything of greatness. We need to go back to our projects for the East. It is only there that great results can be achieved." The invasion of England was cancelled, and a less ambitious plan to support an Irish uprising was proposed instead (see below).
Sister Republics
The grand plan of the Directory in 1798, with the assistance of its armies, was the creation of "Sister Republics" in Europe which would share the same revolutionary values and same goals, and would be natural allies of France. In the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
(Republic of the Seven United Netherlands), the French army installed the
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic ( nl, Bataafse Republiek; french: République Batave) was the successor state to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 and ended on 5 June 1806, with the accession of Louis Bona ...
with the same system of a Directory and two elected Councils. In
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, the
Cisalpine Republic
The Cisalpine Republic ( it, Repubblica Cisalpina) was a sister republic of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802.
Creation
After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte organized t ...
was created, which was governed jointly by a Directory and Councils and by the French army. General
Berthier, who had replaced Bonaparte as the commander of the
Army of Italy, imitated the actions of the Directory in Paris, purging the new republic's legislature of members whom he considered too radical. The
Ligurian Republic
The Ligurian Republic ( it, Repubblica Ligure, lij, Repubbrica Ligure) was a French client republic formed by Napoleon on 14 June 1797. It consisted of the old Republic of Genoa, which covered most of the Ligurian region of Northwest Italy, and ...
was formed in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
.
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
was also turned by the French army into a sister republic, the
Piedmontese Republic
The Piedmontese Republic ( it, Repubblica Piemontese) was a revolutionary, provisional and internationally unrecognized government established in Turin between 1798 and 1799 on the territory of Piedmont during its military rule by the French Firs ...
. In
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, King
Charles-Emmanuel IV, (whose wife,
Clotilde
Clotilde ( 474–545), also known as Clothilde, Clotilda, Clotild, Rotilde etc. (Latin: Chrodechildis, Chlodechildis from Frankish ''*Hrōþihildi'' or perhaps ''*Hlōdihildi'', both "famous in battle"), was a Queen of All the Franks. She was ...
, was
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
's youngest sister), fled French dominance and sailed, protected by the British fleet, to
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
. In
Savoy
Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps.
Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south.
Savo ...
, General
Joubert did not bother to form a sister republic, he simply made the province a department of France.
The Directory also directly attacked the authority of
Pope Pius VI
Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.
Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...
, who governed
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
and the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
surrounding it. Shortly after Christmas on 28 December 1797, anti-French riots took place in Rome, and a French Army brigadier general,
Duphot, was assassinated. Pope Pius VI moved quickly and formally apologized to the Directory on 29 December 1797, but the Directory refused his apology. Instead, Berthier's troops entered Rome and occupied the city on 10 February 1798. Thus the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...
was also proclaimed on 10 February 1798. Pius VI was arrested and confined in the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany ( it, Granducato di Toscana; la, Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In th ...
before being taken to France in 1799. The Vatican treasury of thirty million francs was sent to Paris, where it helped finance Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt, and five hundred cases of paintings, statues, and other art objects were sent to France and added to the collections of the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
.
A French army under General
Guillaume Brune
Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune, 1st Count Brune (, 13 March 1764 – 2 August 1815) was a French military commander, Marshal of the Empire, and political figure who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.
Early life
Bru ...
occupied much of Switzerland. The
Helvetian Republic
The Helvetic Republic (, , ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, ma ...
was proclaimed on 12 April 1798. On 26 August 1798,
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
was detached from the new republic and made part of France. The treasury of
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
was seized, and, like the treasury of the Vatican, was used to finance Bonaparte's
expedition to Egypt
The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman territories of Ottoman Egypt, Egypt and Ottoman Syria, Syria, proclaimed to defend French First Republic, French tr ...
.
The new military campaigns required thousands of additional soldiers. The Directory approved the first permanent law of
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
, which was unpopular in the countryside, and particularly in Belgium, which had formally become part of France. Riots and peasant uprisings took place in the Belgian countryside. Blaming the unrest on Belgian priests, French authorities ordered the arrest and deportation of several thousands of them.
Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt (May 1798)
The idea of a French military expedition to Egypt had been proposed by
Talleyrand in a memoir to the
French Institute
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...
as early as 3 July 1797, and in a letter the following month from Talleyrand to Bonaparte. The Egyptian expedition had three objectives: to cut the shortest route from England to
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
by occupying the
; to found a colony which could produce cotton and sugar cane, which were in short supply in France due to the British blockade; and to provide a base for a future French attack on British India. It also had several personal advantages for Bonaparte: it allowed him to keep a distance from the unpopular Directory, while at the same time staying in the public eye.
![The Battle of the Nile](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/The_Battle_of_the_Nile.jpg)
The Directory itself was not enthusiastic about the idea, which would take its most successful general and his army far from Europe just at the time that a major new war was brewing. Director La Révellière-Lépeaux wrote: "The idea never came from the Directory or any of its members. The ambition and pride of Bonaparte could no longer support the idea of not being visible, and of being under the orders of the Directory."
The idea presented two other problems: Republican French policy was opposed to colonization, and France was not at war with the Ottoman Empire, to which Egypt belonged. Therefore, the expedition was given an additional scientific purpose: "to enlighten the world and to obtain new treasures for science." A large team of prominent scientists was added to the expedition; twenty-one mathematicians, three astronomers, four architects, thirteen naturalists and an equal number of geographers, plus painters, a pianist and the poet
François-Auguste Parseval-Grandmaison
François-Auguste Parseval-Grandmaison (; 7 May 1759, Paris – 7 December 1834) was a French poet.
He initially intended to painting, he studied with the painter Jacques-Louis David. Ruined by the French Revolution, he managed to make a living a ...
.
On 19 May 1798, two hundred ships carrying Bonaparte, and 35,000 men comprising the
''Armée d'Orient'', most of them veterans of Bonaparte's Army of Italy, sailed from
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
. The British fleet under
Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
, expecting a French expedition toward
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, was not in position to stop them. The French fleet stopped briefly at
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, capturing the island, the government of which offered little resistance. Bonaparte's army landed in the bay of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
on 1 July, and captured that city on 2 July, with little opposition. He wrote a letter to the Pascha of Egypt, claiming that his purpose was to liberate Egypt from the tyranny of the
Mamluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
s. His army marched across the desert, despite extreme heat, and defeated the Mameluks at the
Battle of the Pyramids
The Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a major engagement fought on 21 July 1798, during the French Invasion of Egypt. The battle took place near the village of Embabeh, across the Nile River from Cairo, but was ...
on 21 July 1798. A few days later, however, on 1 August, the British fleet under Admiral Nelson arrived off the coast; the French fleet was taken by surprise and destroyed in the
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; french: Bataille d'Aboukir) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the ...
. Only four French ships escaped. Bonaparte and his army were prisoners in Egypt.
Failed uprising in Ireland (August 1798)
Another attempt to support an Irish uprising was made on 7 August 1798. A French fleet sailed from
Rochefort-sur-Mer
Rochefort ( oc, Ròchafòrt), unofficially Rochefort-sur-Mer (; oc, Ròchafòrt de Mar, link=no) for disambiguation, is a city and commune in Southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a subprefecture of the Charente-Maritime dep ...
(Rochefort) carrying an expeditionary force led by General
Jean Joseph Amable Humbert
General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (22 August 1767 – 3 January 1823) was a French military officer who participated in several notable military conflicts of the late 18th and early 19th century. Born in the townland of La Coâre Saint-Nabord, ...
. The attack was intended to support an
uprising
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
of
Irish nationalists
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...
led by
Wolfe Tone
Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican socie ...
. Tone had several meetings with Bonaparte in France to coordinate the timing, but the uprising within the
Kingdom of Ireland
The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed from ...
began early and was suppressed on 14 July 1798 before the French fleet arrived. The French force landed at
Killala
Killala () is a village in County Mayo in Ireland, north of Ballina. The railway line from Dublin to Ballina once extended to Killala. To the west of Killala is a Townsplots West (known locally as Enagh Beg), which contains a number of ancient ...
, in northwest Ireland, on 22 August. It defeated British troops in two small engagements on 24 and 27 August, and Humbert declared the formation of an Irish Republic at
Castlebar
Castlebar () is the county town of County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Developing around a 13th century castle of the de Barry family, de Barry family, from which the town got its name, the town now acts as a social and economic focal poi ...
on 27 August, but the French forces were defeated at the
Battle of Ballinamuck on 8 September 1798 by the troops of
Lord Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...
,
British Commander-in-chief in Ireland. A second part of the French expeditionary force, not knowing that the first had surrendered, left Brest on 16 September. It was intercepted by the British Navy in the bay of
Donegal Donegal may refer to:
County Donegal, Ireland
* County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster
* Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland
* Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...
, and six of the French warships were captured.
Quasi-War with the United States (1798–1799)
Tensions between the United States and France developed into the
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War (french: Quasi-guerre) was an undeclared naval war fought from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States. The ability of Congres ...
, an undeclared naval war. France complained the United States was ignoring the
1778 Treaty of Alliance that had brought the French into the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
. The United States insisted on taking a neutral stance in the war between France and Britain. After the
Jay Treaty
The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...
with Britain went into effect in 1795, France began to side against the United States and by 1797 had seized over 300 American merchant ships.
Federalists
The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''.
History Europe federation
In Europe, proponents of de ...
favored Britain while
Jeffersonian Republicans
The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
favored France. Federalist President
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
built up the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, finishing three frigates, approving funds to build three more and sending diplomats to Paris to negotiate. They were insulted by Foreign Minister Talleyrand (who demanded bribes before talking). The
XYZ Affair
The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the presidency of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to the Quasi-War. The name derives from the subst ...
told Americans about the negotiations and angered American public opinion. The war was fought almost entirely at sea, mostly between privateers and merchant ships. In 1800, the
Convention of 1800
The Convention of 1800, also known as the Treaty of Mortefontaine, was signed on September 30, 1800, by the United States of America and France. The difference in name was due to Congressional sensitivity at entering into treaties, due to dispute ...
(Treaty of Mortefontaine) ended the conflict.
War and political crisis (1799)
Second Coalition against France
![Suvorovs Battle By Adda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Suvorovs_Battle_By_Adda.jpg)
Britain and Austria had been alarmed by the French creation of Sister Republics. Austria first demanded that France hand over a share of the territory of the new Republics to it. When the Directory refused, Austria began searching for partners for a new military alliance against France. The new Czar of Russia,
Paul I of Russia
Paul I (russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич ; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III of Russia, Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he w ...
, was extremely hostile to French republican ideas, sympathetic to the exiled Louis XVIII, and willing to join a new coalition against France. The Czar offered an army of 20,000 men, sent by sea to Holland on his Baltic fleet. He sent another army of 60,000 men, veterans of fighting in Poland and Turkey, under his best general,
Alexander Suvorov
Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Суво́ров, Aleksándr Vasíl'yevich Suvórov; or 1730) was a Russian general in service of the Russian Empire. He was Count of Rymnik, Count of the Holy ...
, to join the Austrian forces in northern Italy.
The King of Prussia,
Frederick-William III, had carefully preserved neutrality in order to profit from both sides. The Directory made the error of sending one of the most prominent revolutionaries of 1789, the Abbé Sieyés, who had voted for the death of Louis XVI, as ambassador to Berlin, where his ideas appalled the arch-conservative and ultra-monarchist king. Frederick William maintained his neutrality, refusing to support either side, a setback for France.
By the end of 1798, the coalition could count on 300,000 soldiers, and would be able to increase the number to 600,000. The best French army, headed by Bonaparte, was stranded in Egypt. General Brune had 12,000 men in Holland;
Bernadotte, 10,000 men on the Rhine; Jourdan, 40,000 men in the army of the Danube; Massena, 30,000 soldiers in Switzerland; Scherer, 40,000 men on the
Adige
The Adige (; german: Etsch ; vec, Àdexe ; rm, Adisch ; lld, Adesc; la, Athesis; grc, Ἄθεσις, Áthesis, or , ''Átagis'') is the second-longest river in Italy, after the Po. It rises near the Reschen Pass in the Vinschgau in the prov ...
river in northern Italy; and 27,000 men under Macdonald were based in Naples: a total of 170,000 men. To try to match the coalition forces, the Directory ordered a new call up of young men between the ages of twenty and twenty five to the army, seeking to add two hundred thousand new soldiers.
Resurgence of the War in Italy and Switzerland
On 10 November 1798, the British and Austrian governments had agreed on a common goal of suppressing the five new sister republics and forcing France back into its 1789 borders. Then on 29 November 1798, on the first day of the
War of the Second Coalition
The War of the Second Coalition (1798/9 – 1801/2, depending on periodisation) was the second war on revolutionary France by most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, N ...
, the
King of Naples
The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501)
House of Anjou
In 1382, the ...
launched an attack on Rome, which was lightly defended by French soldiers. A British fleet landed three thousand Neapolitan soldiers in Tuscany. However, the French army of General
Championnet responded quickly, defeating the Neapolitan army at the
Battle of Civita Castellana
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
at
Civita Castellana
Civita Castellana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Viterbo, north of Rome.
Mount Soracte lies about to the south-east.
History
Civita Castellana was settled during the Iron Age by the Italic people of the Falisci, who called it "Fa ...
on 5 December. The next day, 6 December 1798, French soldiers also forced the
King of Sardinia
The following is a list of rulers of Sardinia, in particular, of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica from 1323 and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1479 to 1861.
Early history
Owing to the absence of written sources, little ...
to remove his soldiers from
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
and to retreat to his island of
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
, his last possession. The French army marched to the
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...
, obliging the King of Naples to leave his City of
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
on a British warship on 23 December 1798. Naples was then occupied on 23 January 1799, and a new Neapolitan republic, the so-called
Parthenopean Republic
The Parthenopean Republic ( it, Repubblica Partenopea, french: République Parthénopéenne) or Neapolitan Republic (''Repubblica Napoletana'') was a short-lived, semi-autonomous republic located within the Kingdom of Naples and supported by the ...
, the sixth under French protection, was proclaimed on 26 January.
Peace negotiations with Austria went nowhere in the spring of 1799, and the Directory decided to launch a new offensive into
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, but the arrival of a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
army under Alexander Suvorov and fresh Austrian forces under the
Archduke Charles
Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (german: link=no, Erzherzog Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian field-marshal, the third s ...
for a time changed the balance of power.
Jourdan Jourdan may refer to:
*Carolyn Jourdan, American author
*Claude Jourdan (1803–1873), French zoologist and paleontologist
*David W. Jourdan, businessman
*Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (1762–1833), French army commander
*Murders of Jourdan Bobbish and Jac ...
's Army of the Danube crossed the Rhine on 6 March but was defeated by the Archduke Charles, first at the
Battle of Ostrach
The Battle of Ostrach, also called the Battle by Ostrach, occurred on 20–21 March 1799. It was the first non-Italy-based battle of the War of the Second Coalition. The battle resulted in the victory of the Austrian forces, under the command of ...
and then at the
Battle of Stockach on 25 March 1799. Jourdan's army withdrew while Jourdan himself returned to Paris to plea for more soldiers.
The forces of the
Second Coalition
The War of the Second Coalition (1798/9 – 1801/2, depending on periodisation) was the second war on revolutionary France by most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, N ...
invaded French-occupied Italy, and after five earlier battles, a joint Russian-Austrian army under Suvorov's command defeated Moreau at the
Battle of Cassano on 27 April 1799 and thus occupied
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
and
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and thereby took back the
Cisalpine Republic
The Cisalpine Republic ( it, Repubblica Cisalpina) was a sister republic of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802.
Creation
After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte organized t ...
from France. Suvorov then defeated the French Army on the Terrivva. To redress the situation,
Joubert was named the new head of the Army of Italy on 5 July, but his army suffered defeat by the Russians at the
Battle of Novi
The Battle of Novi (15 August 1799) saw a combined army of the Habsburg monarchy and Russian Empire, Imperial Russians under Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov attack a First French Republic, Republican French army under General Barthélemy Cather ...
, on 15 August; Joubert himself was shot through the heart when the battle began, and his army was routed. The Sister Republics established by the French in Italy quickly collapsed, leaving only Genoa under French control.
In August, the Russians and British opened a new front in the Netherlands. A British army was landed at Helder on 27 August, and was joined by a Russian army. On 31 August, the Dutch fleet, allied with France, was defeated by the Royal Navy. Seeing the French army and government in a crisis, the leaders of the royalist rebellions in the Vendée and Brittany came together on 15 September to prepare a renewed uprising.
The surviving leaders of the royalist rebellions in the Vendée and Brittany, which had long been dormant, saw a new opportunity for success and met to plan strategy on 15 September 1799. The royalist commander
Louis de Frotté
Marie Pierre Louis de Frotté (August 1, 1766 – February 18, 1800) was a French soldier and an opponent of the First French Republic, Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars, Revolutionary Wars.
Louis de Frotté was born in Alençon (Nor ...
, in exile in England, returned to France to command the new uprising.
Bonaparte's Campaign in Syria (February–May 1799)
While the French armies in Italy and Switzerland tried to preserve the Sister Republics, Bonaparte pursued his own campaign in Egypt. He explained in a letter to the Directory that Egyptian venture was just the beginning of a broader campaign "to create a formidable diversion in the campaign of Republican France versus monarchic Europe. Egypt would be the base of something much larger than the original project, and at the same time a lever which will aid in the creation of a general uprising of the Muslim world." This uprising, he believed, would lead to the collapse of British power from the Middle East to India. With this goal in mind, he left Cairo and marched his army across the
Sinai desert
Sinai commonly refers to:
* Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
* Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God
Sinai may also refer to:
* Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
into Syria, where he
laid siege to the port of
Saint-Jean-d'Acre
Acre ( ), known locally as Akko ( he, עַכּוֹ, ''ʻAkō'') or Akka ( ar, عكّا, ''ʻAkkā''), is a city in the coastal plain region of the Northern District of Israel.
The city occupies an important location, sitting in a natural harb ...
of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, which was defended by a local army and supplied by a British fleet offshore. His long siege and attempts to storm the city were a failure; his army was ravaged by disease, it was down to 11,000 men, and he learned that an Ottoman army was to be embarked by the British fleet to sail to Cairo to recapture the city. On 17 May, he abandoned the siege and was back in Cairo by 4 June. The British fleet landed the Ottoman army, but as soon as they were ashore they were decisively defeated by Bonaparte at the
Battle of Aboukir on 25 July 1799.
Due to the British blockade of Egypt, Bonaparte had received no news from France for six months. He sent one of his military aides to meet with Turkish government officials and to try to get news from France, but the officer was intercepted by the British navy. The British admiral and naval commander in the eastern Mediterranean,
Sir Sidney Smith
Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith (21 June 176426 May 1840) was a British naval and intelligence officer. Serving in the American and French revolutionary wars and Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of Admiral.
Smith was known for his of ...
, who had lived in Paris and knew France well, gave the officer a packet of recent French newspapers and sent him back to Bonaparte. Bonaparte spent the night reading the newspapers, learning about the political and military troubles in France. His orders permitted him to return home any time he chose. The next day he decided to return to France immediately. He handed over command of the army to
General Kléber and left Egypt with a small party of senior officers aboard the frigate ''La Muiron''. He escaped the British blockade but did not reach France until 9 October.
Tide turns: French successes (September 1799)
![SA 4941-Anno 1799](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/SA_4941-Anno_1799._De_slag_bij_Castricum..jpg)
The military position of France, which seemed disastrous during the summer, improved greatly in September. On 19 September, General Brune won a victory over the British-Russian army in the Netherlands at
Castricum
Castricum () is a municipality and a town in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands.
Castricum is a seaside town in the province of North Holland. It draws in a fair share of tourists who mainly come to visit the beach and nearby dune ...
. On 18 October, besieged by Brune at
Alkmaar
Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...
, the British-Russian forces under the Duke of York agreed to withdraw. In Switzerland, a Russian Empire Army had split into two. On 25–26 September, the French army in Switzerland, led by
André Masséna
André Masséna, Prince of Essling, Duke of Rivoli (born Andrea Massena; 6 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.Donald D. Horward, ed., trans, annotated, The Fre ...
, defeated one part of the Russian army under
Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov
Alexander Mikhailovich Rimsky-Korsakov (russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ри́мский-Ко́рсаков) (August 24, 1753May 25, 1840) was a Russian general remembered as an unlucky assistant to Alexander Suvorov during hi ...
at the
Second Battle of Zurich
The Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 September 1799) was a key victory by the Republican French army in Switzerland led by André Masséna over an Austrian and Russian force commanded by Alexander Korsakov near Zürich. It broke the stale ...
, and forced the rest of the Russian army, under Suvorov, into disastrous retreat across the Alps to 'Italy'. Suvorov was furious at the Austrians, blaming them for not supporting his troops, and he urged the Czar to withdraw his forces from the war.
The royalist uprising in the west of France, planned to accompany the British-Russian-Austrian offensive, was also a failure. The Chouans briefly seized
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
on 14 October and
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
on 19 October, but they were quickly driven out by the French Army, and the rebellion had collapsed by 29 October.
New economic crisis
Since the beginning of the Revolution, the nation suffered from rampant inflation. By the time of the Directory, the paper money, the ''assignat'', based on the value of goods confiscated from the church and nobility, had already lost most of its value. Prices had soared, and the government could not print money fast enough to meet its expenses. The value of the assignat had dropped drastically against the value of the livre, the main unit of currency of the old regime which contained silver. In 1790, at the beginning of the Revolution, an assignat with a face value of 1,000₶. could be exchanged for 900 silver livres. In January 1795, The Convention decided to issue assignats worth 30 billion-₶., without any additional backing by gold. By March 1795, an assignat with a value of 1,000₶. could buy only 80 silver livres. In February 1796, the Directory decided to abolish the assignat, and held a public ceremony to destroy the printing plates. The assignat was replaced by a new note, the ''Mandat territorial''. But since this new paper money also lacked any substantial backing, its value also plummeted; by February 1797 the ''Mandat'' was worth only one percent of its original value. The Directory decided to return to the use of gold or silver coins, which kept their value. 100₶. of Mandats was exchanged for 1 silver livre. The difficulty was that the Directory had only enough gold and silver to produce 300 million-₶.. The result of the shortage of money in circulation was a drastic deflation and drop in prices, which was accompanied by a drop in investment, and a drop in wages. It led to a drop in economic activity, and unemployment.
New elections, new Directors and a growing political crisis
![Fabre - Lucien Bonaparte](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Fabre_-_Lucien_Bonaparte.jpg)
New elections to elect 315 members of the Councils were held between 21 March – 9 April 1799. The royalists had been discredited and were gone; the major winners were the neo-Jacobins, who wanted to continue and strengthen the Revolution. The new members of the Council included
Lucien Bonaparte
Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 ...
, the younger brother of Napoleon, just twenty-four years old. On the strength of his name, he was elected the President of the Council of Five Hundred.
This time the Directors did not try to disqualify the Jacobins but looked for other ways to keep control of the government. It was time to elect a new member of the Directory, as Rewbell had been designated by the drawing of lots to step down. Under the Constitution, the selection of a new member of the Directory was voted by the old members of the Councils, not the newly elected ones. The candidate selected to replace him was the Abbé Sieyés, one of the major leaders of the revolution in 1789, who had been serving as Ambassador to Berlin. Sieyés had his own project in mind: He had devised a new doctrine that the power of government should be limited in order to protect the rights of the citizens. His idea was to adopt a new Constitution with a supreme court, on the American model, to protect individual rights. He privately saw his primary mission as preventing a return of Reign of Terror of 1793, a new constitution, and bringing the Revolution to a close as soon as possible, by whatever means.
Once the elections were complete, the Jacobin majority immediately demanded that the Directory be made more revolutionary. The Councils began meeting on 20 May, and on 5 June they began their offensive to turn the Directors to the left. They declared the election of the Director Treilhard illegal on technical grounds and voted to replace him with
Louis-Jérôme Gohier
Louis-Jérôme Gohier (27 February 1746 – 29 May 1830) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period.
Louis-Jérôme Gohier was born in Semblançay, in the Indre-et-Loire department of France. The son of a notary, he practiced law i ...
, a lawyer who had been Minister of Justice during the Convention, and who had overseen the arrest of the moderate Girondin deputies. The Jacobins in the Council then went a step further and demanded the resignation of two moderate Directors, La Revelliere and Merlin. They were replaced by two new members,
Roger Ducos
Pierre Roger Ducos (25 July 174716 March 1816), better known as Roger Ducos, was a French political figure during the Revolution and First Empire, a member of the National Convention, and of the Directory.
In the Revolution
Born in Montfort-en- ...
, a little-known lawyer who had been a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and was an ally of Barras, and an obscure Jacobin general,
Jean-François-Auguste Moulin
Jean-François-Auguste Moulin (; 14 March 1752 – 12 March 1810) was a general of the French Revolution and member of the French Directory. He had a long career as a military officer serving France in the Royal Army of King Louis XVI, the ' ...
. The new Ministers named by the Directors were for the most part reliable Jacobins, though Sieyés arranged the appointment of one of his allies,
Joseph Fouché
Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante, 1st Comte Fouché (, 21 May 1759 – 25 December 1820) was a French statesman, revolutionary, and Minister of Police under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became a subordinate of Emperor Napoleon. He ...
, as the new Minister of Police.
The Jacobin members immediately began proposing laws that were largely favorable to the sans-culottes and working class, but which alarmed the upper and middle classes. The Councils imposed a forced loan of one hundred million francs, to be paid immediately according to a graduated scale by all who paid a property tax of over three hundred francs. Those who did not pay would be classified the same as émigré nobles and would lose all civil rights. The Councils also passed a new law that called for making hostages of the fathers, mothers and grandparents of emigre nobles whose children had emigrated or were serving in rebel bands or armies. These hostages were subject to large fines or deportation in the event of assassinations or property damage caused by royalist soldiers or bandits. On 27 June General Jourdan, a prominent Jacobin member of the Councils, proposed a mass draft of all eligible young men between twenty and twenty-five to raise two hundred thousand new soldiers for the army. This would be the first draft since 1793.
The new Jacobins opened a new political club, the Club du Manège, on the model of Jacobin clubs of the Convention. It opened on 6 July and soon had three thousand members, with 250 deputies, including many alumni of the Jacobins during the Reign of Terror, as well as former supporters of the ultra-revolutionary François Babeuf. One prominent member, General Jourdan, greeted the members at the club's banquet of 14 July with the toast, "to a return of the pikes'", referring to the weapons used by the sans-culottes to parade the heads of executed nobles. The club members also were not afraid to attack the Directory itself, complaining of its lavish furnishings and the luxurious coaches used by Directory members. The Directory soon responded to the provocations; Sieyés denounced the club members as a return of Robespierre's reign of terror. The Minister of Police, Fouché, closed the Club on 13 August.
Bonaparte returns to France, coup d'ètat and the end of the Directory
Preparing the coup d'ètat
![Joseph Fouché](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Joseph_Fouch%C3%A9.png)
The rule that Directors must to be at least forty years old became one justification for the
Coup of 18 Brumaire
The Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and led to the Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. This bloodless ''coup d'état'' overt ...
: the coup d'état took place on 9 November 1799, when Bonaparte was thirty years old. Bonaparte returned to France, landing at the fishing village of
Saint-Raphaël on 9 October 1799, and made a triumphal progression northward to Paris. His victory over the Ottoman Turks at the
Battle of Aboukir had been widely reported, and overshadowed the other French victories at the
Second Battle of Zurich
The Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 September 1799) was a key victory by the Republican French army in Switzerland led by André Masséna over an Austrian and Russian force commanded by Alexander Korsakov near Zürich. It broke the stale ...
and the
Battle of Bergen. Between
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
and Paris, he was welcomed by large, enthusiastic crowds, who saw him as a saviour of the Republic from foreign enemies and the corruption of the Directory. Upon his arrival in Paris he was elected to the
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
for the scientific accomplishments of his expedition to Egypt. He was welcomed by royalists because he was from a minor noble family in
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
, and by the Jacobins because he had suppressed the attempted royalist ''coup d'état'' at the beginning of the Directory. His brother Lucien, though only twenty-four years old, became a prominent figure in the Council of Five Hundred because of his name.
Bonaparte's first ambition was to be appointed to the Directory, but he was not yet forty years old, the minimum age set by the Constitution, and the Director
Gohier, a strict legalist, blocked that avenue. His earliest ally had been the Director Barras, but he disliked Barras because his wife Joséphine had been his mistress before she married Bonaparte, and because of charges of corruption that surrounded Barras and his allies. Bonaparte wrote later that the Jacobin director, General
Moulin, approached Bonaparte and suggested that he lead a ''coup d'état'', but he declined; he wished to end the Revolution, not continue it. Sieyés, who had been looking for a war hero and general to assist in a ''coup d'état'', had originally in mind General
Joubert, but Joubert had been killed at the
Battle of Novi
The Battle of Novi (15 August 1799) saw a combined army of the Habsburg monarchy and Russian Empire, Imperial Russians under Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov attack a First French Republic, Republican French army under General Barthélemy Cather ...
in August 1799. He then approached General
Moreau, but Moreau was not interested. The first meeting between Sieyés and Bonaparte, on 23 October 1799, went badly; the two men each had enormous egos and instantly disliked each other. Nonetheless, they had a strong common interest and, on 6 November 1799, they formalized their plan.
The ''coup d'état'' was carefully planned by Sieyès and Bonaparte, with the assistance of Bonaparte's brother Lucien, the diplomat and consummate intriguer
Talleyrand, the Minister of Police
Fouché, and the Commissioner of the Directory, Pierre François Réal. The plan called for three Directors to suddenly resign, leaving the country without an Executive. The Councils would then be told that a Jacobin conspiracy threatened the Nation; the Councils would be moved for their own security to the
Château de Saint-Cloud
The Château de Saint-Cloud was a château in France, built on a site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of Paris. On the site of the former palace is the state-owned Parc de Saint-Cloud.
The château was expand ...
, some west of Paris, safe from the mobs of the French capital. Bonaparte would be named head of government to defend the Republic against the conspiracy; the Councils would be dissolved, and a new Constitution would be written. If the coup went well, it was simply a parliamentary maneuver; it would be perfectly legal. Bonaparte would provide security and take the part of convincing the Deputies. Fouché and Réal would assure that there would be no interference from the police or the city of Paris. Fouché proposed that the leading Jacobin deputies be arrested at the start of the coup, but Bonaparte said it would not be necessary, which later proved to be an error. Shortly before the coup, Bonaparte met with the principal army commanders: Jourdan, Bernadotte, Augereau and Moreau, and informed them of the impending coup. They did not all support it, but agreed not to stand in his way. The president of the Council of Ancients was also brought into the coup, so he could play his part, and Bonaparte's brother Lucien would manage the Council of Five Hundred. On the evening of 6 November, the Councils held a banquet at the former church of Saint-Sulpice. Bonaparte attended, but seemed cold and distracted, and departed early.
Coup d'état is launched (9–10 November)
![Bouchot - Le general Bonaparte au Conseil des Cinq-Cents](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Bouchot_-_Le_general_Bonaparte_au_Conseil_des_Cinq-Cents.jpg)
Early in the morning of 9 November, army units began taking positions in Paris, and the members of the Council of Ancients were awakened and instructed to come to the Tuileries Palace for an emergency meeting. When they gathered at seven-thirty, they were told that a Jacobin conspiracy to overthrow the government had been discovered and that they should transfer their meeting the next day to the ''Château de Saint-Cloud'', where they would be in safety. The members were asked to approve a decree to move the meeting site, and to appoint Bonaparte as commander of troops in Paris to assure their security. Alarmed, they quickly approved the decree. Bonaparte himself appeared with his staff and told them, "Citizen representatives, the Republic was about to perish. You learned of it and your decree has just saved it". At eleven in the morning, the members of the Council of Five Hundred met at the
Palais Bourbon
The Palais Bourbon () is the meeting place of the National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament. It is located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the ''Rive Gauche'' of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concor ...
and were given the same message. They agreed to move their meeting the following day to Saint-Cloud.
As planned, by the afternoon Sieyés and
Roger Ducos
Pierre Roger Ducos (25 July 174716 March 1816), better known as Roger Ducos, was a French political figure during the Revolution and First Empire, a member of the National Convention, and of the Directory.
In the Revolution
Born in Montfort-en- ...
had given their resignations. Talleyrand was assigned to win the resignation of Barras. Talleyrand was supplied with a large amount of money to offer Barras to quit; historians differ on whether he gave the money to Barras or kept it for himself. Barras, seeing the movements of soldiers outside and being assured that he could keep the great wealth he had acquired as a Director, readily agreed to leave the Directory. With three members gone, the Directory could not legally meet. The Jacobin directors Moulin and Gohier were arrested and confined to the
Luxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...
under the guard of General Moreau. The first day of the coup had gone exactly as planned.
![Gros - First Consul Bonaparte (Detail)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Gros_-_First_Consul_Bonaparte_%28Detail%29.png)
On 10 November, the members of both councils were taken in a procession of carriages with a strong military escort to Saint-Cloud. 6,000 soldiers had already been assembled at the château; because their pay had repeatedly been delayed, they were particularly hostile to the members of the Chambers. Bonaparte spoke first to the Council of the Ancients, assembled in the
''Orangerie'' of the domain of Saint-Cloud, and explained that the Directory was no more. Bonaparte was received coldly, but the Council did not offer any opposition. He then moved to the Council of Five Hundred, which was already meeting under the presidency of his brother Lucien. Here he received a far more hostile reception from the Jacobin deputies. He was questioned, jeered, insulted, shouted down, and jostled. His brother was unable to restore calm, and some of the Jacobin deputies began to demand that Bonaparte be declared outside the law, as Robespierre had been. If the Council voted him outside the law, Bonaparte could be arrested and executed immediately without trial. While the deputies raged and argued, Bonaparte and his brother, escorted by a handful of soldiers, left the ''Orangerie'', approached the unit of
grenadier
A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word '' grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited fr ...
s of General Murat waiting impatiently outside, and told them that the deputies had tried to assassinate Bonaparte with their pens. The grenadiers charged into the hall and quickly emptied it of deputies.
Bonaparte wrote his own official version of what happened, which was published in all newspapers and posted on placards on walls all over France; it vividly described how he had narrowly escaped death from the hands of "twenty Jacobin assassins" and concluded: "The majority returned freely and peacefully to the meeting hall, listened to the propositions which had been made for assuring the public safety, deliberated and prepared a beneficial resolution which should become the new law and basis of the Republic."
With that event, the Directory was finished. A new government, the
Consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...
, was founded. According to most historians, the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
was over.
French society during the Directory
Despite wars and social turmoil, the population of France continued to grow during the Directory. It was 27,800,000 in 1796, before the Directory, and had grown to 27,900,000 by 1801. Annual population growth had dropped from 16 percent in 1785, before the Revolution, to zero in 1790; but it then rebounded to 36 percent in 1795, then down to 12 percent in 1800. Part of the drop in birthrate during the Directory is attributed to the simplification of divorce, and the change in inheritance laws, which granted equal shares to all descendants. The number of young men killed in the wars during the Directory numbered 235,000 between 1795 and 1799. The high birth rate before the Revolution – together with conscription from conquered and allied states – allowed Napoleon to fill the ranks of his ''
Grande Armée
''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...
'' during the
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
between 1804 and 1815.
By the time of the Directory, French society had been dramatically restructured. Nobles and clergy, the two classes which had held most of the power before the Revolution, had disappeared. An estimated one percent of the population, mostly nobles and priests, but also many members of the upper middle class who had supported the
monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...
, had emigrated. The number was even higher in border regions, such as
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...
, where 4.5 percent of the population had left.
Rich and poor
![Boilly-Point-de-Convention-ca1797](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Boilly-Point-de-Convention-ca1797.jpg)
Under the Directory the middle and upper classes took a dominant position in Paris society, replacing the nobility. Enormous fortunes were made, often by providing supplies to the army or by speculation on real estate. Some parts of the middle and upper classes suffered: the abolition of the old professional guilds of lawyers and doctors brought the ruin of many members, who faced competition from anyone who wanted to use those titles. The merchants and shipowners in Bordeaux, Nantes, Marseille and other ports were ruined by the British naval blockade. Bankers took on a more prominent role, when investment was scarce.
Two new groups gained importance during the Directory. The number of government officials of all levels increased dramatically. The writer
Louis-Sébastien Mercier
Louis-Sébastien Mercier (6 June 1740 – 25 April 1814) was a French dramatist and writer, whose 1771 novel ''L'An 2440'' is an example of proto-science fiction.
Early life and education
He was born in Paris to a humble family: his father was a ...
in his ''Paris pendant la Révolution (1789–1798), ou Le nouveau Paris'', published in 1800, wrote: "There is no one who has not complained of the insolence, or the ignorance, of the multitude of government officials employed in the bureaus to sharpen their pens and to obstruct the course of affairs. New has the bureaucracy been carried to a point so so exaggerated, so costly, to exhausting."
Generals and other military officers also grew greatly in importance during the Directory and became a caste independent of the political structure. The Directory had abolished the Jacobin system of political commissioners who supervised and could overrule the military commanders. Generals like Bonaparte in Italy, Hoche in Germany and Pichegru in Alsace directed entire provinces according to their own ideas and wishes, with little interference from Paris. The soldiers of these generals were often more loyal to their generals than to the Directory, as the soldiers of Bonaparte showed during the 1799 coup d'état that ended the Directory.
The working class and poor in Paris and other large cities suffered particularly from the high inflation during the first part of the Directory, which brought higher prices for bread, meat, wine, firewood and other basic commodities. In the last two years of the Directory, the problem was the opposite: with the suppression of the ''assignats'', the money became scarce, the economy slowed, and unemployment grew. The Directory distributed scarce food items, such as cooking oil, butter and eggs, to government employees and to members of the Councils. Before the Revolution, taking care of the poor had been the responsibility of the Church. During the Directory, the government, particularly in Paris and other large cities, was forced to take over this role. To feed the Parisians and prevent food riots, the government bought flour in the countryside at market prices with its silver coins, then gave it to the bakeries, which sold it at the traditional market price of four sous a pound, which was virtually nothing. The subsidies were reduced in the last years of the Directory, paying only for bread, but they were an enormous expense for the Directory. At the beginning, the government tried to provide the standard minimum of one pound of bread a day per person, but the shortage of money reduced the daily ration to sixty grams of bread a day. The government also tried giving rice as a substitute for bread, but the poor lacked firewood to cook it.
Crime and corruption
Economic problems led to a large increase in crime under The Directory, particularly in the countryside. Bands of the unemployed became beggars and turned to robbery, and brigands robbed travelers along the highways. Some of the brigands were former royalists turned highwaymen. They were later celebrated in the novel of
Alexander Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer. ...
, ''Les Compagnons de Jéhu'' ("The Companions of Jehu"). The government did not have the money to hire more police, and the great majority of the army was occupied fighting in Italy, Switzerland and Egypt. The growing insecurity on the roads seriously harmed commerce in France. The problem of brigands and highwaymen was not seriously addressed until after a serious wave of crimes on the roads in the winter of 1797–98. The Councils passed a law calling for the death penalty for any robbery committed on the main highways or against a public vehicle, such as a coach, even if nothing was taken. If the crime was committed by more than one person, the robbers were tried by a military tribunal rather than a civilian court. The wave of highway robberies was finally stopped by Bonaparte and the Consulate, which employed special tribunals even swifter and more severe than the Directory tribunals.
Corruption was another serious problem, particularly with the businessmen who provided supplies to the army and government. In one case, the Chevalier enterprise received a contract to build three large warships and two frigates at
Rochefort
Rochefort () may refer to:
Places France
* Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department
** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard
* Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department
* Rochefort-du-Gard, in the Ga ...
; the company was paid in national property seized from the aristocracy and the Church, but it never constructed the ships, or even bought the materials. Huge contracts for government supplies were passed from the furnishers to sub-contractors, who each paid the furnisher a fee. Sometimes contractors demanded to be paid for their services in advance in silver. They were paid, but never delivered the services, and then reimbursed the government with nearly-worthless assignats. The Directors themselves were accused of receiving money from contractors. The Minister of Finance of the Directory,
Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret
Dominique-Vincent Ramel (called Ramel de Nogaret; 3 November 1760 – 31 March 1829) was a French lawyer and politician who became Minister of Finance under the French Directory. He was an energetic reformer, but was blamed for many of the financia ...
, was offered 100,000 francs for a bribe to give a contract by a furnisher named Langlois. Ramel refused and turned Langlois over to the police; however, some ministers and Directors, like Barras, left the government with large fortunes. The Directory was unable to escape the accusations of widespread corruption.
''Muscadins'', ''Incroyables'' and ''Merveilleuses''
![Muscadins](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Muscadins.jpg)
Born in reaction against the strict codes of behavior established during the
Convention and the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
, the ''
Muscadins
The term Muscadin (), meaning "wearing musk perfume", came to refer to mobs of young men, relatively well-off and dressed in a dandyish manner, who were the street fighters of the Thermidorian Reaction in Paris in the French Revolution (1789-17 ...
'' were fashionable young men who carried canes and sometimes, in groups, attacked
sans-culottes
The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . The ...
. Following soon afterwards, the Directory had its own fashion reflecting the new social behavior and carried out by young Parisians of both sexes, from middle and upper-class families, often survivors of the excesses of the Revolution, who had lost parents and family members to the guillotine. They were called ''
Incroyables and Merveilleuses
The Incroyables (, "incredibles") and their female counterparts, the Merveilleuses (, "marvelous women"), were members of a fashionable aristocratic subculture in Paris during the French Directory (1795–1799). Whether as catharsis or in a need ...
'' and dressed in extravagant costumes. The men, the ''Incroyables'', wore long hair to their shoulders, round hats with broad brims, short coats and silk culottes. Their female counterparts, the ''Merveilleuses'', wore flowing, high-breasted transparent dresses reminiscent of the Greco-Roman era. They frequented balls called ''
Bals des victimes
The bals des victimes, or victims' balls, were balls that were said to have been put on by dancing societies after the Reign of Terror. To be admitted to these societies and balls, one had to be a near relative of someone who had been guillotined ...
'' and spoke in their own particular accent and vocabulary, avoiding to pronounce the letter "R", as it was the first letter of the word "Revolution".
Marriage and divorce
During the Directory, almost all the structures and rules of Paris society had been swept away, but no new structures and rules had yet been created to replace them. The
brothers Goncourt
The Goncourt brothers (, , ) were Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896) and Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), both French naturalism writers who, as collaborative sibling authors, were inseparable in life.
Background
Edmond and Jules were born to mi ...
meticulously described the period on their ''Histoire de la société française pendant le Directoire''. Caste and rank mattered far less; all the old titles and forms of address had disappeared, along with old customs and social conventions. Men no longer took off their hats when talking to women, and people of different ranks spoke to each other as equals. Society no longer met in private, in the houses of the nobility, but in public, at balls, restaurants and public gardens. As the Goncourts said, "social anarchy" reigned in Paris: "everyone met with everyone." Government ministers could be seen walking or dining with actresses, bankers with courtesans.
"Liaisons were easy", the Goncourts reported, "marriage less so." The old system of marriages arranged between families based on fortune, profession, and social condition was less common. Marriages were no longer controlled by the church, but by the new civil code, which described marriage as "nature in action." Marriage was seen as a temporary, not a permanent state. Children born outside of marriage were given equal status concerning inheritance and other legal matters as those born to married couples. Divorce was much simpler, and could be requested by either the husband or wife. In one period of fifteen months, 5,994 civil law divorces were granted in Paris, of which 3,886 were requested by the wife. Of 1,148 divorces granted on the grounds of "incompatibility of humor", 887 were requested by the wife. The new system also led to a large increase in the number of children born outside of marriage and not wanted; in 1795 four thousand unwanted children in the Department of the Seine were turned over to foundling hospitals.
The breakdown of the old system of arranged marriages led to the creation of the first newspaper where men and women could advertise themselves for suitable spouses, called the ''Indicateur des marriages''. It also led to the establishment of the first marriage bureaus. A businessman named Liardot rented a large former mansion, brought in selected eligible young women as paying guests, and invited men seeking wives to meet them at balls, concerts and card games each given at the house each evening. The men were screened by their profession and education.
Amusement – ''Bals des victimes'', pleasure gardens, new restaurants and cafés
Although balls were not banned during the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
, after the death of Robespierre and the fall of the Jacobins, the city experienced a frenzy of dancing that lasted throughout the period of the French Directory. The Goncourt brothers reported that 640 balls took place in 1797 alone. Several former monasteries were turned into ballrooms, including the
Noviciate of the Jesuits, the ''Monastère des Carmes'' (turned into a prison where 191 members of the Catholic Church — bishops, priests, monks — were
massacred on 2 September 1792), the ''Séminaire Saint-Sulpice'', and even in the former Saint-Sulpice cemetery. Some of the former palatial townhouses of the nobility were rented and used for ballrooms; the ''Hôtel de Longueville'' near the Louvre put on enormous spectacles, with three hundred couples dancing, in thirty circles of sixteen dancers each, the women in nearly transparent dresses, styled after Roman tunics. In the public balls, everyone danced with everyone; merchants, clerks, artisans and workers danced with shop women and seamstresses. In the more popular public balls, the ''cavaliers'' were charged 80 sous for admission, while women paid 12 sous. At more exclusive balls, admission was five livres. Aristocrats who had survived or returned from exile held their own balls in their houses in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain
''Faubourg Saint-Germain'' () is a historic district of Paris, France. The ''Faubourg'' has long been known as the favourite home of the French nobility, French high nobility and hosts many aristocratic ''hôtels particuliers''. It is currently pa ...
, where ''
Bals des victimes
The bals des victimes, or victims' balls, were balls that were said to have been put on by dancing societies after the Reign of Terror. To be admitted to these societies and balls, one had to be a near relative of someone who had been guillotined ...
'' ("Balls of the victims") were attended by invitees who had lost at least one parent to the guillotine.
The formal dancing of the minuet was replaced by a much more passionate new dance, the
waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
, which was introduced to Paris during this time from Germany. For summer evening entertainment, Parisians began to abandon the Tuileries Gardens and the gardens of the
Palais-Royal
The Palais-Royal () is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was built for Cardinal ...
and went to the new pleasure gardens which appeared in the neighborhood between the
Grands boulevards
The Boulevards of Paris are boulevards which form an important part of the urban landscape of Paris. The boulevards were constructed in several phases by central government initiative as infrastructure improvements, but are very much associated w ...
and the Palais-Royal. The most famous was the
''Jardin de Tivoli'', also known as ''Folie Boutin'' or ''Grand Tivoli'', located on
rue Saint-Lazare
The Rue Saint-Lazare is a street in the 8th and 9th arrondissements of Paris, France. It starts at 9 Rue Bourdaloue and 1 Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, and ends at Place Gabriel-Péri and Rue de Rome.
History
This street already existed in 1700 unde ...
. It had belonged to an aristocrat named Boutin, who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. It was a vast garden covering 40
''arpents'' (13,675 hectares), and could hold as many as ten thousand persons. It had alleys filled with promenaders, greenhouses, illuminations, an orchestra, dancing, a café, and fireworks at night. Other new gardens competed by adding spectacles and pageants. The ''
Jardin des Champs-Élysées
Jardin may refer to:
Places
*Jardin, Isère, a village in Isère, France
*Le Jardin, a village in Corrèze, France
*Jardin, Colombia, a town in Antioquia
Family name
*Alexandre Jardin (born 1965), French writer and film director
*Frédéric Jardi ...
'' offered a pageant of costumed soldiers on horseback performing elaborate maneuvers and firing weapons. The ''Mousseau'' (now ''
Parc Monceau
Parc Monceau () is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park covers an area of 8.2 hectares (20 ...
'') had performers dressed as
American Indians dancing and fighting battles. The former ''Pavillon de Hanovre'', which had been part of Cardinal Richelieu's residential complex, featured a terrace for dancing and dining decorated with Turkish tents, Chinese kiosks and lanterns.
Many new restaurants and cafés, usually close to the twenty-three theaters, appeared in and around the Palais-Royal and the new boulevards. A new café, the ''Tortoni'', specializing in ice creams, opened in 1795 at the corner of the
boulevard des Italiens
The boulevard des Italiens is a boulevard in Paris. It is one of the 'Grands Boulevards' in Paris, a chain of boulevards built through the former course of the Wall of Charles V and the Louis XIII Wall, which were destroyed by the orders of Louis ...
and ''rue Taitbout''. The new restaurants in the Palais-Royal were often run by the former chefs of archbishops and aristocrats who had gone into exile. The restaurant ''Méot'' offered a menu with over one hundred dishes. Beside the ''Méot'' and ''Beauvilliers'', under the arcades of the Palais-Royal were the restaurants and cafés such as ''Naudet'', ''Robert'', ''Véry'', ''Foy'', ''Huré'' , ''Berceau'', ''Lyrique'', ''Liberté conquise'', ''de Chartres'' (now ''
Le Grand Véfour
Le Grand Véfour (), the first grand restaurant in Paris, France, was opened in the arcades of the Palais-Royal in 1784 by Antoine Aubertot, as the ''Café de Chartres'', and was purchased in 1820 by Jean Véfour, who was able to retire within t ...
''), and ''du Sauvage'' (the last owned by the former coachman of Robespierre). In the cellars of the Palais-Royal were more popular cafés, usually with music, smaller menus at more reasonable prices. One of those, the ''Postal'' , offered a menu for just 36 sous. Many of the cafés in the cellars had orchestras; the most famous was the ''Café des Aveugles'', with an orchestra of four blind musicians.
After the Reign of Terror had ended, dining hours for upper-class Parisians returned gradually to what they had been before the Revolution, with ''déjeuner'' at midday, dinner at 6 or 7 in the evening, and supper at 2 in the morning. When the theater performances ended at 10 PM, the spectators went to the nearby cafés on the boulevards.
Church and State
The Roman Catholic Church suffered significant loss of property and political influence during the French Revolution. Priests, who refused to take an oath to the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy emigrated or were expelled from France under a penalty of death. Church property, from cathedrals to candlesticks, was seized and sold. Church ceremonies were banned, causing clandestine religious services to be conducted in private homes. During the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
, at Robespierre's urging, the
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
, on 7 May 1794, proclaimed a new religion, the
Cult of the Supreme Being
The Cult of the Supreme Being (french: Culte de l'Être suprême) was a form of deism established in France by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. It was intended to become the state religion of the new French Republic and a re ...
, which in a little over a year led to the
Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction (french: Réaction thermidorienne or ''Convention thermidorienne'', "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term, in the historiography of the French Revolution, for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespie ...
, and Robespierre's downfall and execution. The Roman Catholic Church had been the official state religion during the monarchy, and the Directors were all anti-religious republicans, but the Directory, with a few exceptions, did not try to impose any particular religious views, and its policy toward priests and religious institutions changed depending upon political events. After the fall of Robespierre, the repression against the Church eased and, although the policy of repression remained, many churches, especially in the provinces, re-opened, and exiled priests began to quietly return.
In November 1797, working with the new
decimal-based Republican Calendar, the week of which has ten days, the Directory replaced Sundays and religious holidays with republican celebrations. The tenth day of the week, called ''decadi'', was designated to replace Sunday. The churches still functioning with Constitutional priests were instructed to have mass on ''decadi'', rather than on the day that would have been Sunday in the previous calendar, and ''decadi'' became the official non-working day: government employees were off, and schools, shops and markets were closed. To replace saints' and religious days, a whole series of secular holidays was created, in addition to the patriotic celebrations already in place, such as 14 July and important dates of the French Revolution. There were also special days, such as, "the day of the sovereignty of the people"; "the day of youth"; "the day of spouses"; "the day of agriculture" and "the day of the elderly". Certain churches were given new names: the cathedral
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
was renamed "Temple of the Supreme Being", Saint-Étienne-du-Mont became the "Temple of Filial piety". On ''decadi'', the constitutional priests who performed services were required to share the space with other republican religions and associations who wanted to use the buildings. Large churches were divided into sections for use by various religions.
A new religion,
Theophilanthropy
The Theophilanthropists ("Friends of God and Man") were a Deistic sect, formed in France during the later part of the French Revolution.
Origins
Thomas Paine, together with other disciples of Rousseau and Robespierre, set up a new religion, in ...
, had been founded in 1796 by a
Freemason
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
printer-bookseller named Jean-Baptiste Chemin-Dupontès (1760–1852?). It was encouraged by the Director La Révellière-Lépeaux and the Ministry of the Interior, with the state paying for its newspaper. Members believed in God and in the immortality of the soul, but not in the
original sin
Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...
. The sect was similar in form to
Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...
, with readings aloud of texts, hymns and sermons. With the support of the Directory, the sect was given four churches in Paris, including Saint-Roch, Saint-Sulpice and, in April 1798, Notre-Dame de Paris, as well as churches in
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
,
Poitiers
Poitiers (, , , ; Poitevin: ''Poetàe'') is a city on the River Clain in west-central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and the historical centre of Poitou. In 2017 it had a population of 88,291. Its agglomerat ...
and
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
. Members of the sect included some prominent figures, such as General Hoche, the industrialist
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours (; ; 24 June 1771 – 31 October 1834) was a French-American chemist and industrialist who founded the gunpowder manufacturer E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. His descendants, the du Pont family, have ...
, the painter
Jean-Baptiste Regnault
Jean-Baptiste Regnault (9 October 1754 – 12 November 1829) was a French painter.
Biography
Regnault was born in Paris, and began life at sea in a merchant vessel. At the age of fifteen his talent attracted attention, and he was sent to I ...
, and the American philosopher and political activist
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
. Beginning in May 1798, however, the Directory began to withdraw support from the newly established deistic sect, which it considered too close to the Jacobins. The sect still had eighteen churches in 1799, but in 1801 it was abolished by Bonaparte.
In Italy, the French army attacked the papal states governed by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy. In February 1797, Bonaparte occupied
Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic S ...
to force
Pope Pius VI
Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.
Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...
to negotiate. The pope was obliged to cede Ancona and the northern part of his states to the new French-sponsored
Cispadane Republic
The Cispadane Republic () was a short-lived French client republic, client republic located in northern Italy, founded in 1796 with the protection of the Grande Armee, French army, led by Napoleon Bonaparte. In the following year, it was merged w ...
. The gold and silver in the treasury of the Vatican was taken to France to help support the French currency. Following anti-French riots in Rome in December 1797, a French army under Berthier entered Rome and proclaimed a Roman Republic. Pius VI was taken prisoner by the French Army, and transferred to
Valence in France, where he was kept prisoner until his death in 1801.
Economy
Finance
Many of the economic, social and political woes during the Directory were results of the breakdown of the financial system. The principal problem was a great shortage of money with real value; that is, coins made of silver, and an excess of paper money, the value of which shrank as more and more was printed. The Directory produced only 32 million
livres
The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France.
The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...
worth of silver-based coins in its first two years. Much of this money was hoarded, since, unlike the paper money, it had and retained real value. As a consequence, the government, to cover its costs, was forced to print millions of notes, first called ''
assignat
An assignat () was a monetary instrument, an order to pay, used during the time of the French Revolution, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
France
Assignats were paper money (fiat currency) issued by the Constituent Assembly in France from 1 ...
s'' and then ''
mandats'', which were based on the value of property seized from the Church and the clergy. These notes declined in value as more and more were printed. When the notes became nearly worthless, the Directory first devalued them and finally gave up and stopped printing paper money. The shortage of real money in the second part of the Directory led to a new problem: shortage of credit; interest rates rose to about ten percent, double what they had been in 1789. The consequence in the last two years of the Directory was a decline in economic activity, and in wages, while prices rose. The population lost confidence in the money and in the Directory's management.
The lack of credit led to the creation of a number of new private banks, and the growing importance of banks and bankers in the economy. The ''
Caisse des comptes courants
Caisse, a French word, may refer to:
*Caisse Desjardins, an association of credit unions in Quebec
*Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears, a road-bicycle racing team
* Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a public pension fund in Quebec
*Caisse nat ...
'', created in June 1796, had some of the most important industrialists and financiers in France as its founders, who would later become the founders of the
''Banque de France''. Several other new private banks followed, which concentrated the wealth of France even more in Paris. Since the nobility had gone into exile, the bankers became the new nobility of France. In other words, bankers became the new aristocrats.
Transportation and commerce
The transportation system within France was another handicap to the economy. The roads and canals had not been improved or maintained since the overthrow of the monarchy. Major canals that had been started in Burgundy and in the north were unfinished. Maritime commerce was in an even worse situation as a result of the war and blockade of French ports by Britain. During the Directory, the number of French ships of more than two hundred tons was one tenth of what it had been in 1789. The conquest of Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy improved the situation somewhat: French goods could be transported on the neutral ships of these countries, and maritime traffic on the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
to Germany became an important trade route for France. However, the British navy largely cut off the trade with the French colonies in the Caribbean, which earlier had provided sugar, cotton, indigo and coffee to France; and the entry of the fleet of
Admiral Nelson
Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought abo ...
into the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
cut off the trade routes there. The major ports of
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
and
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
saw their commerce and trade routes disappear.
Industry
The continual wars and fiscal crises greatly limited the expansion of French industry. The
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
had only just begun in France. Production during the Directory had fallen below what it was in 1789. The number of workers in the
silk industry
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
had dropped from 12,000 before 1787 to 6,500. The
cotton textile industry
Cotton is a soft, fluffy Staple (textiles), staple fiber that grows in a wikt:boll, boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose ...
was more successful due to the embargo against British products caused by the war. New factories and new technologies, such as mechanical
loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...
s, were introduced in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
and in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
. However, the technologies were still primitive; the
steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
had not yet arrived in French factories. The
chemical industry
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials (oil, natural gas, air, water, metals, and minerals) into more than 70,000 different products. The ...
was also advancing rapidly during the Directory; the chemist and entrepreneur
Jean Antoine Claude Chaptal built a chemical factory in
Montpellier
Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...
, which he soon moved to
Chaillot
The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''.
The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de Tr ...
, a village west of Paris. The most effective promoter of French industry was
François de Neufchâteau
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King ...
, who was Minister of the Interior before becoming a Director in 1797. He planned a new canal system, began work on a new road across the
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
, and organized the first national industrial exposition in Paris, which opened with great success in October 1798. Once he became Consul, Bonaparte copied the idea of the industrial exposition. Despite this bright spot, French industry was primitive: without steam power, most factories in France depended upon water power, and the
metallurgy industry still melted iron with wood fires, not oil.
Agriculture
Agriculture was another weak spot of the French economy. While the country was essentially rural, the methods of farming had not been changed in centuries. The vast majority of farmers had small plots of land, sold little and worked essentially to produce enough food for their families. The price of grain was freed from government control under the Directory in 1797, and farmers could sell their grain at whatever price they could get. Following the Revolution in 1789, the forests had been taken away from the nobles and opened to everyone; as a result, large areas of the forests were immediately cut down, and no new trees planted to replace them. The land of the nobility and Church was taken and redistributed to peasants, but under the new inheritance laws, which gave equal shares to all sons, the size of the farm plots became smaller and smaller. Small plots were not consolidated into larger fields, as was taking place in England at the same time. Most farmers were reluctant to try new methods; they did not want to leave fields idle to recover productivity, or to grow forage crops to feed cattle. Furthermore, during the endless wars of the Directory, thousands of farmers were taken into the army, and thousands of
horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...
s and
mule
The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...
s needed for farming were taken by the Army for the use of the
cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...
and transport. Under these conditions, food shortages and famines occurred regularly in France until the time of
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
.
Education and science
The education system of France was in a chaotic state at the beginning of the Directory. The College of Sorbonne and most other colleges of the University of Paris, had been closed because of their close association with the Catholic Church, and did not reopen until 1808. The schools run by the Catholic Church had also been closed, and any kind of religious instruction forbidden. The government of Jacobins during the Convention created several new scientific institutions, but had concentrated on primary education, which it decreed should be obligatory and free for all young people, but there were few teachers available. By forbidding religious education, seizing the property of the Church and chasing out the clergy, they effectively closed the largest part of the educational system of the country.
At the beginning of the period, the Directory reversed the policy of obligatory and free education for all, largely because of the lack of money to pay teachers. The Directory began to create a system of central schools, with the goal of one in each department, which boys could attend from the age of twelve, with a full curriculum of sciences, history and literature. The state paid a part of the cost, while each student also paid the professor a fee. The new schools had libraries (mostly confiscated from the nobility), small botanical gardens, and museums of natural history. For the first time in French schools, French instead of Latin was the basis of education. Three of these schools were organized in Paris; two of them later became the famous
Lycée Henri-IV
The Lycée Henri-IV is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges (''lycées'') in France.
The school educates more than ...
and
Lycée Charlemagne
The Lycée Charlemagne is located in the Marais quarter of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, the capital city of France.
Constructed many centuries before it became a lycée, the building originally served as the home of the Order of the Jesuit ...
. But by the end of the Directory there were only 992 students in the three Paris schools.
For primary education, each ''arrondissement'' in Paris had one school for boys and another for girls, and each
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the country was supposed to have the same. Since the state lacked money, teachers were paid by the commune or by the students. Once a student learned to read, write, and count, he or she was graduated. In villages, the school was often located in the former church, and teachers were expected, as part of their duties, to carry water, clean the church, ring the bells, and, when needed, dig graves in the churchyard cemetery.
The choices were greater for the children of the middle and upper middle class, as these families had tutors, or sent their children to private schools, but for much of the population, schooling was minimal. There were 56 public schools in the Seine department, which by the population should have had at least 20,000 students; but they had only between 1100 and 1200.
The continual wars during the Directory also had their effect on education. Beginning in October 1797, boys in public schools were required to take part in periodic military exercises, and the Directory established five military schools, called ''Écoles de Mars'', for a total of 15,000 students. Attendance was a requirement for entry into the higher schools of engineering and public works.
The Directory focused its attention on secondary education and especially on creating specialized higher schools for training managers, judges, doctors and engineers, for which there was an immediate and pressing need. The ''
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
'' had been founded by a member of the Directory,
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
and the mathematician
Gaspard Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Durin ...
, in 1794. The school became the most prestigious engineering and public works school in France. However, by the end of the Directory there were still no law schools, and only two schools of medicine outside of Paris.
The ''
Institut de France
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute m ...
'' was also founded in 1795 by
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
and
Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Duri ...
, to bring together the scientists and researchers, who previously had worked in separate academies, to share knowledge and ideas. It was divided into three large sections: physical sciences and mathematics; moral and political science; and literature and the fine arts. It organized the large party of scientists and scholars who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, which discovered such treasures as the
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...
, which allowed the deciphering of
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
. One of the ''Institut de France'' first members and speakers was Napoléon Bonaparte, who took the place of Carnot after the latter had been removed from the Directory and left France.
Art and culture
Painting – The Salon and the Louvre
The artists of Paris were in a difficult situation during the Directory, as their most important patrons, the aristocracy, had been executed or had emigrated; however a new wealthy class was just being formed. Before the Revolution a half-figure portrait could be commissioned from a less-known artist for three hundred livres. During the Directory, the price fell to forty-eight livres. Nonetheless, the
''Salon'' took place in the Louvre in 1795 as it had since 1725, before the Revolution, and each year thereafter. The most prominent artist of the Revolution,
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
, closely connected with the Jacobins, was in seclusion in his studio inside the Louvre. At the end of the period, in 1799, he produced one important work, the ''
Intervention of the Sabine Women
''The Intervention of the Sabine Women'' is a 1799 painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David, showing a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome.
David began planning the work wh ...
''. However, a new generation of artists, inspired by David, showed their works;
François Gérard
François Pascal Simon Gérard (, 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a prominent French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was It ...
;
Anne-Louis Girodet
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of ...
, a pupil of David, renown for his romantic paintings, particularly a 1797 painting of the prominent actress
Mademoiselle Lange
Mademoiselle (abbreviated as ''Mlle'' or ''M'') may refer to:
* Mademoiselle (title), the French-language equivalent of the title "miss"
Film and television
* Mademoiselle (1966 film), ''Mademoiselle'' (1966 film), a French-British drama directed ...
as
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
;
Carle Vernet
Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, better known as Carle Vernet (14 August 175827 November 1836), was a French painter, the youngest child of Claude Joseph Vernet and the father of Horace Vernet.
Biography
Vernet was born in Bordeaux. At the age o ...
, the son and father of famous painters; the portrait painter and
miniaturist
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...
Jean-Baptiste Isabey
Jean-Baptiste Isabey (11 April 1767 – 18 April 1855) was a French Painting, painter born at Nancy, France, Nancy.
He was a successful artist, both under the First French Empire, First Empire and to the diplomats of the Congress of Vienna.
L ...
, known as the "painter of the kings" or "portraitist of Europe", who painted queen
Marie-Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and ...
and empress
Joséphine, and remained active until the
Second Empire Second Empire may refer to:
* Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783
* Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396)
* Second French Empire (1852–1870)
** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...
; the genre painter
Louis-Léopold Boilly
Louis-Léopold Boilly (; 5 July 1761 – 4 January 1845) was a French Painting, painter and draftsman. A gifted creator of popular portrait paintings, he also produced a vast number of genre paintings vividly documenting French middle-class social ...
;
Antoine-Jean Gros
Antoine-Jean Gros (; 16 March 177125 June 1835) was a French painter of historical subjects. He was given title of Baron Gros in 1824.
Gros studied under Jacques-Louis David in Paris and began an independent artistic career during the French R ...
, a young history and landscape painter, who soon achieved fame and a government position in 1796 with a heroic portrait of Bonaparte at the
battle of Arcole
The Battle of Arcole or Battle of Arcola (15–17 November 1796) was fought between French and Austrian forces southeast of Verona during the War of the First Coalition, a part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle saw a bold maneuver b ...
; the romantic landscapes of
Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...
;
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon
Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (, 4 April 1758 – 16 February 16, 1823) was a French Romantic Painting, painter and drawing, draughtsman best known for his allegorical paintings and portraits such as ''Madame Georges Anthony and Her Two Sons'' (1796). He ...
, whose work combined
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
and
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
; and a major neoclassical sculptor from the earlier generation,
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Jean-Antoine Houdon (; 20 March 1741 – 15 July 1828) was a French neoclassical sculptor.
Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment. Houdon's subjects included De ...
, famous for his busts of
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
and
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
.
Making the Louvre into an art museum had first been proposed in 1747 by
Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne
Étienne La Font de Saint-Yenne (born 1688 in Lyon, died 1771 in Paris) was a French art critic
An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art c ...
and supported by
Diderot
Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominen ...
in 1765 in the article on the Louvre in the ''
Encyclopédie
''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' (English: ''Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts''), better known as ''Encyclopédie'', was a general encyclopedia publis ...
''. The idea was accepted by Louis XVI who, in 1789, began work on the ''Grande Galerie'' of the Louvre. The Revolution intervened, and on 27 July 1793 the Convention decreed the creation of a Museum of the Republic (''Musée de la République française''), which opened on 10 August 1793, the first anniversary of the
storming of the Tuileries
The Insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a defining event of the French Revolution, when armed revolutionaries in Paris, increasingly in conflict with the French monarchy, stormed the Tuileries Palace. The conflict led France to abolish the monar ...
.
In 1797, at the end of Bonaparte's triumphant first Italian campaign, convoys of wagons began arriving in Paris, carrying bronze horses, Greek antiquities, tapestries, marble statues, paintings and other works of art taken from Italian cities under the terms of peace agreed by the Austrians. They included works by
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
,
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
,
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
,
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Caliari (152819 April 1588), known as Paolo Veronese ( , also , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as ''The Wedding at Cana'' (1563) and ''The ...
and other masters. Other convoys arrived from the Netherlands and Flanders with more art from the Spanish provinces. The more famous works were displayed on wagons in a festive victory parade through the center of Paris. The rest was crammed, unwrapped, into the corridors, galleries and stairways of the Louvre. Work began to rebuild the ''
Galerie d'Apollon
The Galerie d'Apollon is a large and iconic room of the Louvre Palace, on the first (upper) floor of a wing known as the Petite Galerie. Its current setup was first designed in the 1660s. It has been part of the Louvre Museum since the 1790s, was ...
'' and other galleries to provide a home for the 'newly acquired' art.
File:Louvre-peinture-francaise-p1020324.jpg, ''Imaginary view of the gallery of the Louvre as a ruin'', by Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...
(1796), Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
File:Gerard FrancoisPascalSimon-Cupid Psyche end.jpg, ''Psyche et l'Amour'' by François Gérard
François Pascal Simon Gérard (, 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a prominent French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was It ...
(1797), Louvre
File:Girodet-Trioson - Mademoiselle Lange as Venus, 1798.jpg, ''Mademoiselle Lange as Venus'', by Anne-Louis Girodet
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of ...
(1798), Museum der bildenden Künste
The Museum der bildenden Künste (German: "Museum of Fine Arts") is a museum in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It covers artworks from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity.
History
Museum Foundation and First Museum
The museum dates back to the fo ...
, Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
File:The Intervention of the Sabine Women.jpg, ''The Intervention of the Sabine Women
''The Intervention of the Sabine Women'' is a 1799 painting by the French painter Jacques-Louis David, showing a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome.
David began planning the work wh ...
'' by Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
(1799), Louvre
Furniture and decoration – the ''Directoire'' style
The Directory had no public money to spend on architecture, but the newly-wealthy upper class had abundant money to buy châteaux and town houses, and to redecorate them. The style of interior decoration, known as the ''
Directoire style
Directoire style () was a period in the decorative arts, fashion, and especially furniture design in France concurrent with the Directory (November 2, 1795–November 10, 1799), the later part of the French Revolution. The style uses Neoclassica ...
'', was one of the notable contributions of the period. It was a transitional style, a compromise between the
Louis XVI style
Louis XVI style, also called ''Louis Seize'', is a style of architecture, furniture, decoration and art which developed in France during the 19-year reign of Louis XVI (1774–1793), just before the French Revolution. It saw the final phase of t ...
and
French neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is a movement in architecture, design and the arts which was dominant in France between about 1760 to 1830. It emerged as a reaction to the frivolity and excessive ornament of the baroque and rococo styles. In architecture it featur ...
.
Riesener
Jean-Henri Riesener (german: Johann Heinrich Riesener; 4 July 1734 – 6 January 1806) was a famous German ''ébéniste'' (cabinetmaker), working in Paris, whose work exemplified the early neoclassical "Louis XVI style".
Life and career
Riesene ...
, the famous furniture designer for Louis XVI, did not die until 1806, though his clientele changed from the nobility to the wealthy new upper class. The Directory saw the first widespread use of
mahogany
Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...
, an imported tropical wood used in the making of furniture.
Literature
The Directory period produced a small number of important literary works, often very critical of the excesses of Revolution. These included ''Essay on the Revolutions'' by
Chateaubriand, published in 1797, which called for a return to Christian values. At the complete opposite end of the literary scale was the last major work of the
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...
, ''The New Justine'', published in 1797. Sade also wrote a satirical brochure mocking thinly-disguised characters resembling Bonapartre and Josephine. Shortly after the end Directory, on 6 March 1801, Sade was arrested for ''Justine'' and its sequel and ended his days in the insane asylum of Charenton.
Directory judged by historians
19th century
Historians generally have not been kind to the 'Age of the Directory'.
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic.
Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...
, later twice the Prime Minister and the first president of the
Third Republic, wrote the first major history in French of the Revolution, in ten volumes, published between 1823 and 1827. He described the Directory this way:
:
One of the indispensable qualities of a government is to have good reputation that defends it against unjust attacks. When it has lost this reputation, and when people blame it for the faults of others, and even for bad luck, then it no longer has the ability to govern, and this incapacity should force it to retire. How many governments had been used up during the Revolution!... The Directory had been used up like the Committee of Public Safety before it, and the government of Napoleon that followed. All the accusations against the Directory proved not its faults but its nullity.[Thiers, Adolphe, ''Histoire de la Révolution française'', Volume 10, Chapter XV, (1827). Online version on Project Gutenberg]
Thiers blamed Barras, the only Director who served from the beginning to the end of the Directory, for its failure.
:
By a bizarre chance, but one that is seen often in the conflicts within revolutions, public opinion had indulgence for the one Director who merited it the least. Barras alone deserved all that was said of the Directory. First of all, he never worked; he left to his colleagues all the burden of business. He spoke only at decisive moments, when his voice was stronger than his courage. He occupied himself with nothing. He only concerned himself with the personnel of the government, which best suited his genius at intrigue. He took a share of all the profits of the government suppliers, and alone of the Directors deserved the accusation of corruption. Despite all of his faults, he was treated differently than the others, first of all because, unlike the other four, he was not a lawyer; and despite his laziness, his debauched habits, his bad manners, and his liaisons with the Jacobins, he alone was credited with 18 Fructidor he downfall of Robespierre
He or HE may refer to:
Language
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and he gave the appearance of a man of action, more capable of governing than his colleagues... He was even treacherous toward his colleagues; because all of the criticism that he deserved himself he skillfully managed to shift exclusively onto them.
The most celebrated and vivid description of French society under the Directory was written by the
Goncourt brothers
The Goncourt brothers (, , ) were Edmond de Goncourt (1822–1896) and Jules de Goncourt (1830–1870), both French naturalism writers who, as collaborative sibling authors, were inseparable in life.
Background
Edmond and Jules were born to m ...
, Edmond and Jules, published in 1864, which described the mores, daily life, culture and preoccupations of the Parisians. Its final chapter contained the lines:
:
Like a guest at the end of an orgy, France was weary; weary of gods, of tribunes, of heroes, of executioners; weary of struggles, of efforts, of cries, of curses, of enthusiasms, of fevers, of intoxications, of storms, of triumphs, of agonies – France was weary of revolutions, coups d'états. constitutions, legislatures... weary of conquests, weary of being saved; weary of Belgium submissive, Italy conquered; of Germany, when all the eagles of Germany had been taken to the ''Invalides'', but France was still not the head; France was weary of climbing into the sky, of amassing empires, of monopolizing the world; France glutted with glory; France broken, sleeping on a mattress of corpses, sleeping on a bed of laurels. France, emptied of men, of silver, of crimes, of ideas, of eloquence; France, like Mirabeau when he was dying, asking of his doctors and his descendants only one single thing: to sleep!
The shortest and simplest description of the entire period, from the Convention to the Empire, was given by
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
in 1837–43 in his novel ''
Illusions perdues
''Illusions perdues'' — in English, ''Lost Illusions'' — is a serial novel written by the French writer Honoré de Balzac between 1837 and 1843. It consists of three parts, starting in provincial France, thereafter moving to Paris, and final ...
''. The Spanish Jesuit diplomat Carlos Herrera tells Lucien de Rubempré: "In 1793 the French invented government by the people, which ended with an absolute emperor. So much for your national history".
20th and 21st century
In 1909,
Pyotr Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activ ...
wrote:
:
The Directory was a terribly orgy of the middle classes, in which the fortunes acquired during the Revolution, especially during the Thermidorean reaction, were squandered in unbridled luxury. For if the Revolution had put in circulation eight milliards of paper-money, the Thermidorean reaction went ten times as fast in that direction, for it issued the amazing sum of thirty milliards in paper ''within fifteen months''.
In 1971,
Robert Roswell Palmer
Robert Roswell Palmer (January 11, 1909 – June 11, 2002) was an American historian at Princeton University, Princeton and Yale University, Yale universities, who specialized in eighteenth-century France. His most influential work of scholarship ...
wrote:
:
The Directory became a kind of ineffective dictatorship. It repudiated most of the assignats aper moneyand the debt but failed to restore financial confidence or stability. Guerrilla activity flared up again in the Vendée and other parts of western France. The religious schism became more acute; the Directory took severe measures toward the refractory clergy hose who would not swear allegiance to the government
A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called ''pipes'' (the word ''pipe'' usually refers to a rigid tube, whereas a hose is usually a flexible one), or more generally ' ...
[R.R. Palmer and Joel Colton, ''A History of the Modern World'', 4th edition, 1971, p. 412]
In 1971, the American historians
Jerome Blum
Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century is a political-social-economic history of Russia written by historian Jerome Blum and published by Princeton University Press in 1961. The work covers the period from Varang ...
,
Rondo Cameron
Rondo Emmett Cameron (February 20, 1925 – January 1, 2001) was an American professor of economic history. He was a native of Texas. He graduated from Yale (1948) and received a Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago (1952). He taught at the ...
, and
Thomas G. Barnes
Thomas G. Barnes (August 14, 1911 – October 23, 2001) was an American creationist, who argued in support of his religious belief in a young earth by making the faulty scientific claims that the Earth's magnetic field was consistently decaying. ...
wrote:
:
It was a government of self-interest rather than virtue, thus losing any claim on idealism. It never had a strong base of popular support; when elections were held, most of its candidates were defeated. Historians have been quite negative on the Directory's use of military force to overturn election returns that went against them. ..Having by this coup d'état forfeited its claim to be a constitutional government, the Directory henceforth clung to power only by such illegal acts as purges and quashed elections.Jerome Blum
Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century is a political-social-economic history of Russia written by historian Jerome Blum and published by Princeton University Press in 1961. The work covers the period from Varang ...
, Rondo Cameron, and Thomas G. Barnes, ''The European World – A History'', 2nd ed., 1970, p. 488
In the 1970s, other historians wrote that the achievements of the Directory were minor, though it did establish administrative procedures and financial reforms that worked out well when Napoleon started using them.
[Hunt, Lansky and Hanson, (1979) p. 735][Martyn Lyons, ''France under the Directory'' (1975), pp. 159–173] It was blamed for creating chronic violence, ambivalent forms of justice, and repeated recourse to heavy-handed repression.
In 1994, Isser Woloch wrote:
:
The Terror had left a dual legacy that made such normalcy impossible. On the one hand, massive disengagement, apathy, and cynicism about government; on the other hand, rancorous, violent hostility between the politically engaged minorities of royalists and Jacobins, between whom the directorial moderates vainly attempted to navigate. Legality became the main casualty in this situation.
In 2007, Howard Brown wrote:
:
The four years of the Directory were a time of chronic disquiet and the late atrocities had made goodwill between parties impossible. The same instinct of self-preservation which had led the members of the Convention to claim so large a part in the new legislature and the whole of the Directory impelled them to keep their predominance. War was at the center of attention, not only for the survival of France but for the loot and forced payments into the French treasury.
Leadership and composition
The Directory was officially led by a president, as stipulated by Article 141 of the
Constitution of the Year III
The Constitution of the Year III (french: Constitution de l’an III) was the constitution of the French First Republic that established the Executive Directory. Adopted by the convention on 5 Fructidor Year III (22 August 1795) and approved ...
. An entirely ceremonial post, the first presidency was held by Rewbell who was chosen by lot on 2 November 1795. The directors conducted their elections privately, and appointed a new president every three months. The last president was Gohier, who resigned during Brumaire after his arrest by troops under the Bonapartist general
Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Jean Victor Marie Moreau (, 14 February 1763 – 2 September 1813) was a French general who helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the United States.
Biography
Rise to fame
Moreau was born at Morla ...
.
[Lefebvre & Soboul, p. 199.]
The following table displays all ''Directeurs'' and their dates of service:
Ministers
The ministers under the Directory were:
See also
*
Directoire style
Directoire style () was a period in the decorative arts, fashion, and especially furniture design in France concurrent with the Directory (November 2, 1795–November 10, 1799), the later part of the French Revolution. The style uses Neoclassica ...
*
Paris in the 18th century
References
Sources
*
* Church, Clive H., ''The Social Basis of the French Central Bureaucracy under the Directory 1795–1799'', in ''Past & Present'' No. 36, April 1967, pp. 59–7
in JSTOR
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*
*
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* Goodwin, A., ''The French Executive Directory – A Revaluation'', in ''History'', 1937, 22.87 pp. 201–218
* Gottschalk, Louis R., ''The Era of the French Revolution (1715–1815)'', Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929, pp. 280–306
*
*
* Hunt, Lynn, David Lansky and Paul Hanson, ''The Failure of the Liberal Republic in France, 1795–1799: The Road to Brumaire'', in ''Journal of Modern History'' (1979) 51#4, pp. 734–75
in JSTOR statistical profile of the different factions
* Jainchill, Andrew, ''The Constitution of the Year III and the Persistence of Classical Republicanism'', in ''French Historical Studies'', 2003, 26#3 pp, 399–435
*
*
* Lefebvre, Georges, ''French Revolution from 1793–1799'', Columbia University, 1964, pp. 171–211
*
* Lyon, E. Wilson, ''The Directory and the United States'', in ''American Historical Review'', 1938, 43#3, pp. 514–532
in JSTOR*
*
* Palmer, Robert R, ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution: A Political History of Europe and America, 1760–1800'', vol 2: ''The Struggle'', 1964, pp. 211–262, 549–576.
* Ross, Steven T, ''The Military Strategy of the Directory: The Campaigns of 1799'', in ''French Historical Studies'', 1967, 5#2 pp. 170–18
in JSTOR
*
*
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* Sutherland, D.M.G., '' The French Revolution and Empire: The Quest for a Civic Order'', 2nd ed. 2003, 430 pages
excerpts and text searchpp. 263–301.
*
*
Primary sources
* Stewart, John Hall, ed. ''A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution'' (1951), pp. 654–766
{{DEFAULTSORT:Directory, French
French First Republic
Collective heads of state
1795
Events
January–June
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1795 events of the French Revolution
1796 events of the French Revolution
1797 events of the French Revolution
1798 events of the French Revolution
1799 events of the French Revolution
1795 establishments in France
1799 disestablishments in France