The immediate aftermaths of the fall of the Jacobins was that, the National Convention moved in to restore order. The Jacobins themselves had arisen out of the National Convection as members of the Montagnards. But they had extreme views and violent tactics to save the revolution. These tactics included terror, dictatorship and the use of the law of the maximum. Although Robespierre claimed to be working towards saving the revolution from internal and external threats, it must be remembered that he had more important sinister motives such as setting up an unparallel dictatorship in France.
It was therefore common understanding and expectation that the first task the National Convention would do to ensure a lasting guarantee of the liberties of the 1789 revolution would be to remove all the institutions and mechanisms of terror, and in their place, setting up a democratic constitution. The constitution would ensure that no one individual is made too powerful in France. Hence, the Directory were appointed as a guarantor against a possible return of the Jacobian dictatorship in France.
Between July 1794 and 31 May 1795 the convention set about dismantling the machinery of the Terror in a number of ways.
Religious reforms were also carried out to end the de-Christianisation which had been started by the Herbetists. In September 1794, the convention decided that it would no longer pay clerical salaries. This, for the first time, brought about the separation of the church and state. Moreover, on 21 February 1795 the government restored freedom of worship for all religions, and thereby formally ending the persecution of religion waged during the Terror by the de-Christianisation campaign. For the first time in a major European country, the state was declaring itself to be entirely neutral in all matters of religious faith.
The above changes meant that the political centralization which had been established by the Committee of Public Safety was abandoned. Committees of the National Convention were set up to take over most of the work of the Committee of General Security (CGS) and the Committee of Public Safety (CPS). The latter was now confined to running the war and diplomacy. In Paris, the commune was abolished. In local government, power passed again to the moderates and property owners who had been in control before June 1793.
The Thermidorians (those individuals and groups who had helped to overthrow Robespierre) wanted a new constitution which would guarantee the main features of the Revolution of 1789. This had ushered in the abolition of privileges, and freedom of the individual and the control of local and national affairs by an elected assembly and elected officials. They also wanted to ensure that a dictatorship, like that of the Committee of Public Safety7 (CPS) would be impossible in the future and that there would be no return to monarchy or the popular sovereignty on the sans-culotte model (a violent and anarchic manner).
The main features of the new constitution which brought in the Directory were therefore as follows:
In order to prevent a dictatorship arising, the Midorians rigidly separated the legislature from the Executive.
The legislature was divided into two chambers as follows:
The executive was to be a Directory of five members, chosen by the Ancients from the list drawn up by the five hundred. The five Directors would hold office for five years, though one, chosen lot had to retire each year. Directors were not allowed to be members of either council, and their powers were limited. They would not initiate or veto laws or declare war, and they had no control over the treasury, yet they had considerable authority as they were in charge of diplomacy, military affairs and law enforcement.
Ministers who also could not sit in the councils were appointed by, and were responsible to the directors. This was the same case with government commissioners, as well as representatives on mission, and national agents who saw to it that government policy was implemented in the provinces.
In spite of the checks and balances, a complex system which ensured that the power given to the executive was balanced by the power granted to the legislature, the new constitution had many weaknesses.
It is important to note that the convention, having drawn up the new constitution devised means to cling on to power, a little longer, since they knew that they were unpopular as an elected assembly/chamber. They also feared that an open election might produce a royalist majority. Hence, in order to avoid this, it decreed that two thirds of the deputies to the new councils must be chosen from among the existing deputies of the Convention. The new constitution of Year III was agreed on, 22 August 1795. This was submitted to a plebiscite for approval. 1 057 390 were in favour of the constitution, against 49 978 who opposed it. Four million voters did not vote mainly because of apathy towards the whole system of elections in France. The Two – Thirds Decree was accepted by only 205 000 to 108 000. As will be seen there was growing anxiety and fission in many sections of French political life.
As the discussions about the proposed constitution were nearing a close, the Royalists sought to promote their cause. Constitution monarchists, wanting a return to a limited monarchy similar to that in the 1791 Constitution, felt they were gaining public support as they appeared to offer a prospect of stability. They had hoped to put Louis XVI’S son, – a prisoner in the Temple. (one of the prisons in Paris), on the throne as LOUIS XVII’, but he died in June 1795.
From northern Italy, therefore, came the Conte De Province, Louis XVI’s brother who immediately proclaimed himself as Louis XVIII, and on 24 June, issued the Verona Declaration. The Declaration promised to reverse many of the liberal gains made during the French Revolution. Louis promised to restore the ancient constitution of France completely, which meant restoring the three orders and the parlements (3 classes, – first, second and third). He also promised to restore ‘stolen properties” such as the lands taken from the nobility, émigrés and clergy. This antagonised all those who had bought lands and all who had benefited from the abolition of the tithe and siegneurial dues. Although not intended, the Verona Declaration turned out to be a great boost to those who loved a republic. This is because the declaration turned out to be a reactionary document which made even the task of restoring the monarchy very difficult if not impossible.
The Verona Declaration failed to attract mass support for the royalist cause. Although work on the new constitution was proceeding well, of the new two-thirds law came as a shock to many Parisians who had hoped that the convention would soon be replaced. It was the inability to deal with food shortages and inflation that turned many ordinary people against the Convention, yet it now appeared that many of its deputies would be returned to the new assembly. Hence, the attack on the convention became synonymous with the attack on the new Directory.
The royalists, in particular, felt that the prospect of any restoration of the monarchy was unlikely, given the known hostility of the Convention. Frustration and anger, therefore, spilled into rebellion.
On 5 October 1795 (13 Vendemiaire) a large royalist crowd of 25 000 gathered to march on the Convention and seize power. They greatly outnumbered the 7 500 government troops, but the latter had cannons, under the command of General Banaparte, whereas the rebels did not. The devastating artillery fire – Bonaparte’s famous “Whiff of grapeshot”, crushed the rebellion. As over 300 were killed or wounded in the fighting, this was one of the bloodiest of the revolutionary episodes. It also marked another war, the people of Paris would not again attempt, to intimidate an elected assembly until 1830.
The divisions among the royalists and the unpopularity of the Verona Declaration, all made the rising of Vendemiaire appear rather mysterious. It is usually presented as a royalist rising brought about by the two-thirds Decree, which, it is said, prevented the royalists from obtaining a majority in the elections to the Councils. Yet, the largest groups of the rebels were artisans and apprentices: a third of those arrested were manual workers. The rising was not simply against the two-thirds Decree, but had economic origins too. Many people, including rentiers – small property owners, and government employed, had been badly hit by inflation. These people, who were among the rebels, had supported the Thermidorians and defended the Convention in the rising of Germinal and Prairial.
The repression that followed was light. Only two people were executed although steps were taken to prevent further risings. The sectional assemblies were abolished and the National Guard was put under the control of Napolean Banaparte, the new Army General. For the second time in six months, the army had saved the Directory, which was still in its infancy and still dominated by the unpopular former members of the Convention.
The new third of the members elected to the council for five hundred after Vendemaire, and the dissolution of the Convention, was mainly a royalist, but they were, at least, unable to influence the choice of directors. As the Verona Declaration had threatened to punish all the regicides (those who killed the King), the Conventionnels (members of the convention between 1792 and 1795) were elected as Directors, (Carnot was the best known), all of whom were regicides, as this would be a guarantee against a royalist restoration.
The directors wanted to provide a stable and liberal government which would maintain the gains of the revolution. Yet the problems they faced were daunting. The war appeared to be endless, and it had to be paid for. The treasury was empty, taxes were unpaid and the assignat had dropped in value. Many Frenchman did not expect the Directory to last more than a few months. The Directory did, however, survive and for longer than any of the other revolutionary regimes. There were a number of factors that contributed to this:
Significantly, the army supported the Directory as a royalist restoration would mean an end to the war. Army officers did not wish to be deprived of any opportunity provided by war, for promotion or plunder. It was the army above all, that enabled the Directory to overcome all challenges to its authority, but this was a double-edged weapon. The army which kept the Directory in power would be the most serious threat to its survival, if it became dissatisfied.
The first real challenge to the Directory came from Gracchus Babeuf, a radical pamphleteer and editor of Tribun Du Peuple. Babeuf disliked the constitution of the Year III because it gave power to the wealthy. He believed that the aim of society should be “the common happiness”, and that the revolution should secure the equal enjoyment of life’s blessings for all. He thought that as ownership of private property produced inequalities the only way to establish real equality was to establish the communal management of property and abolish private possession. These ideas were a lot more radical than those put forward in the Year II and had led many historians to regard Babeuf as the first communist, a forerunner of Karl Marx (1818 – 83).
From March 1796, Babeuf organised a plan to overthrow the Directory by means of a coup. He saw what he called his “conspiracy of Equals” as a popular rising. Babeuf realised, however, that this would not come about spontaneously, but must be prepared by a small group of dedicated revolutionaries. Through propaganda and agitation they would persuade key institutions like the army and police, who would provide the force to seize power. After seizing power the revolutionary leaders would not hand it over to an elected assembly, but would establish a dictatorship in order to make fundamental changes in the organisation of society.
Babeuf received no support from the sans-culottes and little from former Jacobins. He was arrested in May 1796, after being betrayed to the authorities by a fellow conspirator, and was executed the following year. Marxist historians such as Albert Soboul consider Babeuf’s theories to be extremely influential. They argue that his ideas inspired not only nineteenth century French revolutionaries, like Blanqui, but ultimately, Lenin and his followers who set up the first communist state in the Soviet Union in 1917. Babeuf’s importance to the French Revolution itself, however, was slight.
The elections of 1797 revealed a growing popular shift towards the monarchists. People were tired of war abroad and religious conflicts at home, and found the idea of a constitutional monarchy attractive, believing that it would offer peace and stability. Of the 216 ex-members of the convention who sought re-election, only eleven were returned. Monarchists won 180 of the 260 seats being contested, bringing their numbers in the councils to 330. The wealthy, populous northern departments returned the largest proportion of monarchists, which suggests that the Directory had lost the support of the richer bourgeoisie.
The elections, in which, in some departments, were fewer than 10% of the electors who voted, did not give the monarchists a majority in the Councils. However, they did mean that the Directory no longer had majority support and could rely on only about a third of the deputies. All the monarchists needed to do, it appeared, was to wait for the next elections, when more Conventionnels would have to give up their seats and, if voting followed a similar pattern to the elections of 1797, they would obtain a majority. Monarchists would then be in a position to restore the monarchy legally. The opponents of the Directory wee also successful in elections to the provincial administrations.
The royalists showed their strength when the councils appointed three of their supporters to important positions. One was elected President of the Five Hundred and another President of the Ancients. Barthelemy, the new director was regarded as symphathetic to the monarchists, as was Carnot, who was becoming steadily more conservative. Carnot was prepared to give up conquered territory to make a lasting peace and so was disliked by the generals.
Of the remaining Directors, two were committed Republicans. They were determined to prevent a restoration of the monarchy and sought help from the army. Bonaparte had already sent General Augereau to Paris with some troops to support the republican Directors. On the nights of 3 – 4 September 1797 (17 – 18 Fructidor) troops were ordered to seize all the strong points in Paris and surround the Council chambers. They then arrested two Directors, Carnot and Barthelemy, and 53 deputies.
Some of the remaining deputies who attended the councils clearly felt intimidated, and they approved two decrees demanded by the remaining Directors. One decree cancelled the elections in 49 Departments removing 177 deputies without providing for their replacement. Normandy Brittany, the Paris area and the north now had no parliamentary representation at all. As second decree provided for the deportation to the penal settlements in Guiana of Carnot (who had escaped and fled abroad and was sentenced in absentia), Barthelemy, the 53 deputies arrested and some leading royalists. The Directors also cancelled the local government elections and made appointments themselves.
It was clear to all that the coup was the end of parliamentary government and of the constitution of Year III. It was also clear that the executive had won an important victory over the legislature. The revival of monarchism had thus been dealt a significant blow. It also meant that the Directory could now govern without facing hostile councils.
After Fructidor, the new Directory took action against émigrés and refractory priests. Émigrés who had returned to France were given two weeks to leave, (otherwise they would be executed). During the next few weeks many were hunted down and were sentenced to death. The Clergy were now required to take an oath rejecting any support for the royalty. Those who refused would be deported to Guiana. The 1400 non-juring priests were sentenced to deportation.
The terror that followed Fructidor was limited. It was carried out solely by the government and the army in an attempt to destroy the royalist movement. In the short-term, it succeeded. But by alienating Catholic opinion, it provided more opponents for the Directory.
Many of the financial problems of the Directory were the legacy of previous regimes, which had printed more and more assisgnats in order to pay for the war. As by February 1796, these were almost worthless, and the Directory issued a new paper currency known as mandats territoriaux. They also soon lost value and by July were worth less than five percent of their nominal value. In February 1797 they ceased to be legal tender.
The monetary crisis had been catastrophic for government officials, rentiers and workers, as they saw rapid decline in their purchasing power. Metal coins now became the only legal currency and these were in short supply. There were only one billion livres in circulation in 1797 compared with two and a half billion in 1789. Thus, resulted in deflation (a fall in prices as demand for goods and services falls), as producers and retailers lowered prices to try to stimulate demand among consumers who were reluctant to buy goods. The inflation of 1795 to 1997 had made the Directory unpopular with the workers. Now it became unpopular with businessmen, since lower prices meant lower profits.
From the coup of Fructidor to the spring of 1799 the Directory had little trouble with the purged councils, and Dominique – Vincent Ramel, the Minister of Finance had an opportunity to introduce some far-reaching reforms. This debt increased during the revolution and the war was renounced by a one-off payment to debt holders. Their loans to the government were converted into non-interest bearing bonds which could be used to buy national property.
This move was of immediate benefit to the government as it reduced the annual interest as it reduced the annual interest on the national debt from 240 million francs (a quarter of government expenditure)to 80 million. It was not of much use to the bondholders who were denied income. Within a year the value of the bonds had fallen by 60 percent. Soon after that they became worthless when the government refused to accept them for the purchase of biens (nationalised property of the church as ordered by the decree of 2 November 1789). This was in effect a practical declaration of state bankruptcy as two thirds of the national debt was liquidated in this way. Although debt holders were unhappy with the measure, the bankruptcy of the two – thirds (the government wrote off two – thirds of the debt it owed its creditors), as it was known, helped to stabilize French finances for a time.
In addition to cutting expenditure, Ramel wanted to increase revenue. He put in place a number of policies to achieve this:
In 1798 four basic forms of direct taxation were established
These measures were among the most lasting achievements of the Directory and survived until 1914.
Ramel changed the method of collecting direct taxes. Whereas previously locally elected authorities had been responsible for collection, central control was now introduced. Commissioners appointed by the Directors were to assess and levy taxes.
As there was continued deficit during wartime, the government revived an unpopular practice of the ancient regime, – indirect taxes. This proved to be very unpopular as it was raising the prices of goods in the towns.
An increasingly lucrative source of income was plundered from those foreign states, especially Italy and Germany, which had been occupied by French armies.
The impact of these policies was positive. Although very unpopular, the bankruptcy of the two-thirds helped to stabilise French finances for a time, aided by the reduced military expenditure when peace with Austria was made in October 1797. Hence, Ramel was able to balance the budget. The government’s expenditure was equal to its income for the first time since the Revolution began.
The battle of Fleurus (in Belgium) in June 1794 was the first in a series of successes which continued until all the members of the first coalition, except Britain, had been knocked out of the war. In the summer of 1794, Belgium was occupied and in the following winter, the United Provinces were invaded. The French conquered the Rhineland, and crossed into Spain. Russia had intervened in Poland, which it was clear, would be partitioned again. Russia, therefore, made peace with France so that she would be free to claim Polish territory for herself. This, in reality, made very little difference, as Russia had played only a minimal part in the war against France, since 1793.
At the treaty of Basle, on 6 April 1795, Russia promised to hand over its territory on the left bank of the Rhine to France. In return, she would receive land on the right bank. This treaty freed French troops to attack other enemies.
Meanwhile, the united provinces had become the Batavian Republic in January 1795. This was after a revolt against William V who fled to England. Having lost Russian support the Dutch made peace with France to whom they became allies. The French hoped that the powerful Dutch navy would help to tip the naval balance against Great Britain, but this did not happen. Spain too made peace in July 1795, giving up to France her part of the island of San Domingo. Of the great powers, only Great Britain and Austria remained in the fight against France.
In 1796 the main French objective was to defeat Austria. Carnot, therefore, drew up the plan of the campaign. Armies under Jourdan and Moreau would march across Bavaria to Vienna, whilst the armies of the Alps and Italy would conquer Piedmont and Lombardy and then move across to the Alps, to Vienna. The main attack was to come from Jourdan and Moreau, who were given charge of 140 000 troops.
The main Italian campaign was spear-headed by Napoleon Bonaparte, who was given a small force of 30 000 ill-disciplined troops. Napoleon, however, soon won the loyalty of his men by promising them vast wealth after defeating Austria. Within a month of taking charge, Napoleon had defeated the North Italian state of Piedmont and forced her to make peace. In the same month of May, he defeated the Austrians at Lodi and entered Milan. Mantua was the key to the passing over the Alps to Vienna, and Napoleon finally captured it in February 1797.
First, it is important to note that through the conquest of Mantua, the road to the eventual conquest of Vienna itself was opened. Nevertheless, due to the fact that the Australian Arch Duke Charles, had driven Moreau back to the Rhine. Napoleon had to sign an armistice with Austria at Leoben in April 1796.
Secondly, Napoleon actually decided the terms at Leoben without consulting the Directory. He was already confident enough to be making his own foreign policy. In so doing, he was ignoring the specific instructions from the Directors. They had wanted to use Lombardy as a bargaining counter when negotiating with Austria, to exchange for recognition of French control of the left bank of the Rhine. Instead, Napoleon joined Lombardy to Modena and the Papal states to form the Cisalpine Republic. Austria recognised Belgium, which the French had annexed in October 1795, as French territory.
As compensation for giving up Lombardy and Belgium, Napoleon gave Austria Venice and part of the Venetian Republic, which provided access to the Adriatic Sea. The fate of the left bank of the Rhine was unclear; it was to be decided by a congress of the Holy Roman Empire. The Directory and the generals on the Rhine were furious, that they had no choice, but to accept what Napoleon had done. As the royalists had won the elections in France, the Directory knew it might need him. The peace of Campo Formio, on 18 October 1797, confirmed what had been agreed at Leoben.
On the continent the prospects for a permanent peace receded. French foreign policy became increasingly aggressive as the Directors sought to keep French conquests and even to extend them. France re-organised a number of foreign territories, effectively re-drawing the map of Europe in some areas. These new territories were, in effect, satellite republics under French influence or control.
The spring of 1798 marked the high point of the Republic’s power. In western, central and southern Europe, France had attained a degree of hegemony (domination) unparalleled in modern European history. Yet from this position of great external strength, the decline in the Directory’s fortunes was equally dramatic. Within 18 months it would be overthrown.
Following his success in Italy, Napoleon departed for Egypt in May 1798 with the aim of attacking British interests. His fleet, however, was destroyed by Nelson at the Battle of Aboukir Bay in August 1798.
The defeat was crucial. It encouraged other countries to once again take up arms against the French. A second coalition was formed, and Russia which had not taken part in previous fighting against France, declared war in December 1798. Tsar Paul was incensed at the French seizure of Malta which he had declared himself protector in 1797. France declared war on Austria in March 1799 on the grounds that Austria had allowed Russian troops to move through her territory. Immediately war resumed. France occupied the rest of Italy. Piedmont was annexed to France.
These early victories, though, were followed by a series of defeats. The French were pushed back to the Rhine by the Austrians and the Russians advanced through northern Italy. French forces withdrew from the rest of Italy, except Genoa, as the Russians moved into Switzerland. It appeared that France would be invaded for the first time in six years, but, as had happened before, France was saved by quarrels among the allies. Austria, instead of supporting Russia in Switzerland, sent here best troops north to the Rhine. This allowed the French to get on the offensive in Switzerland where the Russians withdrew in the Autumn of 1799. The immediate danger to France was over.
By 1798 there were concerns about the size of the French army which was only 270 000 strong men. Desertion, low morale and a reluctance to join the military, were all taking their toll. Jourdan’s law proposed that conscription be re-introduced for the first time since 1793. The councils approved this in September 1798.
However, the law provoked widespread resistance. Much of Belgium, where conscription was also introduced, revolted in November and it took two months to put down the rising. The prospect of conscription was viewed with great reluctance among large numbers of young men who went to great lengths to avoid military service. Of the first draft of 230 000, only 74 000 men reached the armies.
The 1799 elections once again showed the unpopularity of the Directory. Only 66 out of 187 government candidates were elected. Among the rest there were about 50 Jacobins, including some who had been purged during Floreal. They were still a minority, but many moderate deputies were now prepared to follow their lead. The moderates had become disillusioned with the government as news of military defeats reached Paris. The military situation was regarded as so desperate that the councils were persuaded to pass emergency laws that were proposed by Jacobins. Hence, in June 1799 Jourdan called for a new levee en masse – all men between 20 and 25 were to be called up immediately.
With her armies being driven back into France, the Republic could no longer pay for the war by seizing foreign assets. A forced loan measure compelling the wealthy to loan money to the government was decreed. This was intended to raise 100 million francs, a sum that meant that the wealthy might have to give up as much as three quarters of their income.
The law of hostages (decreed that the relatives of any French citizens challenging the authority of the Republic would be imprisoned at their own expense, and their property seized to pay for any damages caused by anti government rebels) of July 12, was even worse for the notables. Any areas resisting the new measures would be declared “disturbed”. Local authorities would then arrest relatives of émigrés, nobles or rebels. They would be imprisoned, fined, and their property confiscated to pay for the damage caused by disturbances.
These measures appeared to be a return to the arbitrary arrests and harassment of the Terror of the Year II. Yet by November, only 10 million livres of the 100 million livres had been collected. Conscription was planned to raise 402 000 troops, but as in 1798, there was widespread resistance and only 248 000 actually joined the army. Many became brigands or royalist rebels to avoid being called up. In fact, the law of hostages was hardly ever applied because of opposition from local officials.
In 1799 there was a virtual collapse of government administration in the provinces. There were many reasons for this:
The result of this administrative collapse was brigandage (outbreak of lawlessness and violence by groups of bandits). By November 1799 there was civil war in Ardeche region in Southern France.
It was in the wake of a worsening political and economic crisis that Abbe Sieyes who had become a Director thought of a coup in order to strengthen the executive. But he knew that the Five Hundred would not agree to this and that it could not be done constitutionally. Therefore he saw the opportunity of a coup in which the support of the army would be really necessary.
Sieyes approached Bonaparte, the most successful of the republican generals to back him in the coup. On his way to Paris from Egypt on 10 October, Napoleon was greeted enthusiastically by the population as one who had brought peace in 1797. He had equally made up his mind to play a leading role in French politics. He, therefore, agreed to join Sieyes’ coup only on condition that a provisional government of three consuls, who would draft a new constitution, would be set up.
The decree to abolish the Directory was in fact approved by a small group of Councillors who were sympathetic to the coup plotters. The directory was replaced with a provisional executive committee of three members, Sieyes, Roger Ducos and Napoleon. The great beneficiary of Brumaire was Napoleon, and his brother Lucien Bonaparte, President of the Council of Five Hundred who had moved in to justify Napoleon’s role.
Napoleon issued a proclamation to the French Nation on 10 November 1799 to explain why he had taken part in the coup. “On my return to Paris I found all authority in chaos and an agreement only on the truth that the constitution was half destroyed and incapable of preserving liberty. Men of every party came to see me, confided their plans, disclosed their secrets and asked for my support. I refused to be a man of party (aligned to any party)”
Paris remained calm but this was a sign of apathy and reluctance to become involved in any more protests, rather than of approval. When news of the coup spread to the provinces, there was little rejoicing at the events. Such reaction was varied between surprise and mild opposition. A poster that appeared in Paris expressed the disillusionment many felt towards the Directory: “France wants something great and long – lasting. Instability has been her downfall. She has no desire for a monarchy, wants a free and independent legislature and to enjoy the benefits from ten years of sacrifices”
When Napoleon presented the new constitution of Year VIII to the French people on 15 December 1799, he said that it was “founded on the true principles of representative government, on the sacred rights of property, equality and liberty. The citizens the revolution is established on the principles which began it. It is finished”.
Many did not realise the significance of the coup d’etat of Brumaire. The republican phase of the Revolution was drawing to a close, while another destined to culminate in the Napoleonic Empire was beginning.
The Directors had wanted to produce a stable government which maintained the gains of the Revolution of 1789 whilst at the same time avoiding the extremes of Jacobin dictatorship or royalism. In the final analysis they were unsuccessful, and this was due to a combination of factors.
The above mentioned events discredited the Directory and produced politicians who were not as attached to the Republic as the conventional had been. Only 12 percent of those elected to the councils in 1799 had been members of the Convention and only 5 percent were regicides (those who had executed for the first time that year. These deputies were prepared to accept the view of Sieyes that the constitution should be changed and this, of course, meant getting rid of the Directory, they were not only prepared to welcome the new regime, but took part in running it. Of 498 important officials of the consulate, 77 percent had been deputies under the Directory. These conservatives and moderates wanted stability and were prepared to accept an authoritarian regime to get it. To some extent the regime collapsed because of the contradictions within it. It claimed to favour democracy, yet used the military to suppress opposition. It needed war for economic purposes and yet, the war made the Directory lose considerable domestic support.
Despite the fact that the Directory was the longest lasting of the revolutionary regimes there has been a tendency to discuss it as a period of little achievement. The trend in recent years has been to consider the period in a more balanced and objective way.
Many of the achievements of the consulate in fact began under the Directory. The financial reforms and reorganisation of the tax system started during the Directory immensely contributed to economic recovery. These helped stimulate industrial and agricultural expansion that would develop much more fully in the Napoleon era.
Moreover, changes in administration within the departments preceded the roles later taken by prefects. Although its collapse was sudden, the Directory’s achievements should not be dismissed an insignificant. Reforms under the Directory were a significant basis upon which future reforms were refined and perfected.
1. How effective were the measures introduced by the Directory in 1799 to deal with the worsening economic and military crisis?
2. Explain why Napoleon emerged as a major political and military figure during the period 1792- 1799.
3. How valid is the claim that the Directory was the most successful regime in France in the period 1789 – 1799?
4. What can be learned from the Directory (1795 – 1799) about the achievements and problems of the revolution in France?
5. Why was the Directory so easily overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799?
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