Fall of the Directory

Fall of the Directory

1. Fall of the Directory

   • 1788-9 - Directory clearly losing support and control
   • Nov 1799 - Coup of Brumaire - Napoleon and Sieyes
     • 1. Moved councils to St Cloud
     • 2. Soldiers kicked out deps
     • 3. Rump approved a new executive committee of 3 membs (Consulate)

2. Why was Napoleon able to seize power in the coup of Brumaire?

   • Directory's (long term) failures
   • Lawlessness of 1798/99 (Directory's short term failures)
   • Napoleon (popularity, success, charisma, ambition)
   • Abbe Sieyes (planned the coup)

3. Directory's long term failures

   • Constitution of Year III
     • Deadlock (exec / leg)
     • Link to Fructidor (Nat Convention unpopular - therefore new govt may be unpopular); separation of powers
   • Reliance on army and war - Prairial (1795), Vendemaire (1795) and Fructidor (1797)
   • Alienation of possible supporters
     • 'Bankruptcy of 2/3'
       • 2/3 Of Nat debt 'written off' = annoyed middle class

4. Govt collapse of 1798-99

   • Popularity collapsed
     • 1. Sept 1798 - conscription (only 74,000/230,000 turned up in 1st draft)
     • 2. 1799 - Only 66/187 new councilors in 500 Ancients were govt candidates
     • 3. June 1799 - Jourdans Laws (levee en masse for 20-25 yr olds) - only 248,000 / 402,000 turned up
   • Alienated possible supporters
     • 1. Forced loan on rich (only 10% of expected revenue collected)
     • 2. Law of Hostages (rarely applied)
       • Families held hostage until they showed up for conscription
   • Led to collapse of govt control + law and order in provs
     • 1. Local notables refused to serve govt
     • 2. Army abroad and Nat Guard small
     • 3. Govt commissionaires killed
     • 4. Brigandage / collapse of law and order
       • Civil war in Ardeche by Nov 1799

5. White Terror

   • Throughout 1794/5 royalists and other former rebels from Vendee, Brittany, Lyon, the South East etc (areas that suffered during Terror) attacked Jacobins who had been responsible
     • Largely revenge attacks (vendetta in South East) although some organised by royalists
   • Gilded Youth - Groups of young chaps dressing as dandies and beating up Jacobins and sans - culottes
     • Seen in most provs during 1794 / 5

6. Babeuf Plot (1796)

   • Babeuf = Left - wing radical in Paris
     • Played on eco woes of sans - culottes
   • Proposed - Personal property should be abolished and shared in common (1 of the first modern Communists)
   • Urged uprising amongst sans - culottes to force adoption of 1793 Constitution (allowed right to insurrection)
   • Sans - culottes failed to carry out uprising, partly because orgs (48 Sections) had been abolished
     • Journees almost impossible w/out org

7. Coup d'Etat of Fructidor (1797)

   • 1. More monarchists elected (new 1/3)
   • 2. Monarchists elected as Presidents of both councils (500 and Ancients) and as new Director (Barthelemy)
     • Carnot (existing Director) also sympathetic of royalism)
   • 3. Only 2 fervent repub Directors left
   • 4. Napoleon / army arrested 2 Directors (Carnot and Barth) and 53 Deps
   • 5. Forced through new laws (through 'rump' purged councils) - removing and persecuting royalists)
   • 6. Purged and exiled royalists, emigres and refractory priests
   • Fructidor can be seen as a victory of executive and republicans in army over legislature

8. Coup of Floreal (May 1798)

   • Directors persuaded councils to annul elections of resurgent Jacobins - showing clear contempt for Constitution (Jacobins not a major threat)