Why Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory in 1799

History · AS: France, 1774-1814. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The Directory (1795 to 1799) was designed to stop both a return of the king and a return of the Terror. Power was shared between five Directors and two councils, so that no single man or group could dominate. This also made government slow and weak.

The Directory faced royalists on the right and Jacobins on the left. To survive it cancelled election results and relied on the army, which destroyed respect for the constitution. Inflation and debt damaged its reputation further.

Meanwhile Bonaparte became a national hero through his victories in Italy. In November 1799 politicians led by Sieyès used him for a coup, but he took the leading place himself.

Rules to remember

Constitution of Year III (1795): five Directors, a Council of Five Hundred and a Council of Ancients.
October 1795 (Vendémiaire): Bonaparte's guns crushed a royalist rising in Paris caused by the Two-Thirds Decree.
1796: Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals, a plot from the far left, was uncovered.
September 1797: coup of Fructidor. The army helped the Directors remove elected royalists.
1797: 'bankruptcy of the two-thirds'. The state cancelled two-thirds of its debt.
October 1797: Treaty of Campo Formio ended Bonaparte's Italian campaign with victory over Austria.
9 to 10 November 1799 (18 to 19 Brumaire): the coup of Brumaire. Sieyès planned it; Lucien Bonaparte saved it at Saint-Cloud.

Common mistake

Students often say Napoleon planned the coup of Brumaire alone. It was planned by Sieyès, a Director, who wanted a general as his tool; Napoleon then pushed Sieyès aside.

Worked example

Why did the coup of Fructidor (1797) make a later military coup more likely?

In 1797 royalists did well in the elections.
The Directors used troops to cancel the results and remove their opponents.
This showed that the Directory would break its own constitution and that it depended on the army to stay in power.
Generals learned that they, not the voters, decided who governed.

Answer: Fructidor weakened the Directory's legal authority and made the army the real judge of politics, which opened the way for Brumaire.

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