The French Revolution "Conservative" Phase: 1794-1799
Revolt of Prairial, Year III (1795)
1795 Thermadorian Reaction Conservative victory.. Creates the Directory and institutionalized the Thermidorean Reaction. * 5-man oligarchy. [avoid a dictatorship]
Characteristics of the Directory People involved in the original Terror were now attacked. Inflation continues. Rule by rich bourgeois liberals. frivolous culture; salons return; wild fashions. Political corruption. Revival of Catholicism.
18 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799) Coup d’état by Napoleon. Approved by a plebiscite in December. Sieyes: Confidence from below; authority from above.