1. The Directory, 1795-1799 McKay 711-714, Palmer 9.45
The French Revolution
The Directory,
McKay , Palmer 9.45

2. Crane Brinton & The Anatomy of Revolution
Moderate Period
“Age of Montesquieu”
Constitutional Monarchy
Liberal moderates in control
National Assembly/Legislative Assembly
Limited Change
Limited enfranchise-ment
Radical Period
“Age of Rousseau”
Republic
Strong central government
Radicals in control
Convention
Major Change
Total enfranchise- ment
Terror
Command economy
Utopian/ idealized vision
Thermidorian Period
“Age of Smith”
Oligarchy
Moderates Bourgeoisie government
Directory
Reactionary stage
Idealized visions of Rev forgotten
Period of decadence
Free Market economy
High Inflation
Reliance on Strong Man
Restoration Period
“Age of Voltaire”
Enlightened Despotism
Consulate
Government centralized with enlightened ideals
Old Order returns to power

3. Thermidorian Reaction
Robespierre Executed (7/28/94)
-Thermidorian Reaction Begins
Coup d’ etat of Brumaire (11/9/1799)
-Consulate begins
End of Revolution?
Constitution of 1795
Rule of the Directory
Napoleon crowned Emperor
-Restoration Begins
White Terror attacks Jacobins
Coup d ‘etat of Fructidor (September 4) 1797
Price Controls Abolished

4. The “Thermidorian Reaction”
Named based on execution of Robespierre on the 9th of Thermidor (Revolutionary calendar)
Curtailed the power of the Committee for Public Safety
Closed the Jacobin Clubs
Churches were reopened
Freedom of religion granted
Economic restrictions were lifted in favor of laissez-faire policies
Constitution of 1795
more conservative republicanism

5. Characteristics of the Directory
Paris Commune was outlawed
Law of 22 Prairial was revoked
Reign of Terror over
“White” Terror
People involved in the original Terror were now attacked
Inflation skyrocketed
Price of bread, shoes
Rule by rich bourgeois liberals
Period of Self-indulgence
frivolous culture, salons reopen, wild fashions
Political corruption/instability
Catholicism Revived
Jeunesse Doree (Gilded Youth) flaunted their wealth at the Bals des victimes, or victims' balls
Madame Tallien (Notre Dame de Thermidor) came to opera wearing a semi see-through dress.
Theresa Tallien- The “IT” girl of the Directory
earned the moniker Notre-Dame de Thermidor ("Our Lady of Thermidor") as the person who was most likely to intervene in favor of the detained
Her salon saw the Neo Grec fashion of the Directory
Married to Jean Tallien, commisary of the Convention who got her release from Robbespierre’s prison during the Terror
She was a very colorful figure; one story is that she was said to bathe in the juice of strawberries for their healing properties. She once arrived at the Tuileries Palace, the then chief residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, supported by a black page, with eight sapphire rings and six toe rings, a gold bracelet on each ankle and nine bracelets on each arm. To top the look off Theresa had a head band covered in rubies. On another occasion she appeared at the Paris Opera wearing a white silk dress without sleeves and not wearing any underwear.

6. The Directory Constitution of 1795
Supported mainly by wealthy (bourgeoisie)
Restricted to the politically active class
Universal male (over 21) suffrage selected electors
Electors were usually wealthy
Electors chose department officials and members of the Legislative Assembly
Lower Chamber= Council of the 500
Initiate legislation
Upper Chamber= Council of Ancients (250)
married or widowed males over 40 years of age
Chose the Directory (5 executives)
Council of Ancients
Council of 500

7. Enemies of the Directory
Gracchus Babeuf & Conspiracy of Equals
Jacobins
Herbertists
Sans Cullottes
Royalists
Count of Provence
Peasants
Spain, Austria, GB, Prussia
Revolutionaries Moderates Reactionaries

8. Political Instability: 1795-1796
April, 1795  Inflation; bread riots
Price of bread rose 13xs
Fire wood went from 20 to 500 assignats
October, 1795 :
Vendée and Brittany revolted
Royalist coup stopped by Napoleon Bonaparte
13 Vendémiaire
Revolt by Royalist and Catholics against the Directory
Napoleon stopped them “with a whiff of grapeshot”
Directory relies of strongman to survive
May, 1796  First “communist” revolt
Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of Equals”

9. Directory’s Enemies on the Right
Louis XVI’s son died in prison in 1795
Louis XVIII (16’s brother became heir)
Count of Provence
Directed royalists against Directory from Verona, Italy
Not too politically bright
Declaration of Verona
announced his intention to restore Old Regime and punish revolutionaries since 1789 (duh)
“Bourbons learned nothing and forgot nothing.”
French don’t love Con of 1795 but Restoration to them means
Return of privileged nobility
Reimplementation of the manorial system

10. Directory’s Enemies on the Left
Conspiracy of Equals (1796)
Planned armed uprising on Floréal 22, year IV (11 May 1796)
Gracchus Babeuf
Led group of Jacobins and socialists
radical journalist
Father of anarchists, communists
Wanted to abolish private property, install political & economic equality
Tried to overthrow the Directory with a dictatorship
Captured & guillotined in 1796
Yet Directory ignored hardships of lower classes
Gracchus Babeuf

11. The aim of the French Revolution is to destroy inequality and the to reestablish the general welfare…The Revolution is not complete because the rich monopolize all the property and govern exclusively, while the poor toil like slaves, languish in misery, and count for nothing in the state.
The Conspiracy of Equals (Circa 1795)

12. Fashion of the Directory Periods
Directory period mores turned against values of Convention
Phrygian cap became so yesterday
Jeunesse doree (gilded youth) set cultural standards
Square collars, fancy clothes
Long flowing white robes with plunging necklines
Familiar tu dropped in favor of vous (Old Regime)
“Dance of the Victims”
A ball in which relatives of those killed in the Terror partied
Radical Period
Thermidorian Period

13. Napoleon Background

14. Coup d’etat of Fructidor
Directory seizure of power
First free election was held in March 1797
Royalists won many seats and on verge of political control (Council of 500)
Republicans, regicides, and Napoleon could not let royalists get control
Nap never would have risen in Old Regime
Coup d etat of Fructidor (September 4) 1797
Fructidorian government
Directory annuled the elections of the spring to keep the royalists out
Ironically violate their own Constitution of the year III
Exiled 2 Directors
To save the republic (they say) they had to violate their own constitution

15. Proclamation of the Directory to the French People
9 September 1797 (23 Fructidor Year V)
The French people have entrusted the custody of their Constitution primarily to the fidelity of the Legislative Body and the executive power.
A royalist plot, whose organization has been long in the making and which has been skillfully woven and patiently sustained, has threatened the integrity of this trust. The Executive Directory discovered the plan and arrested the guilty parties, while the Legislative Body immediately took the necessary measures.
The Legislative Body and the Executive Directory have performed their duty.

16. Foreign Policy of Directory
Expansion continues
10/1797 treaty of Campo Formio
Austria recognized French annexation of Belgium (former Austrian Netherlands) & Northern Italy
Pope deposed and Roman Republic declared
First Coalition collapses
Now only England is still at war with France

17. The Coup d’etat Brumaire
After Fructidor coup constitutionalism is given up
Directory becomes an ineffective dictatorship
Repudiated debts
guerrilla activity in Vendee flares up
Religious schism became more acute as Directory persecuted refractory clergy
Napoleon invades Egypt (indirect strike at British)
Discovers Rosetta Stone
British fleet cuts off French army in Egypt
Napoleon abandons his army and returns to Paris
British caricature of the 18th of Brumaire. “The Corsican Crocodile dissolving the Council of Frogs.”
Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. Because it presents essentially the same text in all three scripts (with some minor differences between them), it provided the key to the modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

18. Egypt

19. The Coup d’etat Brumaire
Napoleon’s seizure of power
Directory needs a “strong man”
Abbe Sieyes
“confidence from below, authority from above”
Selects popular general Napoleon Bonaparte
Sieyes thinks he will be the real “power behind the throne”
Coup d’ etat of Brumaire (11/9/1799)
Napoleon seized power
chosen as a member of the Consulate (3) and becomes first Consul 11/1799
France becomes an Enlightened Despotism

20. First Consul