Le Directoire (1795-1799) PDF

# Le Directoire (1795-1799) ## A. Les difficultés du nouveau régime - Le 10 août 1792, l'Assemblée nationale prononce la destitution de Louis XVI. - After the victory of Valmy, the new government abolishes the monarchy and establishes the First Republic on September 22, 1792. - Three political r...

# Le Directoire (1795-1799) ## A. Les difficultés du nouveau régime - Le 10 août 1792, l'Assemblée nationale prononce la destitution de Louis XVI. - After the victory of Valmy, the new government abolishes the monarchy and establishes the First Republic on September 22, 1792. - Three political regimes will then succeed each other: the Convention, the Directory and the Consulate. - A new Constitution (called the An III) comes into force on October 26, 1795. - It renews with the census suffrage and rigorously separates the powers. - Legislative power is shared between two chambers, the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders. - Executive power is entrusted to five Directors (hence the name of Directory). - This fragmentation of powers aims to prevent any dictatorship of a man or an assembly. - The economic legacy of previous governments is disastrous: - The majority of the population lives with difficulty. - Taxes are poorly collected. - The assignat has depreciated so much that it is finally abolished in 1796. - On September 30, 1797, the State announces that it will only reimburse one-third of its debts, thus resigning itself to bankruptcy. - This situation makes the regime unpopular and encourages the rise of opposition, both Jacobins and royalists. - In 1796, the Conspiracy of the Equals, organized by Babeuf, aims to establish an agricultural communism based on equality of fortunes and collective exploitation of the land. - But Babeuf is discovered and guillotined in May 1797. - Very quickly the weaknesses of the Constitution appear: - Moderate bourgeois only maintain their power through a series of coups against royalists and Jacobins. - France is becoming increasingly ungovernable. ## B. The Ascension of Bonaparte and the Fall of the Directory - Through the victories of his armies, France was able to dismantle the opposing coalition. - In 1796, its last enemies are Austria and Great Britain. - The Directory sends two armies to Germany against the former. - A third army must carry out a diversionary operation in Italy under the command of Bonaparte. - This young general, 27 years old, reveals his military genius by forcing Austria to sign the Treaty of Campo-Formio. - In 1798, Bonaparte is put in charge of an expedition to Egypt which is supposed to take him away from France where his popularity worries the Directory. - He forges a reputation by winning the Battle of the Pyramids (July 1798). - Upon his return in October 1799, a second coalition had formed against France, and its armies were retreating across Europe. - Meanwhile the royalist agitation had resumed. - The 1799 elections gave the majority to the Jacobins, who this time managed to impose themselves on the moderates. - They are horrified by the return of a policy reminiscent of the Terror: censorship, forced loans, the law of hostages. - They plan a coup d'état to end this and stabilize a regime in accordance with their wishes. - One of the Directors, Sieyès, a man of 1789, convinces Bonaparte to support them. - The 9 and 10 November 1799, he forces the deputies of the two Councils to grant him full powers to reorganize the Constitution and conclude peace. ## Conclusion - Founded in 1792, the Republic finally succeeded in saving the national territory from foreign invasion, but at the price of a contradictory policy with the principles of 1789: the Terror. - Nevertheless, it could not overcome the economic problems. - To preserve the main achievements of the Revolution, to restore internal order and maintain external peace, moderate bourgeois call on Bonaparte, hoping to find in him the man who will allow them to get rid of both royalists and Jacobins, even at the cost of the restriction of freedom.