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French Consulate
The Consulate (French: Consulat) was the top-level government of the First French Republic from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799 until the start of the French Empire on 18 May 1804.
During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his appointment as First Consul, established himself as the head of a more autocratic and centralised republican government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. Due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history." By the end of this period, Bonaparte had engineered an authoritarian personal rule now viewed as a military dictatorship.
French military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, and eventually shattered it in November 1799. Historians sometimes date the start of the political downfall of the Directory to 18 June 1799 (Coup of 30 Prairial VII by the French Republican calendar). This was when anti-Jacobin Director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, after only a month in office, with the help of the Directory's only surviving original member, Paul Barras, also an anti-Jacobin, successfully rid himself of the other three then-sitting directors.[citation needed] The elections held for the two councils in March and April had produced a new "Neo-Jacobin" majority in the two bodies, and being unhappy with the existing five man Directory, by 5 June 1799, these councils had found an irregularity in the election of the Director Jean Baptiste Treilhard, who thus retired in favour of Louis-Jérôme Gohier, a Jacobin more "in tune" with the feelings in the two councils. The next day, 18 June 1799, anti-Jacobins Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai and Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux were also driven to resign, although one long time anti-Jacobin, popularly known for his cunning, survived the day's coup; they were replaced by the Jacobin baron Jean-François-Auguste Moulin and by non-Jacobin, or "weak" Jacobin, Roger Ducos. The three new directors were generally seen by the anti-Jacobin elite of France as non-entities, but that same elite could take some comfort in knowing that the five man Directory was still in anti-Jacobin hands, but with a reduced majority.
Additional military disasters, royalist insurrections in the south, Chouan disturbances in a dozen departments of the western part of France (mainly in Brittany, Maine, and eventually Normandy), royalist intrigues, and the end became certain.[citation needed] In order to soothe the populace and protect the frontier, more than the French Revolution's usual terrorist measures (such as the Law of Hostages) was necessary. The new Directory government, led by Sieyès, decided that the necessary revision of the constitution would require "a head" (his own) and "a sword" (a general to back him). With General Jean Victor Marie Moreau being unattainable as his sword, Sieyès favoured General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert; but, when Joubert was killed at the Battle of Novi on 15 August, he turned to General Napoleon Bonaparte.
Although Generals Guillaume Brune and André Masséna won battles at Bergen and Zurich, and the Allies of the Second Coalition lingered on the frontier as they had done after the Battle of Valmy, the fortunes of the Directory were still not restored. Success was reserved for Bonaparte, suddenly landing at Fréjus with the prestige of his victories in the East, and now, after General Lazare Hoche's death (1797), appearing as sole master of the armies.
On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire VIII), Bonaparte led the coup of 18 Brumaire, seizing French parliamentary and military power and forcing the sitting directors of the government to resign. On the night of 10 November, a remnant of the Council of Ancients abolished the Constitution of the Year III, ordained the consulate, and legalised the coup in favour of Bonaparte with the Constitution of the Year VIII.
Initially, the 18 Brumaire coup seemed to be a victory for Sieyès, rather than for Bonaparte. Sieyès was a proponent of a new system of government for the Republic, and the coup initially seemed certain to bring his system into force. Bonaparte's cleverness lay in counterpoising Pierre Claude François Daunou's plan to that of Sieyès, and in retaining only those portions of each which could serve his ambition.
The new government was composed of three parliamentary assemblies: the Council of State which drafted bills, the Tribunate which could not vote on the bills but instead debated them, and the Corps législatif, whose members could not discuss the bills but voted on them after reviewing the Tribunate's debate record. The Sénat conservateur was a governmental body equal to the three aforementioned legislative assemblies and verified the draft bills and directly advised the First Consul on the implications of such bills. Ultimate executive authority was vested in three consuls, who were elected for ten years. Popular suffrage was retained, though mutilated by the lists of notables (on which the members of the Assemblies were to be chosen by the Senate). The four aforementioned governmental organs were retained under the Constitution of the Year XII, which recognised Bonaparte as the French sovereign, but their respective powers were greatly diminished.
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French Consulate
The Consulate (French: Consulat) was the top-level government of the First French Republic from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799 until the start of the French Empire on 18 May 1804.
During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his appointment as First Consul, established himself as the head of a more autocratic and centralised republican government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. Due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history." By the end of this period, Bonaparte had engineered an authoritarian personal rule now viewed as a military dictatorship.
French military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, and eventually shattered it in November 1799. Historians sometimes date the start of the political downfall of the Directory to 18 June 1799 (Coup of 30 Prairial VII by the French Republican calendar). This was when anti-Jacobin Director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, after only a month in office, with the help of the Directory's only surviving original member, Paul Barras, also an anti-Jacobin, successfully rid himself of the other three then-sitting directors.[citation needed] The elections held for the two councils in March and April had produced a new "Neo-Jacobin" majority in the two bodies, and being unhappy with the existing five man Directory, by 5 June 1799, these councils had found an irregularity in the election of the Director Jean Baptiste Treilhard, who thus retired in favour of Louis-Jérôme Gohier, a Jacobin more "in tune" with the feelings in the two councils. The next day, 18 June 1799, anti-Jacobins Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai and Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux were also driven to resign, although one long time anti-Jacobin, popularly known for his cunning, survived the day's coup; they were replaced by the Jacobin baron Jean-François-Auguste Moulin and by non-Jacobin, or "weak" Jacobin, Roger Ducos. The three new directors were generally seen by the anti-Jacobin elite of France as non-entities, but that same elite could take some comfort in knowing that the five man Directory was still in anti-Jacobin hands, but with a reduced majority.
Additional military disasters, royalist insurrections in the south, Chouan disturbances in a dozen departments of the western part of France (mainly in Brittany, Maine, and eventually Normandy), royalist intrigues, and the end became certain.[citation needed] In order to soothe the populace and protect the frontier, more than the French Revolution's usual terrorist measures (such as the Law of Hostages) was necessary. The new Directory government, led by Sieyès, decided that the necessary revision of the constitution would require "a head" (his own) and "a sword" (a general to back him). With General Jean Victor Marie Moreau being unattainable as his sword, Sieyès favoured General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert; but, when Joubert was killed at the Battle of Novi on 15 August, he turned to General Napoleon Bonaparte.
Although Generals Guillaume Brune and André Masséna won battles at Bergen and Zurich, and the Allies of the Second Coalition lingered on the frontier as they had done after the Battle of Valmy, the fortunes of the Directory were still not restored. Success was reserved for Bonaparte, suddenly landing at Fréjus with the prestige of his victories in the East, and now, after General Lazare Hoche's death (1797), appearing as sole master of the armies.
On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire VIII), Bonaparte led the coup of 18 Brumaire, seizing French parliamentary and military power and forcing the sitting directors of the government to resign. On the night of 10 November, a remnant of the Council of Ancients abolished the Constitution of the Year III, ordained the consulate, and legalised the coup in favour of Bonaparte with the Constitution of the Year VIII.
Initially, the 18 Brumaire coup seemed to be a victory for Sieyès, rather than for Bonaparte. Sieyès was a proponent of a new system of government for the Republic, and the coup initially seemed certain to bring his system into force. Bonaparte's cleverness lay in counterpoising Pierre Claude François Daunou's plan to that of Sieyès, and in retaining only those portions of each which could serve his ambition.
The new government was composed of three parliamentary assemblies: the Council of State which drafted bills, the Tribunate which could not vote on the bills but instead debated them, and the Corps législatif, whose members could not discuss the bills but voted on them after reviewing the Tribunate's debate record. The Sénat conservateur was a governmental body equal to the three aforementioned legislative assemblies and verified the draft bills and directly advised the First Consul on the implications of such bills. Ultimate executive authority was vested in three consuls, who were elected for ten years. Popular suffrage was retained, though mutilated by the lists of notables (on which the members of the Assemblies were to be chosen by the Senate). The four aforementioned governmental organs were retained under the Constitution of the Year XII, which recognised Bonaparte as the French sovereign, but their respective powers were greatly diminished.