Chapter 2 & 3: The Directory Flashcards
Establishment of the Directory
20-22 May uprisings showed a more stable constitution was needed = radical constitution of June 1794 was shelved = Directory established 26 OCTOBER 1795.
Thermidorians produced a new constitution in 1795 = designed to prevent a return to a monarchy, OR to a dictatorship like that of the CPS, OR to control of the common people (sans-culottes).
How did the Directory work?
TWO COUNCILS:
> Council of Five Hundred (all members over 30, initiated legislation)
> Council of the Elders / Ancients (250 members, all over 40, approved or rejected legislation)
- Annual Elections for both changed one third of members each year.
- Indirect system of elections: All males over 21, who paid direct taxes (approximately 5.5 million men) could vote for a special elite group call, electors. He’s electors, rich man, who paid high taxes (approximately 30,000 men) voted for council members.
- The CPS was replaced as the effective government of France by five man directory: directors chosen by Elders from the list drawn up by the Five Hundred.
- Directors in office for five years: one was chosen, by drawing lots, to retire each year.
Prospects of Stability of Directory
- Yearly elections lead to instability.
- No mechanism to resolve disputes between the directors and the two councils: this could and did lead to stalemate and inaction.
- Threat from internal revolt lessened, but there was still unrest = The power of sans-culottes was much less than it had been, but restless Paris crowds were still a potential problem.
- War was not at the crisis point still, and France had defended and extended its borders, BUT conflict was costly and difficult to bring to an end.
- The White Terror has shown that royalist feeling remained strong and the divisions cause caused by revolution/Terror/assaults on the church/Civil War was still present.
- Emergence of successful military leaders = THREAT = question of military dictatorship.
Political Division under the Directory
Political Instability: Neo-Jacobins thought that Robespierre and the Jacobins had been right in their devotion to the ideals of the revolution, while Conservative Republicans, wanted a return to the more moderate situation of 1791–92. No certainty Armed Forces would remain loyal.
THREAT FROM RIGHT…
October 1795 = royalist demonstration in Paris, provoked by law passed by Convention to ensure the new councils would be dominated by those who supported the republic.
Royalist plot to overthrow the government discovered in January 1797.
… AND THREAT FROM LEFT…
Plot by radical Republican BABEUF was prevented by his betrayal and arrest in March 1796, but his ideas of greater social and economic equality might have gained support among the former ‘sans-cullottes’ at a time of economic problems and deflation caused by the withdrawal of paper money
Coups under the Dircetory
Directory became increasingly reliant on use of force & internal power struggle / exclusion of potential opponents in councils became normal:
- In September 1797, royalists did well in election and danger of a return of the monarchy = coup of Fructidor the Republican directors pre-empted change by using troops to arrest 2 directors and 27 deputies to overturn the election results.
- In May 1798, there was the coup of Floreal which annulled the election of 127 deputies to ensure that the directors removed any threat of a royalist revival.
Success vs Failings of the Dircetory
SUCCESSES
- Some reform of tax system, and that reduction by the finance minister, Nogaret.
- Military victories in the war of the first coalition, especially in Italy.
- Was able to survive war and domestic conflict for four years.
FAILINGS
- Directory had to resort to many features of the Jacobin state of 1793:
- unpopular Jourdan’s Law of September 1798 = mass conscription
- extreme Law of Hostages of 1799 = any area soon as resisting government declared ‘disturbed’ = local authorities could arrest/imprison/confiscate land of relatives of nobles/rebels/émigres = never applied but fear of TERROR
- Bizarre regulations (authorities could refuse entry to Paris anyone not wearing revolutionary tri-colour) reminiscent of Robespierre
Falling apart of Directory
Second coalition forms from 1798 (encouraged by British success, consisted of Austria, Britain, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Naples, Portugal) = French army is push back into France from Germany, and Italy = directory could not continue to be funded by plunder = threat of invasion made Directory unpopular (war weary country, scared by military reverses)
SUMMER 1799 = divisons among directors = ‘margouillis National’ (national mess) = Sieyès appointed director = plotted against neo-Jacobin directors & minsters = Coup of Prairial in June 1799 = those directors replaced by more conservative figures = danger of civil war because support for neo-Jacobbins remained = Sieyès & supporters needed military leader to ensure loyal troops suppressed opposition = Napoleon chose to support Coup fo Brumaire 1799 = END OF DIRECTORY
The Coup of Brumaire
- Began by resignation of a majority of the five directors (Sieyès & Ducos forced Barras, but 2 directors resisted)
- meeting of two councils moved to Saint Cloud on 10th November (18 Brumaire) just outside centre of Paris, where Bonaparte was on hand with military force = radicals in Council of 500 resisted, wearing red togas to prevent so-called ‘military coup’
- FARCICAL & nearly didn’t work = Bonaparte stormed in, flustered, made threats, was mobbed by deputies, left angrily and fell off his horse = troops uncertain = deputies could have rallied BUT Lucien Bonaparte rallied troops, claiming his brothers life was being threatened = troops rushed in and deputies out
- Most significant reason for success was that it did not provoke mass uprisings by the people of Paris, because directory was simply not popular enough to be defended, and the popular mood was one of apathy because directors had to rely on force to maintain control, and offered little in way of inspirational leadership (regime probably would have changed anyway!)
- Napoleon was the most politically aware / successful at promoting his own interests / popular general BUT could not have gained power alone = MAIN REASON FOR COUP WAS DIRECTORY’S WEAKNESS = internal plotting, divisions, internal/external threats and economic problems/deflation BUT Bonaparte’s reputation allowed its success!
