The Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory 1794–9

Question 1

Who were the Thermidorians?

Answer 1

• The individuals and groups who had helped overthrow Robespierre- from the two committees, ex-terrorists and from the plain, regicides
• Plain: men who had gained from buying land

Question 2

What measures were taken to end the terror?

Answer 2

Structures of the terror being removed:

• Revolutionary tribunal, repealed law of Priarial, the Commune was abolished, released all suspects from prison and closed the Jacobin club
• 25% of members of the two committees had to be changed every month and new committees were set up to take over the work of the CPS and CGS

Question 3

What was the impact of -the economic crisis 1794-5?

Answer 3

• Removal of price controls led to a fall in the value of the assignat and there was bad inflation
• Poor harvest in 1794- grain shortages led to an increase in price

Question 4

What was Germinal?

Answer 4

• Popular demonstration on 1st April 1795
• 10,000 unarmed people marched to the convention and demanded bread
• They expected the support of the Montagnards but recieved none

Question 5

What was the significance of the Prairial uprising?

Answer 5

• A large popular uprising in Paris on 20-1 May 1795 when housewives and members of the NG marched to the convention ti demand bread
• More serious than Germinal and the convention agreed to a petition to set up food commisions
• 22nd May: the convention took the offensive with 20,000 troops and executed 6 montagnards
• It marked the end of the sans culottes as a political and military force

Why did it fail?

• support of the army
• workers were divided- NG was loyal to the convention
• no commune
• loss of support from the radical bourgeoisie

Question 6

What was the motivation behind the white terror?

Answer 6

• Attack on exterrorists and those who had done well during the Revolution
• Most who took part were not royalists and had no interest in restoring the monarchy but were rather interested in vengeance

Question 7

The White Terror in Paris

Answer 7

• Limited to the gilded youth, bankers, lawyers etc and formed gangs of youth
• They initimidated jacobins and sans culottes
• Not on the same level as the terror

Question 8

The White Terror in the Vendee

Answer 8

• Chouan (guerrilla groups) Movement as opposition to conscription
• General Hoche and an army of 140,000 wiped it out

Question 9

The White Terror in the South

Answer 9

• The government did not consider it to be much of a threat so it spread
• It was the most savage in Lyon and had prison massacres

Question 10

What did the Thermidorians hope to achieve in a new constitution?

Answer 10

• Guarantee the features of the Revolution of 1789- abolition of privilege, freedom of the individual and the control of affairs by elected officials
• Impossible to return to dictatorship
• Electors chose deputies- they were the very rich who had suffered under the terror
• Legislature was rigidly separated from the executive

Legislature:
1. Council of Five Hundred: initiate legislation and pass it to Council of Ancients
2. Council of Ancients: approve or object bills but not introduce or change
Elections held yearly, when a third of members retired

Executive:

• Directory of 5- hold office for five years but one had to retire each year
• Authority over diplomacy, military affairs and law enforcement, minister appointment

Question 11

How effective was the new system?

Answer 11

Problems:

• yearly elections promoted instability
• no means of resolving conflicts between legislature and executive
• Council could paralyse directory
• Directors had no real power of councils so it relied on unconstitutional methods like cancelling elections or calling the army
• If the legislature clashed with the executive it could only replace one director each year

Question 12

What was the Two-Thirds Decree?

Answer 12

• Two-thirds of the deputies in the new council must be chosen from existing deputies in the convention to prevent a royalist uprising

Question 13

Why did the Verona Declaration fail to appeal to the French people?

Answer 13

• Louis’s brother released a reactionary document promising to restore the ‘ancient constitution’ which included all three orders and the parlement as well as restoring stolen property
• This antagonised those that bought land and all who had benefitted from the abolition of the tithe and seigneurial dues
• It was a boost to those that favoured a republic

Question 14

What was unusual about the Vendémiaire Uprising?

Answer 14

• 5 October 1795, a large royalist crowd of 25,000 marched to the convention to try and seize power
• Napoleon used cannon on them and 300 were killed.
• The people of Paris would not again attempt to intimidate an elected assembly until 1830
• Showed reliance on army
• The rising was not simply against the two thirds decree but also had economic origins because many like small proprietors had been hit by inflation

Question 15

What difficulties confronted the Directory when it took up office and how was it able to survive for so long?

Answer 15

• The new third of members elected to the council of 500 was mainly royalists but the directors were elected all regicides to prevent a royalist restoration.
  The directory survived because:
  1. It was committed to restoring rule of law
  2. Many opponents like Jacobins and monarchists were discredited
  3. The royalists were divided between extremists who supported the Verona declaration and constitutional monarchists
  4. Public apathy
  5. They had army support as the army wanted to continue the war

Question 16

How important a figure was Babeuf?

Answer 16

Babeuf organised a consipiracy of equals- a small group of committed revolutionaries
- He recieved no support from jacobins or sans culottes and was arrested in may 1796

Question 17

What threat did the revival of monarchism pose to the Directory?

Answer 17

• The elections of 1797 revealed a growing shift towards monarchism
• All monarchists needed to do was wait for the next election when more conventionnels would give up their sears and they would obtain a majority

Question 18

What was the importance of the Coup of Fructidor?

Answer 18

• Two royals were appointed presidents of both councils and Carnot was becoming more conservative
• On 3-4 September 1795, two republican directors sought help from Bonaparte and used troops to arrest royalists including two directors, Carnot and 53 deputies
• The remaining deputies approved two decrees: - one cancelled elections in 49 departments which removed 179 deputies and the other deported royalists to penal settlements in Guiana
• The coup was the end of a parliamentary government and the Constitution of year III
• The directors could now funstion without hostile councils
• The terror that followed the coup was limited and against emigres and refractory priests- it alienated Catholics

Question 19

What was the impact of the financial crisis facing the Directory?

Answer 19

• They issued a new currency in place of the assignats- the mandats territoriaux which soon lost value and proved to be worthless
• Metal coins became the only currency and were in shortage which led to deflation and made the directory unpopular with businessmen

Decreasing national debt:

• Ramel the financial minister of France wrote off two- thirds of the national debt that the government owed its creditors- from 240 million francs to 80 million: Bankruptcy of the two-thirds
• Although debt holders were unhappy it helped stabilise French finances for a long time

Increasing revenue:

1. Direct taxation: land tax, tax on moveable property etc- this was the most lasting measure of the directory
2. Central control was introduced to collect taxes and not locally elected authorities
3. Indirect taxes- octrois was re-introduced and was unpopular as it raised the prices of goods
4. Plunder from foreign states occupied by French armies

• Reduced military budget after peace with Austria in Oct 1797
  All this led to the balance of the budget

Question 20

To what extent had French forces reversed earlier defeats by the end of 1795?

Answer 20

• The Battle of Fleurus in June 1794 was the first of many that led Britain to be the only member in the first coalition
• Treaty of Basle- Prussia agreed to hand over territories on the left bank of the Rhine which freed France to attack other enemies
• The Dutch and Spanish made peace with France

Question 21

What impact did Napoleon make on the war in Italy?

Answer 21

• Napoleon defeated Austria at Lodi and signed an armistice with it
• He decided the terms at Leoben without consulting the directors and took the Cisalphine republic which left the fate of the left bank of the rhine unclear
• The directory was forced to support him as the royalists had won the election and so they knew they might need his support
• Peace of Campo 1797

Question 22

Why was France unable to take advantage of Britain’s isolation?

Answer 22

• The French wanted to use Dutch and Spanish fleet to plan an offensive against Britain but the Spanish fleet was defeated off Cape St Vincent and the Dutch fleet at Camperdown in October

Question 23

How was the creation of new states beneficial to the Republic?

Answer 23

• France created satellite republics such as the Cisalpine republic in Milan or the Helvetic Republic
• March 1798: the congress handed the left bank of the rhine to France
• Spring 1798 was a high point for France as it had hegemony

Question 24

What impact did the defeat of the French at Aboukir Bay have on the war?

Answer 24

• A second coalition was created against France including Russia and Austria
• The French were pushed back to the Rhine by Austrians and the Russians advanced through Northern Italy
• It was saved from invasion by quarrels among allies as Austria did not support Russia in Switzerland
• This allowed France to move to the offensive in Switzerland where Russians withdrew the autumn of 1799

Question 25

How effective were the measures introduced in 1799 to deal with the worsening economic and military crisis?

Answer 25

• Coup of Floreal- 11 May 1798: when the Directory excluded Jacobin deputies from the council

Jourdan’s Law: conscription was reintroduced

• Unpopular and led to revolts in Belgium
• 1799 elections showed the unpopularity of the Directory. Only 66/187 candidates were elected

Forced Loan on the rich was decreed- only 10 million livres were collected

Law of Hostages: Any French citizen opposing the republic would be arrested and their property seized- this was hardly applied because of opposition from locals

Question 26

Why was there a collapse of government administration in the provinces in 1799?

Answer 26

• The directory could not persuade local notables to enter offices and did not have troops to enforce
• Local authorities were taken over by royalists who refused to enforce the forced loan or law of hostages
• the NG was not large enough to keep order
• Government commissioners were killed often

This led to outbreak of lawlessness and in November 1799 there was a civil war in the Ardeche region

Question 27

What was Sieyès hoping to achieve by a coup?

Answer 27

• He wanted to strengthen the executive but knew that the council of 500 would not agree
• The council of 500 was persuaded to move to St-Cloud for their own safety
• Napoleon’s brother came to his defence when it became clear that there was a plot and he was attacked
• A small group of councillors sympathetic to the plotters met and agreed to approve a decree abolishing the directory
• Instead a provisional executive committee of Napoleon, Ducos and Sieyes was approved

Question 28

What significance did Napoleon attach to the new Constitution?

Answer 28

• Most reacted with apathy to the coup
• Napoleon presented the Constitution of year VIII on 15 December 1799 and said that it was founded on principles of representative government, liberty, equality etc
• He also did not want to be a man of party

Question 29

Why did the Directory fail?

Answer 29

1. Consitution of Year III created instability with its annual elections and no provisions for settling disagreements between the executive and legislature
2. The directors interfered with election results such as the coups of Fructidor 1797 and Floreal 1798 which led no one to have respect for the Constitution
3. They overly relied on the army to settle political disputes like the risings of Prairial and Vendemaire
4. It alienated supporters like wealthy landowners or notables with policies like the forced loan
5. People wanted the war to end but it was necessary for the directory to ensure money for the French treasury, and to keep control of ambitious French generals
6. The renewal of the war in 1797 produced Jacobin activity like the forced loan and law of hostages which revived fears of the Terror

Question 30

Did the Directory have any achievements?

Answer 30

• The Financial reform and reorganisation of the tax system helped stimulate agriculture and industrial expansion
• Tax collection by the central government preceded the role of prefects