Coup of 18 Brumaire

• 1. Pre-Coup Political Context

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  On the 12th of March 1799, Habsburg-controlled Austria declared war on France. This declaration triggered emergency measures that allowed the pro-war Jacobin faction to triumph in the legislative election held in April. While Napoleon and the republic's best army fought in Egypt and Syria, France suffered a series of reverses on the battlefield during spring and summer. The military failures created a vacuum of authority that left the government vulnerable. By June, the Coup of 30 Prairial VII ousted the Jacobins from power. Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès emerged as the dominant figure within the five-man ruling Directory. France's military situation improved following the Second Battle of Zurich. As the threat of invasion receded, political factions began shifting their alliances again.

• 2. Napoleon Strategic Return

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  Napoleon returned to France on the 9th of October 1799 after his campaign in the Middle East. The public received him with an ardor that convinced Sieyès he had found the general indispensable. Dazzled by his earlier victories, people hailed him as the country's saviour. From the moment of his return, however, Napoleon plotted a coup within the coup. He intended to gain power for himself rather than allowing Sieyès to control the outcome. Some generals like Jean-Baptiste Jourdan believed in republicanism while others like Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte thought they could govern France. Napoleon worked on the feelings of all these men while keeping secret his own intentions. Before the coup, troops were conveniently deployed around Paris to support his plans.

• 3. Saint-Cloud Deception

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  On the morning of 18 Brumaire, Lucien Bonaparte served as president of the Council of Five Hundred. He falsely persuaded the Councils that a Jacobin coup was at hand in Paris. This lie induced them to depart for the safety of the suburban Château de Saint-Cloud. Napoleon was charged with the safety of the two Councils and given command of all available local troops. Later that same morning, Sieyès and Roger Ducos resigned as Directors. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord pressured Director Paul Barras to do the same. The resignation of three of the five Directors prevented a quorum and thus practically abolished the five-man Directory. Two Jacobin Directors named Louis-Jérôme Gohier and Jean-François-Auguste Moulin continued to protest furiously against this betrayal.

• 4. Military Force At Orangerie

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  By the following day, deputies realized they faced an attempted coup rather than protection from rebellion. Faced with their refusal to submit, Napoleon stormed into the chambers escorted by a small force of grenadiers. While perhaps unplanned, this proved to be the coup within the coup because it became a military affair. Napoleon was met with heckling as he addressed them with home truths about the Republic having no government. One deputy called out asking about the Constitution while Napoleon replied that they had destroyed it themselves. His reception by the Council of Five Hundred grew even more hostile when his grenadiers entered just as legality was challenged. He came close to fainting after being jostled then outright assaulted. Lucien Bonaparte seized a sword in a theatrical gesture promising to plunge it through his brother's heart if he were a traitor. Grenadiers under General Joachim Murat marched into the Orangerie and dispersed the council effectively ending the Directory.

• 5. Establishment The Consulate

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  With the Council routed, plotters convened two commissions each consisting of twenty-five deputies from the two Councils. They essentially intimidated the commissions into declaring a provisional government known as the first form of the consulate. Napoleon, Sieyès, and Ducos served as Consuls during this transition. The lack of reaction from the streets proved that the Revolution was indeed over. A shabby compound of brute force and imposture was nevertheless condoned by the French nation who sought wise and firm governance. Resistance by Jacobin officeholders in the provinces was quickly crushed. Twenty Jacobin deputies were exiled while others were arrested. The commissions drew up the short and obscure Constitution of the Year VIII without a Declaration of Rights. Napoleon completed his coup within a coup by adopting a constitution where the First Consul held greater power than the other two. He appointed the Senate which interpreted the constitution allowing him to rule by decree.

• 6. Historical Legacy And Interpretation

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  In 1852 Karl Marx wrote The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte about a much later event occurring in 1851. This work examined the French coup d'état against the Second Republic by Napoleon III who was Napoleon's nephew. Marx considered Napoleon III a trifling politician compared to his world-shaking uncle. Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts appear twice as tragedy then farce. In 1931 Curzio Malaparte devoted a chapter to discussion of Napoleon's 18th Brumier in his book Coup d'État: The Technique of Revolution. Malaparte describes Napoleon as an awkward cautious man whose success was mostly the effect of quick thinking from people around him. These interpretations show how later thinkers analyzed the significance of this pivotal moment in history.