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consisted of five directors elected by the Council of Elders from a list presented by the Council of 500. To ensure some continuity from the old order to the new, the members of the National Convention ruled that two-thirds of the new members of the National Assembly must be chosen from their ranks. This decision produced disturbances in Paris and an insurrection at the beginning of October that was dispersed after fierce combat by an army contingent under the artillery general Napoleon Bonaparte. This would be the last time in the great French Revolution that the city of Paris would attempt to impose its wishes on the central government. Even more significant and ominous was this use of the army, which made it clear that the Directory from the beginning had to rely on the military for survival.

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CHRONOLOGY The French Revolution

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Assembly of notables

1787

National Assembly (Constituent Assembly)

1789–1791

Meeting of Estates-General

May 5, 1789

Formation of National Assembly

June 17, 1789

Tennis Court Oath

June 20, 1789

Fall of the Bastille

July 14, 1789

Great Fear Summer

1789

Abolition of feudalism

August 4, 1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

August 26, 1789

Women’s march to Versailles; king’s return to Paris

October 5–6, 1789

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

July 12, 1790

Flight of the king

June 20–21, 1791

Declaration of Pillnitz

August 27, 1791

Legislative Assembly

1791–1792

France declares war on Austria

April 20, 1792

Attack on the royal palace

August 10, 1792

National Convention

1792–1795

Abolition of the monarchy

September 21, 1792

Execution of the king

January 21, 1793

Universal mobilization of the nation

August 23, 1793

Execution of Robespierre

July 28, 1794

Directory

1795–1799

Constitution of 1795 is adopted

August 22, 1795

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The period of the Directory was an era of materialistic reaction to the suffering and sacrifices that had been demanded in the Reign of Terror and the Republic of Virtue. Speculators made fortunes in property by taking advantage of the government’s severe monetary problems. Elaborate fashions, which had gone out of style because of their identification with the nobility, were worn again. Gambling and roulette became popular once more. Groups of “gilded youth”—sons of the wealthy, with long hair and rumpled clothes—took to the streets to insult former supporters of the Revolution.

The government of the Directory had to contend with political enemies from both ends of the political spectrum. On the right, royalists who dreamed of restoring the monarchy continued their agitation; some still toyed with violent means. On the left, Jacobin hopes of power were revived by continuing economic problems, especially the total collapse in the value of the assignats. Some radicals even went beyond earlier goals, especially Gracchus Babeuf (GRAK-uss bah-BUFF), who sneered, “What is the French Revolution? An open war between patricians and plebeians, between rich and poor.” Babeuf, who was appalled at the misery of the common people, wanted to abolish private property and eliminate private enterprise. His Conspiracy of Equals was crushed in 1796, and he was executed in 1797.

New elections in 1797 created even more uncertainty and instability. Battered by the left and right, unable to find a definitive solution to the country’s economic problems, and still carrying on the wars left from the Committee of Public Safety, the Directory increasingly relied on the military to maintain its power. This led to a coup d’état in 1799 in which the successful and popular general Napoleon Bonaparte was able to seize power.

The Age of Napoleon

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FOCUS QUESTION: Which aspects of the French Revolution did Napoleon preserve, and which did he destroy?

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Napoleon (1769–1821) dominated both French and European history from 1799 to 1815. The coup that brought him to power occurred exactly ten years after the outbreak of the French Revolution. In a sense, Napoleon brought the Revolution to an end, but