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French Directory
The French Directory, or Directorate (French: le Directoire), was the government of France from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, a period that spanned the last four years of the French Revolution (1789-1799). The Directory was unpopular...
Definition
Coup of 18 Brumaire
The Coup of 18 Brumaire (9-10 November 1799) was a bloodless coup d'état in France that overthrew the government of the French Directory and replaced it with the French Consulate. The coup brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power and, in the view...
Definition
War of the Second Coalition
The War of the Second Coalition (1798-1802), part of the broader French Revolutionary Wars, was the second attempt by an alliance of major European powers to defeat Revolutionary France. The Second Coalition, which included Russia, Austria...
Definition
Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorian Reaction refers to the period of the French Revolution (1789-1799) between the fall of Maximilien Robespierre on 27-28 July 1794 and the establishment of the French Directory on 2 November 1795. The Thermidorians abandoned...
Definition
13 Vendémiaire
The Revolt of 13 Vendémiaire Year IV (5 October 1795) was a royalist uprising in Paris during the French Revolution (1789-1799). In response to the anti-royalist policies of the Thermidorian Reaction, 25,000 Parisians rose in revolt but were...
Article
Gracchus Babeuf & the Conspiracy of Equals
On 10 May 1796, in the later stages of the French Revolution (1789-1799), a group of leftwing agitators were arrested in Paris, charged with plotting to overthrow the French Directory. After a series of trials, two of them were guillotined...
Definition
Prairial Uprising
The Uprising of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795) was the last major popular insurrection during the French Revolution (1789-1799). It was the final time that the sans-culottes played an important role in French politics until the revolutions...
Image
Members of the French Directory
The five French Directors in their traditional garments. From left to right, the figures depicted are: Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai, Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, Paul Barras, François de Neufchâteau, and Jean-François Rewbell...
Image
Napoleon Bonaparte Greeted by the Directory
Napoleon Bonaparte is greeted by the French Directory as "the hero of Italy". Lithograph by Charles Motte, c. 1820.
British Museum, London.
Definition
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) were a series of conflicts that arose from the tensions surrounding the French Revolution (1789-1799). The wars were fought between Revolutionary France and several European powers, most notably Austria...