Blackwell Reference Online

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The Eighteenth Brumaire of Napoleon Bonaparte was a coup d'état that overthrew the five-man governing council, the Directory, in France on November 9, 1799, and replaced it with a three-man Consulate, of which Bonaparte was First Consul. Eighteenth Brumaire was the date on the French Revolutionary calendar on which the incident occurred. The corrupt and unpopular Directory had governed France since 1795. One of the five Directors, the cunning Abbé Sieyès, planned and organized the coup of Eighteenth Brumaire, ostensibly to prevent a restoration of radical Jacobin influence and power. Sieyès' real objective, however – having already gained effective control of the Directory, the executive branch of government – was to minimize or eliminate the annoying interference of the legislative bodies (the Council of Elders and the Council of Five Hundred). Sieyès looked to the young General Napoleon Bonaparte, who had bedazzled the French with his military skills, as the perfect man to do his bidding. He was unaware that Bonaparte had ambitions of his own and intended to overthrow the Directory, accomplishing a coup within the coup. On Eighteenth Brumaire, Year VIII of the Revolution (November 9, 1799), Bonaparte barged into the room in the palace of Saint-Cloud where the Council of Elders was meeting and was initially met with heckling. Addressing the Council, he decried their earlier ... log in or subscribe to read full text