1795-11-2 Directory Established

.1795-11-2: The Directory established in France after Thermidorian Reaction - HiPo > .

The Thermidorian Reaction had begun on 27 July 1794 in which the National Convention turned against the increasingly radical Jacobin leaders of the French Revolution. It ended the dominance of the Committee of Public Safety and resulted in the arrest and execution of Robespierre and 21 other leading members. Their executions were followed by a purge of other radicals in what became known as the White Terror.

Having alienated itself from the radical left-wing, the National Convention also faced threats from the right that culminated in a Royalist attack on 13 Vendémiaire. This uprising was put down by Napoleon Bonaparte with ‘a whiff of grapeshot’. Prior to the Royalist uprising, the National Convention had ratified a new constitution known as the Constitution of the Year III. This established a bicameral legislature and a five-man Directory that wielded executive power. Although it survived for four years, the Directory was generally unsuccessful at dealing with the domestic problems facing France. Even the numerous military victories against foreign enemies were not enough to secure much support. In response the Directory used the Army to repress its opponents, which only fuelled the opposition further and gave the Army increasing power within France.

By 1799 even the government realised that it could not continue for much longer. On 9 November, Napoleon launched the coup of 18 Brumaire. This replaced the Directory with the Consulate and effectively brought the French Revolution to an end, ten years after it began.

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The Thermidorian Reaction (Réaction thermidorienne or Convention thermidorienne, "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term, in the historiography of the French Revolution, for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor II, or 27 July 1794, and the inauguration of the French Directory on 2 November 1795.

The "Thermidorian Reaction" was named after the month in which the coup took place and was the latter part of the National Convention's rule of France. It was marked by the end of the Reign of Terror, decentralization of executive powers from the Committee of Public Safety and a turn from the radical Jacobin policies of the Montagnard Convention to more conservative positions. Economic and general populism, dechristianization, and harsh wartime measures were largely abandoned, as the members of the Convention, disillusioned and frightened of the centralized government of the Terror, preferred a more stable political order that would have the approval of the affluent. The Reaction saw the Left suppressed by brutal force, including massacres, as well as the disbanding of the Jacobin Club, the dispersal of the sans-culottes, and the renunciation of the Montagnard ideology.