Coup of 18th Brumaire VIII

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
General Bonaparte before the Council of Five Hundred at Saint-Cloud on November 10, 1799 (painting by François Bouchot from 1840)

On the 18th Brumaire VIII of the French Revolutionary Calendar (November 9, 1799), a coup took place in France . Its consequences were the end of the Directory and with it the French Revolution . Napoleon Bonaparte was the first consul to become sole ruler.

history

Starting position

The government of the Directory was overwhelmed by the economic and military difficulties. A coup d'état by the royalists threatened . The director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès announced that he was looking for "a sword" that should be "as short as possible": he wanted a strong general who would help restore the republic without pursuing his own political ambitions. Therefore, Sieyès initially thought not of Napoleon, but of General Joubert , who was killed in the battle of Novi in August 1799 . Sieyès then asked General MacDonald , who refused. When he finally turned to General Moreau , the latter replied that Napoleon was the better choice for a coup. Napoleon had started the return trip from his Egyptian expedition on August 23, 1799 and arrived in Paris on October 16; the next day he was received by the Directory. Although Napoleon did not meet the original ideas of Sieyès and although he did not think much of Sieyès, an agreement was finally reached, since both were dependent on each other for their goals.

Course of the coup

On the 18th of Brumaire , the two chambers of the National Assembly were evacuated under the pretext of an imminent coup by the New Jacobins at Saint-Cloud Castle , mainly to prevent the Parisian city population from accessing them. It was to be assumed that she would protect the parliamentarians against the military if she found out about the coup. Bonaparte was entrusted with the security of the city of Paris . Three of the five directors, Sieyès, Paul Barras and Roger Ducos , resigned. The other two, Gohier and Moulin, were charged and deposed on suspicion of being Jacobins .

On 19th Brumaire, the state was left without a leadership after members of the Board of Directors resigned or were imprisoned. Paris was occupied by the soldiers of Bonaparte. The coup plotters declared that the republic was endangered by “counter-revolutionaries and conspirators” who were allegedly on the verge of attack. In this tense situation, one needs strong leadership, which should be created by a constitutional amendment.

The parliament in the castle of Saint-Cloud was surrounded by soldiers. The members of the Council of Five Hundred who met in the Orangery Hall refused to approve the constitutional amendment put forward by the putschists around Bonaparte. Bonaparte, untalented and inexperienced as a speaker, had already been able to win few followers with his attempts to convince the House of Lords, the Council of Elders. He also received a rebuff from the Council of Five Hundred with shouts like "Down with the dictator!" The deputies harassed Napoleon by yelling at him; it is unclear whether they were violent.

Napoleon's brother Lucien Bonaparte , the chairman of the Council of Five Hundred, intervened to save Napoleon: In an impromptu speech, he claimed that the MPs had attacked Napoleon with daggers - a clear lie that could not convince the soldiers. Lucien Bonaparte then drew his saber and announced that he himself would ram it into his brother's chest as soon as he "betrayed the revolution". Under the orders of the cavalry officer Joachim Murat (who later became Napoleon's brother-in-law and King of Naples), the soldiers then forcibly cleared the hall.

Around 2 a.m., MPs from the Council of Elders and some MPs from the Council of Five Hundred approved the constitutional amendment under pressure from the military. A provisional government consisting of the three consuls Napoléon Bonaparte, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès and Roger Ducos was appointed.

Contrary to expectations, the Parisian urban population remained calm and did not protest against the change of government. That was the last hurdle, and the putschists had achieved their goal.

New constitution

Bonaparte had a new constitution drawn up under the leadership of Sieyès. In doing so, however, he managed to oust his co-conspirators. Since he was in fact the one who now had all the strings in hand (he commanded the troops that the putschists needed and was popular with the people), he could dictate his terms.

On December 13, 1799, the consulate's constitution (the so-called Constitution of Year VIII ) was passed. It came into force on December 25, 1799, although the referendum that was supposed to decide on its validity had not yet been concluded. The 30-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte was the first consul to actually become the sole ruler. He alone appointed the ministers, could draft and pass laws, the other two consuls were only allowed to advise him.

According to the last article of the constitution (article 95), a referendum on the new constitution was immediately called. It took place throughout the month of Nivôse (beginning December 21, 1799) and was overseen by Lucien Bonaparte, whom Napoleon had appointed Minister of the Interior. On February 7, 1800, Lucien Bonaparte announced the official result of the count: a majority of 99.9 percent for the new constitution (3,011,007 yes-votes and 1,562 no-votes) - with Lucien Bonaparte massively falsifying the result and around 900,000 Had added yes votes. Even with the forgeries, the turnout rate was only 50 percent.

See also

literature

  • Jacques-Olivier Boudon: Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire , Perrin, Paris, 2003.
  • Jean-Paul Bertaud: Bonaparte prend le pouvoir , Complexe, Bruxelles, 1987.
  • Thierry Lentz : Le 18 Brumaire , Picollec, Paris, 1997.
  • Jean Tulard: Le 18 Brumaire. Comment terminer une révolution , Perrin, Paris, 1999.
  • Karl Marx : The Eighteenth Brumaire by Louis Bonaparte , 1852

Individual evidence

  1. Johannes Willms : Napoleon: A biography. Beck, Munich 2005, p. 189.
  2. ^ Constitution du 22 Frimaire An VIII (December 13, 1799) Website of the Constitutional Council of the French Republic (French)
  3. ^ Thomas Stockinger: Villages and Deputies. The elections to the constituent parliaments of 1848 in Lower Austria and in the Paris region. Cologne u. a. 2012, p. 245 f .; Jeff Horn: Building the New Regime: Founding the Bonapartist State in the Department of the Aube , in: French Historical Studies, 25/2 (2002), pp. 225–263, here pp. 235 f .; William Doyle: The Oxford History of the French Revolution , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989, p. 378.