French Directory

After the chaos of the Terror and the Thermidorian Reaction, the Directory was established. Although intended to be a more fair and just system, it is now regarded as the most ineffective of the Revolutionary regimes. But why did this happen, and what came after?

French Directory Timeline

Directory French Revolution

The French Directory was created by the Thermidorian Convention as a successor to the National Convention. The Thermidorian Convention was made up of those who succeeded to power after the Thermidorian Reaction.

Even after the coup was successful, the Thermidorians knew they needed to change the structure of government in order to ensure that a dictatorship like the Terror could not happen again.

France 1795

The plans for this new system of government were laid out in the Constitution of Year III, created in 1795. Alongside increased voting rights, the Constitution laid out this new structure of government, consisting of two new legislative houses and an overseeing executive committee.

French Directory Government

Here is a table outlining the different institutions the Thermidorians created, as part of their new government structure.

Government Structure

Here is a flowchart to help you visualise the structure of the Directory and how the councils fit together.

A flowchart explaining the structure of the French Directory. Author's own image.

French Directory Policies

The Directory's aim was to create and maintain a stable government - particularly needed after the reign of Terror and years of Revolutionary Terror.

French Directory Policies Economic

The economic state of France was dire when the Directory took control. The treasury was almost empty thanks to the continuous conflicts France had been involved in, taxes had been left unpaid and the value of the assignat, the currency used in France, had dropped significantly. The Directory took measures to change these, led by the Finance Minister, Dominique-Vincent Ramel.

French Directory Policies Currency

Initially, the Directory tried to solve some of this problem by introducing a new currency, called the mandats territoriaux. However, these quickly lost value and were eventually stopped. The government had to fall back on metal coinage, called livres, but there were not a lot of these coins in circulation.

In response, the government pushed deflation, meaning that prices would lower and people could afford more with currency. However, this lost them favour with businesses, as they made fewer profits.

French Directory Policies Debt

The biggest problem was the huge amount of National debt the government had. In 1797, the Directory organised the National Debt so that 2/3 would be paid off through a one-time payment to debt holders. This benefitted the government a lot, since they not only had less to pay back, but the interest on the National Debt became much lower. This action helped to stabilise France's finances for an extended period of time.

French Directory Policies Taxes

The finance minister of the Directory, Ramel, reformed the tax system, so it would be more efficient and the government could fill the Treasury. Here are the main features of his policy:

• He introduced new taxes on trading licences, land, moveable property and doors and windows.

• He centralised the tax system - this meant that the central government collected the taxes, instead of it going through local administration.

• He introduced the octrois - a tariff on goods being traded around the country. This led to a raise in prices and was not popular.

Looted goods from military campaigns in Italy and Germany also helped the finances of the Treasury.

French Directory Policies Foreign

Since the beginning of the Revolution, France had been at near-constant war with its neighbours, particularly Austria. The Directory took steps to try and end this once and for all.

The primary goal was to defeat Austria. This would be done in two campaigns. The first went across Bavaria into Austria. The second went through Italy and the Alps to capture Austria's capital, Vienna. The man put in charge of the Italian campaign was none other than Napoleon Bonaparte.

Nicholas-Antoine Taunay, Napoleon's Italian campaign. Wikimedia Commons.

Napoleon was only 27 years old, and not much was expected of him. Yet within a year of being given his command, in February 1797, Bonaparte and his forces captured Vienna and negotiated a peace treaty with the Austrians.

The Peace of Campo Formio, signed on 18 October 1797, established new territories and new borders for France and Austria, bringing the war to a conclusion.

French Directory Policies Suppression of the Royalists

Another major issue that the Directory faced was the growing support for the Royalist cause. Many people had tired of the near constant regime changes under the Revolution, and the idea of a constitutional monarchy became very appealing as a way of guaranteeing some form of long-term continuity. However, the remaining Jacobin faction were strictly anti-monarchy and believed this went against the Revolution.

French Directory Policies Coup d'état of Fructidor

The elections of 1797 showed a clear shift in support towards the royalist cause. The monarchists ended up with 330 seats in the Councils, supported by the wealthier bourgeoisie. This was a huge problem for the Directory. While the monarchists did not have a majority in the Councils, the Directory could now rely on only a third of the deputies to fully back it.

Equally, the Directory realised that if the voting pattern stayed the same in the next election, the monarchists would gain a majority and be able to restore the monarchy legally. In addition, three of the five Directors were monarchists and so were the Presidents of both councils.

The remaining Revolutionaries decided that something had to be done. On 3 September, they ordered troops to surround the Council chambers and arrest those in the pro-monarchy faction. 53 deputies and 2 Directors were imprisoned.

Other deputies were then pressured into passing two decrees; one which cancelled the next elections and got rid of 177 deputies without providing replacements, and one which allowed for the deportation of the arrested deputies and directors to penal colonies in French Guiana.

French Directory End

Although the Directory had lasted longer than any other of the Revolutionary regimes, in 1799 it finally met its match, in the form of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon had been rising through the ranks since the beginning of the Revolution, was becoming more and more popular. He had impressed many with his skills of strategy and command despite his young age.

David's portrait of Napoleon, 1812. Wikimedia Commons.

The same could not be said of the Directory, however. After their treatment of the royalist deputies, as well as the reintroduction of conscription and raising money through forced loans, the Directory was falling deeply out of favour with the French public.

In 1799, the Directory practically collapsed, for the following reasons:

• The National Guard was not large enough to keep order, so there were areas of the country that were completely un-policed.

• Royalists in local administrations often refused to carry out the orders of the Directory, especially concerning persecuting priests or levying forced loans.

• The Directory struggled to enforce their orders due to a lack of troops, and had difficulty appointing sympathetic politicians to local administration.

The Coup of Brumaire

The Coup of Brumaire was the idea of Abbé Sieyès, a priest turned politician who had been an influential theorist in the French Revolution. He was elected as a Director in 1799, and saw the ongoing crises as a perfect opportunity to stage a coup against the Directory.

Sieyès knew that he would need the support of the army to stage a coup, and set about finding a General that could be trusted. He soon allied with Napoleon whose return to Paris was met with huge crowds.

The plan was to move the Councils to Saint-Cloud - a former royal palace in the suburbs of Paris - under the guise of keeping themselves safe from an imagined plot. However, once they were there, the truth of the matter became clear, and the deputies became furious.

Napoleon during the Coup de Brumaire, addressing the councils at Saint-Cloud. 1840. Wikimedia Commons.

To try and calm things down, Napoleon addressed the councils. However, he was attacked by deputies from the Council of 500 when he tried to speak. He was saved by his troops, who rushed in and cleared the chamber where the Council had met.

Some hours later, a group of Councillors, sympathetic to the Coup, met and approved a decree that officially abolished the French Directory and replaced it with a provisional council of Sieyès, Napoleon and another politician, Roger Ducos.

Legacy of the French Directory

Despite being the longest revolutionary government, the French Directory was the least effective and the least popular. The reign of the Directory was marked by war, food shortages and uprisings.

The Directory is not looked kindly upon by historians, either. Concerning the workings of the Directory, Jerome Blum wrote that the Directory was a government of 'self-interest, rather than virtue', and that the Directory only kept power through illegal means such as 'purges and quashed elections'.²

A key factor in the failure of the Directory was its lack of popular support. Historian Isser Woloch speaks of a 'massive disengagement, apathy and cynicism about government.'³ This is not hard to believe - after 10 years of Revolution and multiple different regimes and factions jostling for power, it is understandable that the French people were growing tired of revolutionary regimes and wanted change.