Coup of 18 Brumaire
- When
- 1799
- Where
- French Directory politics; Paris, seat of the Directory and Council of Five Hundred; French First Republic
- Episodes
- 3
On 9–10 November 1799 (18–19 Brumaire, Year VIII), Napoleon Bonaparte and his conspirators overthrew the French Directory in a bloodless coup in Paris, replacing it with the Consulate and making Napoleon First Consul — an event most historians regard as ending the French Revolution.
Episodes
- Sieyès consolidates power and turns to Napoleon
After joining the Directory in May 1799, Sieyès consolidated power and, following Joubert's death at Novi, turned to Napoleon on Moreau's advice.
- Overthrow of the Directory, 9–10 November 1799
On 9 November 1799 the conspirators launched a bloodless coup; the next day grenadiers forced the Council of Five Hundred to dissolve the Directory.
- Establishment of the Consulate and Napoleon as First Consul
The coup replaced the Directory with the French Consulate, bringing Napoleon to power as First Consul and, in most historians' view, ending the French Revolution.
Background and detail
Background. In May 1799, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès had been elected to the Directory, where he steadily consolidated his power. After General Joubert fell at the Battle of Novi in August 1799, Sieyès turned to Napoleon, having been advised to do so by General Moreau. Napoleon, whose 1798 invasion of Egypt and Syria had served as a springboard for his political rise, had sailed for France on 24 August 1799 without explicit orders from Paris.
The Coup of 18 Brumaire. On 9 November 1799 — 18 Brumaire, Year VIII, under the French Republican calendar — the conspirators launched a bloodless coup d'état that overthrew the Directory. The following day, backed by grenadiers with fixed bayonets, they forced the Council of Five Hundred to dissolve the Directory and appoint Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos as provisional consuls.
Establishment of the Consulate. The coup brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of the French First Republic, replacing the Directory with the French Consulate. Most historians view the event as ending the French Revolution, and it would soon lead to Napoleon's coronation as Emperor of the French. In December 1799 he founded the Council of State, an advisory body of experts that could also draft laws for submission to the legislative body.
People involved
- Napoleon Bonaparte · General who led the coup and became First Consul
- Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès · Directory member and conspirator; appointed provisional consul
- Ducos · Appointed provisional consul after the coup
- General Moreau · Advised Sieyès to turn to Napoleon
Sources
- Coup of 18 Brumaire Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-28
- Napoleon Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.