Ch. 7. 3 Napoleon Comes to Rule!“Good and decent people must be protected and persuaded by gentle means, but the rabble must be led by terror.” Napoleon Bonaparte

Life in the Revolution=Change•Daily life of the French

changed drastically with the Revolution.

•Liberating thoughts and rhetoric inspired great shifts in politics, economics, industry, religion, and society. These new ideologies and shifts had their effect on fashions. 

This caricature contrasts 1778 (at right) and 1793 (at left) styles for both men and women, showing the large changes in just 15 years

More Change-Calendar of the Republic• The new calendar was adopted

by the National Convention in October, 1793. The year began on September 22 of the old calendar, and was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, leaving five days (six in leap years) over at the end of the last month. These five or six days were to be known as the Sans-culottides, and were to be a series of national holidays. Each month was divided into three weeks, called décades, the last day of each décade being set aside as a day of rest corresponding to the old Sunday.

• The months were grouped into four sets of three, by seasons, and given "natural" names, some of which are rather attractive--vendémiaire, brumaire, frimaire  (autumn); nivôse, pluviôse,ventôse (winter); germinal, floréal,prairial (spring);messidor, thermidor, fructidor  (summer). The days of the décade were named arithmetically--primidi, duodi, on to décadi. In place of the old saints' days, each day was dedicated to a suitable fruit, vegetable, animal, agricultural implement.

French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by Philibert-Louis Debucourt

Home from Egypt… …Napoleon

encounters a France in turmoil. The directory had lost political control and the confidence of the people.

Abbe Sieyes hatches a plot to overthrow the corrupt Directory and convinces Napoleon to lead the attack.

In Paris on 18 Brumaire, year VIII (November 9, 1799)…

• …there was a coup d’état that overthrew the system of government under the Directory in France. The government was moved to the safety of Chateau St. Cloud in fear of a fake Jacobin plot. Once there, 3 of the 5 members of the Directory resigned. Napoleon fumbled through a speech to the legislators (Council of 500) who responded with anger. Napoleon would then take more drastic steps.

Napoleon and his grenadiers driving the Council of Five Hundred from the Orangerie.

The Corsican Crocodile Dissolving the Council of Frogs, 9th November 1799 

The Constitution of the Year VIII created an executive consisting of three consuls, but the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, wielded all real power, while the other two, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and Pierre-Roger Ducos, were figureheads. Napoleon legitimized his rule with plebiscites.