Why did the French Revolution end in 1799?

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Why did the French Revolution end in 1799?

        In the last decade before the French Revolution came to an end France was constantly changing its policies, constitutions and leaders. The country was in an utter state of disorder after The Terror and was craving control and consistency within its government. In 1795 another constitution was written, making it the third since 1789. This constitution was founded by the Directory, a new government that was created to replace the outgoing convention after the period of Thermidor. Although the Directory government attempted to obtain order, it was very unsuccessful and did not satisfy the needs of the people of France. Its inefficiency and conservative nature made it weak and bound for failure from the beginning. It was a rising star named Napoleon Bonaparte that saved the Directory from its right and left wing attackers. Ironically it would later be this same man to dissolve and overthrow the Directory government to create his own empire of military dictatorship. When Napoleon created his consulate he said that  “[he had] no desire to continue the see-saw politics that became the norm under the last regime”. Due to the weakness of France and its government when Napoleon came from Egypt to Paris, he had little difficulty in taking power and came to the scene in France as a saviour to the nation. When Napoleon seized power in 1799 and became the First Consul there was a reactionary change back to the way things had been before the Revolution had started in 1789. With Napoleon overthrowing the Directory, the French Revolution came to an end. The Napoleonic era was not so reactionary as to be like the absolute tyrannical reign of Louis XVI but was neither like the radical rule of Robespierre and the Jacobins. Napoleon incorporated some of the Revolutionary ideas and reforms into his empire to give the Consulate an illusion of democracy. Although the Coup de Brumaire was the immediate reason for the end of the French Revolution in 1799 there were many other factors such as the poor state of France as a country politically, economically and socially, the incompetence of the Directory and the success of Napoleon on the Battle field as well as in Paris.

        By 1799 the people of France had had enough of the Revolution and saw that it was an endless circle of elaborate constitutions and unkept promises. The recent terror had left the French citizens of all classes in a state of fear and pain, searching for peace and a long awaited freedom. The Bourgeois class was running the country and controlling the Revolution whether they were Jacobins or Royalists, leaving the other classes without a say in the governing of the country or achieving their desires and needs. The urban workers and the sans-culottes had had some success and brief moments of power but in whole they had had no political say and had not achieved their objectives of freedom and prosperity during the Revolution. At the slightest increase in the cost of living the urban worker and sans-culottes would rise up in arm to protect their rights, challenging the government. The peasantry had suffered the most pain and turmoil of all the classes. They lived in poverty and although some of them had been able to purchase land with the new policies of the government, for the most part they to had not achieved any victories during the Revolution. Most of them had suffered badly from the agricultural crisis and were unsettled by the new landowners. The Directory had lasted so long due to the fact that the French people had given up on their country and any hopes of success they had at the start of the Revolution. The reign of terror imbued Frenchmen with such mutual hatred as only despotism could control After Thermidor, the corruption and instability of civilian authority led France to give their primary allegiance to Napoleon. He was viewed as a new hope for France and a saviour to all classes. He could give the people a long awaited leadership and help restore order in their lives.

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        The Directory was a corrupt, self-serving government. For its entire reign it was moribund and bound for failure. When the government began in 1795 it was weak, with dangerous enemies from the left and right wing groups. This new constitution created by the Directory was very similar to the one created in 1791 with the exceptions that it stated that there was to be no monarch and that all adults that were able to read and write the French language were eligible to vote. By 1799 both of these key elements would be abolished. The Directory was based on universal ...

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