ON THIS DAY ·
Coup of 18 Brumaire
9–10 Nov 1799 — At Saint-Cloud, Bonaparte overthrew the Directory with soldiers in the chamber. The Revolution had produced this general, and the Republic would die of him.
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The moment in context
Napoleon's Italian campaign in 1796 displayed a method that would serve him repeatedly: move fast enough to separate enemy armies, then defeat them one at a time. Egypt showed the limits of victory on land. His expedition won near the Pyramids in 1798, but Nelson destroyed the French fleet, leaving it strategically isolated. Napoleon returned to France and, in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799, helped overthrow the Directory and took power himself.
From Rise of Napoleon, chapter 6 of The Age of Revolutions, 1775–1848 (JUL 1807).
The place: Coup of 18 Brumaire — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — An army made by revolution. Napoleon inherited much of the military machinery that made his victories possible. Revolutionary France had expanded recruitment and opened…
- The turn — Austerlitz, 2 December 1805. At Austerlitz on 2 December 1805, Napoleon withdrew from the dominant Pratzen Heights to invite an attack on his weakened right. The allies moved…
- What it changed — Reform and resentment in Germany. Germany's political landscape contracted from roughly 300 states to around 40. In parts of Germany, the Confederation of the Rhine brought the Civil…
Then ask the room: In what ways did Napoleon preserve and overturn the French Revolution? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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