Home > 18 Brumaire
18 Brumaire, the coup of 18 Brumaire or sometimes simply Brumaire refers to the coup d'état by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the government of the Directory to replace it by the Consulate. This occurred on November 9, 1799, which was 18 Brumaire in the year VIII under the French Revolutionary Calendar.The name, already well established in common use, was reinforced by the title of Karl Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte, 1852), an account of December 2, 1851 coup by Napoleon's nephew which begins with the much-quoted "Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce."
1 Context
Ironically, the ground for Bonaparte's coup may have been laid more by his few defeats than by his many victories. In November 1799, France was suffering the effects of military reverses brought on by Bonaparte's adventurism in the Middle East. The looming threat of opportunistic invasion by the Second Coalition had provoked internal unrest, with Bonaparte stuck in Egypt.
The coup was first prepared not by Bonaparte, but by the Abbé Sieyès, then one of the five Directors, attempting to head off a return to JacobinIn the context of the French Revolution, a Jacobin originally meant a member of the Jacobin Club ( 1789- 1794). But even while the Club still existed, the name of Jacobins had been popularly applied to all promulgators of extreme revolutionary opinions.ism. Dazzled by Bonaparte's victories in the East, the public ignored the impending calamitous ending of the EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 km² 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797ian expedition, and received Bonaparte with an ardor which convinced Sieyès that he had found the general indispensable to his coup.
However, beginning with his return from Egypt in September 1799, Bonaparte began a coup within the coup. Ultimately, the coup brought Bonaparte to power, not Sieyès.
Perhaps the gravest potential obstacles to a coup came from the army. Some generals like Jean-Baptiste JourdanJean-Baptiste, Count Jourdan ( April 29, 1762 November 23, 1833), was a marshal of France. He was born at Limoges, France, and apprenticed to a silk merchant of Lyon. In 1776 he enlisted in a French regiment to serve in the American War of Independence, a, honestly believed in republicanism; others, like BernadotteKing Charles XIV of Sweden, Charles III of Norway or domestically Carl XIV Johan and Carl III Johan respectively, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte ( January 26, 1763 March 8, 1844) was born at Pau, France, the son of Henri Bernadotte ( 1711- 1780), procurat, believed themselves capable of governing France. With perfect subtlety, Bonaparte worked on the feelings of all and kept his own intentions secret.
An army contractor named Collot advanced two million francs to finance the coup. The plan was, through the use of troops conveniently arrayed around ParisEiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. Paris is the capital and largest city of France. The city is built on an arc of the River Seine, and is thus divided into two parts: the Right Bank to the north and the smaller Left Bank to, first to persuade the Directors (see French Directory) to resign, then to persuade the two Councils to appoint a pliant commission to draw up a new constitutionThe Constitution of a given organisation defines its form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules. To view particular constitutions, refer to the list of national constitutions. The term comes from Latin constitutio which referred to any.
