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2 November 1795Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Directory Takes Power

A five-man executive and two legislative councils try to steer France away from both monarchy and terror

On the timeline · around 2 November 1795 · Thermidor to BrumaireThermidor to BrumaireThe Directory Takes Power179517961797

Quick facts

Location
Paris
Date
2 November 1795
Executive
Five Directors
Legislature
Council of Five Hundred and Council of Ancients

What happened

The Constitution of Year III created the Directory, inaugurated on 2 November 1795, with a bicameral legislature made up of the Council of Five Hundred and the smaller Council of Ancients. The Council of Five Hundred proposed candidates from which the Council of Ancients selected five Directors, who jointly held executive power, and the new constitution again included the Declaration of the Rights of Man as its preamble, though in an amended form. Despite occasional military successes on France's borders, the Directory struggled against economic crisis at home; by December 1795 the assignat paper currency had collapsed to about 1% of its face value.

Why it matters

The Directory was the Revolution's attempt to build lasting, non-monarchical, non-terroristic government, and it lasted four years, longer than any prior revolutionary regime. Its chronic instability, squeezed between royalist and neo-Jacobin opposition and a collapsing currency, left it vulnerable to the coup that would end it in 1799.

How we know

World History Encyclopedia's account of the Directory documents its constitutional structure and the assignat's collapse in value, drawing on the Constitution of Year III's text and financial records of the period.

Sources

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Part of a timelineThe French Revolution28 events · How a bankrupt monarchy's tax crisis became a decade of upheaval that ended with a general seizing powerView all →