The Coup of 18 Brumaire
Napoleon and his allies overthrow the Directory and install him as First Consul
Quick facts
- Location
- Saint-Cloud and Paris
- Date
- 9-10 November 1799 (18-19 Brumaire, Year VIII)
- Conspirators
- Napoleon Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes
- Result
- Napoleon named First Consul under the Constitution of Year VIII
What happened
Napoleon returned from Egypt in October 1799 to a Directory widely seen as corrupt and incapable, and director Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes recruited him to help overthrow it. On 18-19 Brumaire, Year VIII (9-10 November 1799), the conspirators forced the other Directors to resign and used troops to disperse the Council of Five Hundred when it balked. Napoleon, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos were named provisional Consuls, and within weeks Napoleon outmaneuvered Sieyes to make himself First Consul under the new Constitution of Year VIII, adopted 24 December 1799. He would rule as First Consul for the next four and a half years before declaring himself Emperor.
Why it matters
Historians generally treat 18 Brumaire as the point where the French Revolution ends, a decade after the Estates-General first met at Versailles. Power passed from an elected, if dysfunctional, legislature to a single general, and the wars that followed would carry his name rather than the Republic's.
How we know
World History Encyclopedia's account names the conspirators, documents the dispersal of the Council of Five Hundred by troops, and traces the sequence through the Constitution of Year VIII that made Napoleon First Consul.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Coup of 18 Brumaire · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. French Directory · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The French Revolution → · The coup that ended the Revolution: see the full decade from the Estates-General to Napoleon's seizure of power