French Consulate Consulat français | |
|---|---|
| Executive government of the French First Republic | |
 The three consuls Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Charles-François Lebrun (left to right) by Auguste Couder | |
| History | |
| Established | 9 November 1799 |
| Disbanded | 18 May 1804 |
| Preceded by | French Directory |
| Succeeded by | |
| History of France |
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| Timeline |
| Topics |
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The Consulate (French: Consulat) was the top-level government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799 until the start of the French Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term The Consulate also refers to this period of French history.
During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his appointment as First Consul, established himself as the head of a more autocratic and centralised republican government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. Due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history."[1] By the end of this period, Bonaparte had engineered an authoritarian personal rule now viewed as a military dictatorship.[2]
- ^ Robert B. Holtman, The Napoleonic Revolution (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 31.
- ^ Jones, Colin (1994). The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 193–94. ISBN 0-521-43294-4.