9 November 1799
Napoleon seizes power

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Napoleon Bonaparte ousts the Directory in a coup d'état that becomes known as the Coup de Brumaire or 18 Brumaire after the date in the revolutionary calendar on which it occurred. (The name of the month, Brumaire, comes from the French word for fog, brume.) Barely 10 years after the French Revolution, and just six after the execution of Louis XVI, France is effectively back under the control of one man (see Empire). Although the new government – the Consulate – is run nominally by three consuls (Bonaparte, Emmanuel Sieyès and Roger Ducos), it is actually controlled by Bonaparte alone as First Consul.

'The Revolution is over. I am the Revolution.' Napoleon 'A newborn government must dazzle and astonish.' Napoleon

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