[Sidenote: The Coup d'Etat of the Eighteenth Brumaire: Overthrow of the
Directory, 1799] Within a month of his return from Egypt, public
opinion enabled the young conqueror to overthrow the government of the
Directory. Skillfully intriguing with the Abbe Sieyes, who was now one
of the Directors, he surrounded the Assemblies with a cordon of troops
loyal to himself and on 18-19 Brumaire (9-10 November, 1799) secured by
show of force the downfall of the government and the appointment of
himself to supreme military command. This blow at the state (_coup
d'etat_) was soon followed by the promulgation of a new
constitution, by which General Bonaparte became First Consul of the
French Republic.
[Sidenote: Militarism and the Close of the Revolution]
The _coup d'etat_ of 18 Brumaire virtually ended the Revolution in
France. Within the space of ten and a half years from the assembling of
the Estates-General at Versailles, parliamentary and popular government
fell beneath the sword. The predictions of Marat and Robespierre were
realized: militarism had supplanted democracy.
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