Can someone summarize this? Now the pendulum swung the other direction. The French wanted a return to order. This period, known as the Thermidorian Reaction, saw an attempt by the conservatives to calm the entire pulse of the nation, bringing back a semblance of order1. Instead of a king or an assembly, this phase of the revolution saw the rise of the Directory – five men who would jointly decide on how best to enforce the laws of the nation. This was a total failure. There’s a reason why countries don’t have five presidents, five kings or five dictators. It’s not exactly efficient. Inflation rates skyrocketed, the economy was in disarray and bread prices shot to levels even worse than those before Louis XVI’s ouster. The people had had enough. But where do you turn when you need true order imposed? Where do you turn when you need a man strong enough to battle the forces of the right and the left? Where do you turn in your time of need?

You turn to the man nicknamed “the little corporal” - Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1799, the man seen centuries later as “short,” made one of the biggest power plays history had ever witnessed. This 5’6” hero from the former Italian island of Corsica, entered the government building of the Directory in 1799 with his army of followers, formally ended the proceedings and announced he would assume power over the government until he could guarantee stability.

And it worked. After almost a decade of chaos, the French people were more than happy for a little coup d’etat. After all the starvation, terror and death of the revolutionary years, all the people really wanted was a little bit of peace - even if that meant handing over power to an enlightened dictator. Napoleon sensed the mood of the Parisians, and of France as a whole, so when word got out that he had held the legislature at gunpoint until they agreed to crown him “First Consul,” few batted an eye. The entire French Revolution had been fought to close the era of absolute rulers, to give power to the people. But when it turned out the people were crazy or power-hungry or short-sighted, the ideals of the revolution could be temporarily ignored if it meant a taste of stability.