French Consulate

French Consulate

*Consulat français*
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	First French Empire;

The Consulate (French: Consulat) was the top-level government of the First French Republic 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.

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.

[1] Robert B. Holtman, The Napoleonic Revolution (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 31.

[2] Jones, Colin (1994). The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 193–94. ISBN 0-521-43294-4.

[1]

[2]

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	First French Empire