18 Brumaire
On this day in 1799, Bonaparte, with the backing of government officials Sieyès and Roger-Ducos, moved the French Assembly to the Chateau St-Cloud with the aim of overthrowing the previous and very corrupt Directoire. Sieyès and Roger-Ducos were members, and their resignations, combined with that of Barras, the President of the Directory, necessitated the formation of a new, non-Jacobin government. The two legislative assemblies, the Five Hundred and Council of the Elders (les ancients) were moved to Saint-Cloud for "protection". In reality, Napoleon wanted to "convince" them to vote for his proposal by surrounding the deputies with his troops under the command of his loyal (sort of) Marshal, Joachim Murat.
Why 18 Brumaire instead of 9 November? Well, the intolerable Metric System was only one of several efforts by the French Republic to over-throw the previous system. The new calendar (metric calendar) of the Revolution was based on agricultural events and natural phenomena rather than the old Roman calendar. Each month was thirty days, and consisted of three weeks of ten days each. This meant it was easy for the simple peasants to calculate things (and it also meant that the government would only lose one day in ten to rest, rather than one in seven). The day was broken into ten "hours" (2.4 real hours) divided into 100 "minutes" (1.44 real minutes or about 86 seconds), and these were further divided into 100 "seconds" (0.86 real seconds) . The calendar started at the Autumnal Equinox, and measured years from the 1792 birth of the Republic. The months were named after natural things- Brumaire refers to fog. Another famous month, Thermidor, refers to heat (and appropriately enough, the heat was applied to Robespierre, who got the chop in the coup of 9 Thermidor, Year II(27 July 1794). Further months included Fructidor, the month of Fruit.
It broke with tradition well established since Roman times (much like the metric system- the system of feet and miles was a universal measurement established by the Romans) and ended up confusing a lot of people because it was more or less arbitrary (I see many parallels here). It was designed to completely remove all traces of the old life and thus represented the totalitarian nature of the French Revolutionary government- they were so self-important that they thought history should be measured from their foundation.
This calendar was quite appropriately abolished by Bonaparte in 1806. Not only did it screw over the workers, the Autumnal Equinox changes dates each year, providing a "fantastic source of confusion for almost everybody." It was briefly resurrected along with a host of other equally bad ideas in the Paris Commune of 1870.
Why 18 Brumaire instead of 9 November? Well, the intolerable Metric System was only one of several efforts by the French Republic to over-throw the previous system. The new calendar (metric calendar) of the Revolution was based on agricultural events and natural phenomena rather than the old Roman calendar. Each month was thirty days, and consisted of three weeks of ten days each. This meant it was easy for the simple peasants to calculate things (and it also meant that the government would only lose one day in ten to rest, rather than one in seven). The day was broken into ten "hours" (2.4 real hours) divided into 100 "minutes" (1.44 real minutes or about 86 seconds), and these were further divided into 100 "seconds" (0.86 real seconds) . The calendar started at the Autumnal Equinox, and measured years from the 1792 birth of the Republic. The months were named after natural things- Brumaire refers to fog. Another famous month, Thermidor, refers to heat (and appropriately enough, the heat was applied to Robespierre, who got the chop in the coup of 9 Thermidor, Year II(27 July 1794). Further months included Fructidor, the month of Fruit.
It broke with tradition well established since Roman times (much like the metric system- the system of feet and miles was a universal measurement established by the Romans) and ended up confusing a lot of people because it was more or less arbitrary (I see many parallels here). It was designed to completely remove all traces of the old life and thus represented the totalitarian nature of the French Revolutionary government- they were so self-important that they thought history should be measured from their foundation.
This calendar was quite appropriately abolished by Bonaparte in 1806. Not only did it screw over the workers, the Autumnal Equinox changes dates each year, providing a "fantastic source of confusion for almost everybody." It was briefly resurrected along with a host of other equally bad ideas in the Paris Commune of 1870.
posted by The Admiral at 8:35 AM
2 Comments:
All this metric bashing will lead you to execution by firing squad at 91.44 metres.
The metric system is awful. Besides, anything actively endorsed by the French must be bad - clearly.
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