Chapter Overview

1. The government, having surmounted the internal and external crises, turned against the
sans-culottes--its earlier supporters. This development paved the way for the Thermidorian reaction, the establishment of the more moderate Directory, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

2. Napoleon consolidated and firmly established many of the institutional gains of 1789 while rejecting more radical revolutionary policies. He then expanded the French imperium over the continent; but he finally extended himself too far and was defeated in battle by a coalition of opposing powers in 1814.