Editing French Consulate (section)

{{Short description|Government of France from 1799 to 1804}}
{{About|the government of France from 1799 to 1804|France's diplomatic missions also known as "consulates"|List of diplomatic missions of France}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox legislature
| name          = French Consulate
| native_name   = ''Consulat français''
| legislature   = [[French First Republic|Executive government of the French First Republic]]
| coa_pic       = Couder - Installation du Conseil d'Etat.png
| coa_res       = 250px
| coa_caption   = The three consuls {{lang|fr|[[Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès]]}}, {{lang|fr|[[Napoleon Bonaparte]]}}, and {{lang|fr|[[Charles-François Lebrun]]}} (left to right) by [[Auguste Couder]]
| established   = 9 November 1799
| disbanded     = 18 May 1804
| preceded_by   = [[French Directory]]
| succeeded_by  = {{ubl|[[First French Empire]]|}}
| footnotes     =
}}
{{History of France}}
The '''Consulate''' ({{langx|fr|Consulat}}) was the top-level government of the [[First French Republic]] from the fall of the [[French Directory|Directory]] in the [[coup of 18 Brumaire]] on 9 November 1799 until the start of the [[First French Empire|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."<ref>Robert B. Holtman, ''The Napoleonic Revolution'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 31.</ref> By the end of this period, Bonaparte had engineered an authoritarian personal rule now viewed as a [[military dictatorship]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Colin|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of France|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-43294-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00jone_0/page/193 193]–94|edition=1st|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00jone_0}}</ref>