Editing French Consulate (section)

==Bonaparte's consolidation of power==
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[[File:Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Portrait de Napoléon Bonaparte en premier consul.jpg|thumb|Portrait of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, by [[Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres]]]]
Bonaparte needed to rid himself of Sieyès and of those republicans who had no desire to hand over the republic to one man, particularly Moreau and Masséna, his military rivals. At the [[Battle of Marengo]] on 14 June 1800, what briefly seemed like a potential defeat for France was ultimately secured by the generals [[Louis Desaix]] and [[François Christophe de Kellermann]]. This offered a further opportunity to Napoleon's ambitions by increasing his popularity. The royalist [[plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise]] on 24 December allowed Napoleon to make a clean sweep of the democratic republicans, who despite their innocence, were deported to [[French Guiana]]. Napoleon annulled the Assemblies and made the Senate omnipotent in constitutional matters.{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=860}}

The [[Treaty of Lunéville]] with Austria, which restored peace to Europe, was signed in February 1801. Austria, which had been disarmed by Moreau's victory at the [[Battle of Hohenlinden]], gave nearly the whole of Italy to France, and permitted Bonaparte to eliminate from the Assemblies all the leaders of the opposition in the discussion of the [[Napoleonic Code|Civil Code]]. The [[Concordat of 1801]], drawn up not in the Catholic Church's interest but in that of his own policy, by giving satisfaction to the religious feeling of the country, allowed him to put down the constitutional democratic Church, to rally round him the consciences of the peasants, and above all to deprive the royalists of their best weapon. The [[Organic Articles]] hid from the eyes of his companions-in-arms and councillors a reaction which, in fact if not in law, restored to a submissive Church, despoiled of her revenues, her position as the religion of the state.{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=860}}

The March 1802 [[Peace of Amiens]] with the United Kingdom, of which France's allies, Spain and the [[Batavian Republic]], paid all the costs, gave Napoleon a pretext for endowing himself with a consulate, not for ten years but for life, as a recompense from the nation. Bonaparte's path to emperor began with the [[Constitution of the Year X]] dated 4 August 1802 (16 Thermidor).{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=860}}

On 2 August 1802 (14 Thermidor, X), a [[1802 French constitutional referendum|second national referendum]] was held, this time to confirm Bonaparte as "First Consul for Life".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.napoleon.org/en/Template/chronologie.asp?idpage=460201&onglet=1 |title=From Life Consulship to the hereditary Empire (1802–1804) |publisher=Napoleon.org |access-date=9 January 2012}}</ref> Once again, a vote claimed 99.7% approval.<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonbiograph00mcly| url-access=registration| quote=August 1802 referendum.|title = Napoleon | author=Frank McLynn| pages=[https://archive.org/details/napoleonbiograph00mcly/page/253 253]–54| publisher=Arcade| year=2002| isbn=978-1-55970-631-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/abriefhistoryeu01chilgoog| quote=August 1802 referendum napoleon.| page=[https://archive.org/details/abriefhistoryeu01chilgoog/page/n248 206]|title = A Brief History of Europe from 1789–1815 |author=Lucius Hudson Holt |author2=Alexander Wheeler Chilton | publisher=Macmillan| year=1919 }}</ref>

As Bonaparte increased his power, he borrowed many techniques of the ''[[ancien régime]]'' in his new form of one-man government. Like the old monarchy, he re-introduced [[plenipotentiaries]]; over-centralised, strictly utilitarian administrative and bureaucratic methods, and a policy of subservient pedantic [[scholasticism]]{{clarify|date=September 2023}} towards the nation's universities. He constructed or consolidated the funds necessary for national institutions, local governments, a judiciary system, organs of finance, banking, codes, and traditions of conscientious of a well-disciplined labour force.{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=861}}

France enjoyed a high level of peace and order under Bonaparte that helped to raise the standard of comfort. Prior to this, Paris had often suffered from hunger and thirst, and lacked fire and light, but under Bonaparte, provisions became cheap and abundant, while trade prospered and wages ran high.{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=861}}

In strengthening the machinery of the state, Bonaparte created the {{lang|fr|[[Légion d'honneur]]}} (Legion of Honour), the {{lang|fr|[[Concordat]]}}, and restored indirect taxes, an act seen as a betrayal of the Revolution.

Bonaparte was largely able to quell dissent within government by expelling his more vocal critics, such as [[Benjamin Constant]] and [[Madame de Staël]]. The [[Saint-Domingue expedition]] reduced the republican army to a nullity. Constant war helped demoralise and scatter the military's leaders, who were jealous of their "comrade" Bonaparte. The last major challenge to Bonaparte's authority came from Moreau, who was compromised in a royalist plot; he too was sent into exile.{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=861}}

In contradistinction to the opposition of senators and republican generals, the majority of the French populace remained uncritical of Bonaparte's authority. No suggestion of the possibility of his death was tolerated.{{sfn|Wiriath|1911|p=861}}