Napoleon's rise to power

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes was French Roman Catholic clergymen, and one of the chief theorists of the French revolution. He instigated the coup d’état that brought Napoleon to power in 1799. He was one of the 5 Directors, and planned to institute a stronger executive. He supported republicanism, but wanted it oriented to the right. At this time the French population didn’t know what they wanted, but they generally did not support the directory. Like when Hitler came to power, the population was unhappy with the existing government, and ready to accept a strong leader that would represent them better. Both Sieyes and Barras, another director, approached Napoleon; curious whether he could fill the position of the strong executive that they needed. Napoleon believed that he had a strong enough reputation that he could win over the population without Sieyes and Barras, but it turned out that he was wrong. He went to meet with Sieyes at Napoleon’s brother’s house, Lucien Bonaparte had just been elected president of the Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon declared that he was ready to support Sieyes in his coup if the government would be provisional pending a new constitution. On November 9, 1799, the council of Elders, under the influence of Sieyes, declared an emergency, and gave Bonaparte command of the troops in Paris, and transferred the houses to St. Cloud, where they would be under less outside influence. The elders voted and agreed to make Napoleon commander. Barras was surprised in his bathroom and forced to resign. Two other directors, Gohier and Moulins, were placed under guard. The next day, the council of 500 started to doubt what they were doing—Napoleon took a squad of soldiers, gave a very bad speech, this was followed by chaos. Napoleon and his brother were dragged to safety.
The houses voted to establish the provisional government, after napoleon’s troops terrorized them. Sieyes, Ducos, and Napoleon were named provisional consuls of the regime.
Before he had even seized power, Napoleon had printed proclamations and broadsheets declaring him a hero. The fact that he did this without Sieyes’s knowledge shows that his intention was more self-centered than truly wanting a better government for France. This idea of promoting himself as a hero can be compared to Hitler’s self promotion and demagoguery.