The notion that Napoleon’s 18 Brumaire Coup represented the complete undoing of everything the French Revolution fought for is the greatest misnomer in all Historical Discourse.
The radical even by modern standards political visions of the Girondins, Colliders, Jacobins and Enrages had already been dead for years but were themselves the product of the Revolution moving beyond its original goal. After half a decade of rule by the Centrists devoid of any real political vision Napoleon was supported by multiple key leaders of the original Revolution.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes was the original ideological leader of the Revolution, his “What is the Third Estate” was the Declaration of Independence of the Bourgeoisie. He had faded into the background when the Revolution was radicalized and then became a vital backer of Napoleon’s Coup.
Of course he and a lot of the well known spokesmen of Bourgeoisie ideology were not strictly speaking of the Bourgeoisie themselves. Someone who was would be Claude Perier who played an overlooked material role in starting the Revolution in 1789, was not fond of the Radicalism of 1792-94 and then was another vital backer of Napoleon and was made among the founders of the Bank of France.
Even when Napoleon later became Emperor he was embodying the Pre-Revolution concept of the Enlightened Monarch.
This is the problem I have with Peter Coffin’s “Leftism is the Left Wing of Capitalism” nonsense. The French Revolution started and ended as a Bourgeoisie Revolution because of its Right Wing.
The Enrages were Proto Marxist-Leninists the Conspiracy of the Equals were proto Libertarian Socialists. The Jacobins and Girdondins may not have been Socialist enough to fit an official definition but they would have been enough for the CIA to overthrow them in a Coup during the Cold War.
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