Napoleon Bonaparte becomes dictator of France

Napoleon Bonaparte returned in Paris from his disastrous Egyptian campaign on October 1799. France's situation had been improved by a series of victories but Republic was bankrupt and the ineffective Directory was unpopular with the French population. He was approached by one of the Directors, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, for his support in a coup to overthrow the constitutional government. The leaders of the plot included his brother Lucien Bonaparte, the speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another Director, Joseph Fouché, and Charles Maurice Talleyrand. The deputies had realised they faced an attempted coup. Faced with their remonstrations, Bonaparte led troops to seize control and disperse them, which left a rump legislature to name Bonaparte, Sièyes, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government.

 Napoleon had become the most popular General, and the Republican government formed after the French Revolution had become unpopular for its inactivity. Napoleon made use of this opportunity to effect a change in the constitution and to find a place for himself in the new arrangement. He made himself the First Consulate in a government of Three Consuls. Later he declared himself the Emperor and got the change ratified by the French people through a referendum. He never used the term dictator.