Republic, First

   The First Republic was the government of France from September 1792 to May 1804. Proclaimed during the revolution of 1789, on September 23, a day after the revolutionary calendar went into effect (Year I), the First Republic, which replaced the monarchy and the ancien régime, was notable not only for the extension of the principle of universal suffrage, for various popular reforms, and for military victories abroad, but also for the periods of the terror and the rule of maximilien Robespierre (1793-94), the subsequent thermidorian reaction, the government of the directory (1795-99), which gave the regime a conservative tone, and the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, Year VIII (November 9, 1799) which brought napoléon i and the Consulate to power. The First Republic ended with the proclamation of the first empire.