<P> External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution . The Revolutionary Wars beginning in 1792 ultimately featured French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian Peninsula , the Low Countries and most territories west of the Rhine -- achievements that had eluded previous French governments for centuries . Internally , popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly , culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins . The dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror , from 1793 until 1794 , established price controls on food and other items , abolished slavery in French colonies abroad , dechristianised society through the creation of a new calendar and the expulsion of religious figures , and secured the borders of the new republic from its enemies . Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror , with estimates ranging from 16,000 to 40,000 . After the Thermidorian Reaction , an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795 . The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections , debt repudiations , financial instability , persecutions against the Catholic clergy , and significant military conquests abroad . Dogged by charges of corruption , the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 . Napoleon , who became the hero of the Revolution through his popular military campaigns , went on to establish the Consulate and later the First Empire , setting the stage for a wider array of global conflicts in the Napoleonic Wars . </P>
what emperor took over france after the reign of terror
Napoleon Bonaparte