Francisco de Miranda, Emperor of the French?

Francisco de Miranda was a Venezuelan revolutionary leader, considered to be the precursor for the more successful and famous Simon Bolivar. After a military career in Spanish service, including fighting in the American Revolutionary War, he toured Europe to try to interest one of the great powers in supporting revolution in Spanish America. During his time in Europe, he managed to become a general in the French revolutionary army and despite being indicted twice by the Revolutionary Tribunal, he was acquitted and feted a hero.

On Miranda's release from prison, he looked to an alliance with royalists and moderates against the Thermidorian regime. According to Robert Harvey (Liberators), Miranda "made no secret of the fact that he wanted to hold office in post-revolutionary France" and despite being "a Spanish Creole, the lieutenant of a provincial regiment of his Catholic Majesty's, and a total stranger in France where he has lived only a few years and where he has only been known since the Revolution" he was considered as the possible leader of a military coup against the Directory. Miranda knew Napoleon Bonaparte, who described him both as a demagogue and as "a Don Quixote with the difference that he not mad... with sacred fire burning in his soul".

Ultimately, Miranda was accused of being involved in monarchist conspiracies and was exiled from France, but could things have been different? If Miranda, instead of Napoleon, had led the coup against the Directory, what would his regime have been like?
 
So, I'm assuming it'd be François De Mirande in French, Oui?


Non, if Francisco de Miranda pulled a Buonaparte it would be François du Miranda. (de Miranda= of Miranda). However, I have to admit that this idea is as cool as it is implausible. At that time, although it is true that Miranda was involved in French politics and served in the revolutionary armies with distinction (his name is in the Arc de Triomphe of Paris), in the end his main objective was the Liberation of Spanish America. Being the Emperor/Generalissimo/Dictator of the French would have been a distraction too great to be able to achieve the dream that for years he had set as a goal in life, his cause.

If he were to hold office, it would be something similar to what happened with Che Guevara, who fought in the Cuban Revolution and became a Minister there, but once he got an opportunity to continue his cause, he left the post to pursue it.

Anyway, where is the fun in only saying: that is impossible? So I am going to try and imagine a scenario.

First, the context. The most plausible period for a coup d'état carried out or supported by Miranda is between 1795 and 1797, since it is the period during which el Precursor, as we call him in Venezuela, for once, seemed to put his emancipation project in the background to be mainly interested in the problems of France.

Between 1793 and 1795, he was very busy trying to avoid being guillotined by the revolutionary courts of the Jacobin era, and before the fall of the Girondins (1793), Miranda served the French Republic on the condition (accepted by the Provisional Executive Council formed after Louis XVI was imprisoned) that it would later support him in his project of American emancipation (It was a way to continue collaborating with the cause of liberty, with the guarantee of a salary during the war and a job after it.). Likewise, by the end of the year 1797 he had already returned to dedicate himself fully to the cause of independence, as attested by the famous Act of Paris, in which he signed with two others as "Commissioner of the Junta of deputies of the cities and provinces of Meridional America.”

Now that we have already located the time, we can try to deduce a how and why.
Miranda was a sympathizer and friend of the Girondins, was arrested by the Jacobins, and criticized the Directory, both for their practices (looting of works of art by the armies, the lack of a genuine separation of powers), and for being a very large Executive, in regards to the number of members. With respect to his participation in possible moderate monarchical conspiracies, in the texts of which I have at hand, I have not found anything to corroborate that Miranda really participated in any. The official position that can be inferred from the authors, all of them Venezuelans, is that the accusations were part of a persecution against Miranda, and that the charges in this respect presented by the Directory must treated in the same way as the subsequent charges that accused him of being a foreigner at the same time he was claimed to be in default for not paying the taxes he owed as a French citizen, or the complaint issued by the Jacobins that Miranda was an Agent of Spain.
However, about him pulling off a Brumaire, we must take into consideration that:
1. He was a commander without command since 1793.
2. The Coup of 18 Brumaire can be seen technically to be a Self-coup d'etat, done by the Directors Sieyès and Roger Ducos to the Directory itself, using Napoleon as their sword.

So there is only two ways for Miranda to get near or into power, if the context doesn´t change:
1.He was really involved into a moderate/girondin/monarchist plot that got succesful, somehow.
2.Sieyès thinking that Napoleon is asking too much for his help, and then using Miranda as the sword for his own plot.

If we go with Option 1, then by the very nature of the plot, Miranda, even as a leader, is not going to do much. He would be France´s Moncke, and "rule" until Louis XVIII returns to his throne. However, Miranda being Miranda, he would not make the Bourbon Restauration happen without conditions, those being that the French Monarchy must be a Constitutional Monarchy, with separation of powers, and that the Kingdom of France should help him in his plot to liberate Meridional America from Spanish Rule. If he is not in charge, but only a part of the plot, then, he will collaborate under the same conditions as those accepted by the Provisional Executive Council, that is, salary, a job and support. Knowing the Bourbons, he could get the Constitutional Monarchy somewhat, the salary and the job too, but he will not get the support, so he is going to end back in London again to try to get it from the British.

If we go with Option 2, we need to overcome first the fact that Miranda is a firm critic of the practices of the Directory (and by association, of its members), is known but not popular at the level of Napoleon, is a foreigner and does not have a brother President of the Council of Five Hundred, and has no command at the time. But if these obstacles disappear, by Sieyès giving him the command, and organizing every other aspect of the Coup, being Miranda only his tool/sword, then it could happen. The result would be, in fact, something similar to OTL Consulate. After all, one of Miranda´s proposals for government, whether for France or Meridional America, was an Executive of two or three people, instead of Single Monarchies or Directorial Quintets. Also, OTL he saw the regime born from Brumaire as "a burial of tyranny and a return of the French Revolution to its original principles" (He then returned to France in 1800, got involved with the Marchioness of Custine, who was also Fouché´s lover, so the Minister of Police ended up plotting to get Miranda expelled by Napoleon, which happened the following year) so he could support Sieyès´plan as it is. Once in power, he would try to get fulfilled his conditions for collaborating with the French Republic, that is, the job (or Office), the salary and the support for the emancipation of Spanish America.

All in all, as I said before, it is a cool idea to imagine Miranda as Emperor, or First Consul or Generalissimo of the French, but that would be OOC (Out of Character) for him to do so, nor he had the favorable conditions or the necessary support to have achieved it.
 
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Non, if Francisco de Miranda pulled a Buonaparte it would be François du Miranda. (de Miranda= of Miranda).

"Du" is the contraction of "de le". That would be the case if Miranda has a (masculine) definite article. If not it would just be de Miranda.

But because the "de" particle is associated in people's minds with nobility in France, Miranda alone may have become his last name.
 
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