Did Napoleon end the French Revolution or finish it?

It depends on what you count as "the Revolution". In the view of most historians, the coup of 18 Brumaire, on 9 November 1799, ended the French Revolution and soon led to Napoleon's coronation as Emperor. But he also kept parts of its programme: he abolished the vestiges of feudalism and enacted equality before the law, while ending directly elected representative government and the free press.

The Directory had lost the population's support over a tax system seen as unfair and rising prices after poor harvests. Sieyès was looking for a sword, a strong man to help restore the Republic in accordance with his vision, without pursuing his own ambitions. Napoleon, who had fired grapeshot on royalist rebels in Paris in 1795, was too young for the Directory itself: the minimum age for directors was 40.

The coup was bloodless, but not smooth. At one point it was only thanks to the swift reaction of Murat and Lefebvre that the dazed and bleeding Napoleon was saved. His brother Lucien addressed the guards, claiming Napoleon had been attacked, and the chamber was forcibly cleared. Napoleon, Sieyès and Ducos became a triumvirate of provisional consuls.

The new constitution tailored the position of First Consul to give Napoleon most of a dictator's powers. It was the first constitution since 1789 without a Declaration of Rights. Lucien announced 3,011,007 yes votes and 1,562 no votes in the plebiscite, figures many accounts still repeat. But in 1972 the historian Claude Langlois showed they had been massively falsified: the true yes vote was probably around 1.55 million.