Enlightenment and French Revolution

  • May 5, 1789 meeting with the Estates-General

    This assembly was composed of three estates the clergy, nobility and commoners who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country. The opening of the Estates General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution The Estates-General met on May 5, 1789 at the Menus-Plaisirs building in Versailles, France, marking the beginning of the French Revolution
  • Tennis Court Oath

    On June 20, 1789, the Tennis Court Oath was taken. There, the men of the National Assembly swore an oath never to stop meeting until a constitution had been established.
  • Storming of the Bastille

    The Storming of the Bastille. What was the storming of the Bastille? A simple storming of the Bastille summary is that the prison was attacked and overtaken by protestors at the start of the French Revolution. In July of 1789, the man in charge of the Bastille was Bernard-René Jordan de Launay.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on considerations of the common good. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of Man. These rights are Liberty, Property, Safety and Resistance to Oppression.
  • Women's March on Versailles

    The March on Versailles. Concerned over the high price and scarcity of bread, women from the marketplaces of Paris led the March on Versailles on October 5, 1789. This became one of the most significant events of the French Revolution, eventually forcing the royals to return to Paris.
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    Reign of Terror

    The period of the French Revolution from 1792-1793 is called the Reign of Terror. Robespierre, the leader of the Jacobin club, used a revolutionary tribunal to arrest people who seemed to be against the republic nation. They were guillotined, when found guilty.
  • Execution of King Louis XVI

    In 1792 he was tried by the revolutionaries. The monarchy was formally abolished, and “Year I” of the French Republic was declared. Louis XVI died at the guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the last king to live at the Palace of Versailles, and the revolutionaries duly gave him the nickname “Louis the Last”.
  • Maximilien Robespierre's execution

    By the end of the next day, Robespierre was executed in the Place de la Révolution, where King Louis XVI had been executed a year earlier. He was executed by guillotine, like the others. Robespierre's fall led to more moderate policies being implemented during the subsequent Thermidorian Reaction.
  • Napoleon Crowns himself emperor

    On the 2nd of December 1804 Napoleon crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre Dame de Paris. According to legend, during the coronation he snatched the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, thus displaying his rejection of the authority of the Pontiff.
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    Peninsular War

    Between 1808 and 1814, the British Army fought a war in the Iberian Peninsula against the invading forces of Napoleon's France. Aided by their Spanish and Portuguese allies, the British held off superior French numbers before winning a series of victories and driving them out.
  • Napoleonic Code is established

    Napoleonic Code, French civil code enacted on March 21, 1804, and still extant, with revisions. It was the main influence on the 19th-century civil codes of most countries of continental Europe and Latin America.
  • Napoleon and his men march on Russia

    On June 24, 1812, the Grande Armée, led by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, crossed the Neman River, invading Russia from present-day Poland. The result was a disaster for the French. The Russian army refused to engage with Napoleon's Grande Armée of more than 500,000 European troops.
  • Napoleon is exiled to Elba

    The coalition invaded France and captured Paris, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April 1814. They exiled him to the Mediterranean island of Elba and restored the Bourbons to power. In February 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and again took control of France in what became known as the "Hundred Days".
  • Napoleon dies

    The physicians who conducted Napoleon's autopsy, on May 6, 1821, concluded that his death was from stomach cancer, exacerbated by bleeding gastric ulcers, after a huge dose of calomel – a compound containing mercury that was used as a medicine – was administered to him on the day before he died.