Enlightenment and French Revolution

  • May 5, 1789 meeting with the Estates-General

    Marking the beginning of the French Revolution. A general assembly representing the French estates of realm summoned by Louis XVI.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    The men of the National Assembly swore to oath never to stop meeting until a constitution has been established.
  • Storming of the Bastille

    The Bastille was a large medieval fortress that functioned as a prison in Paris in 1789. It had become a symbol of all that the French resented about their country and their government: corruption in the nobility, a tyrannical monarchy, and huge class inequality.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Is an expression of universal human rights, those rights that are true at all times and in all places, that served as one of the foundational documents of the French Revolution.
  • Women's March on Versailles

    Women from the marketplace of Paris led the March on Versailles on October 5th 1789.
  • Execution of King Louis XVI

    The former king of France was executed publicly by a guillotine on January 21st 1793
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    Reign of Terror

    The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.
  • Maximillian Robespierre's execution

    The soldiers of the National Convention attacked the Hôtel de Ville and easily seized Robespierre and his followers.
  • Napoleonic Code is established

    This code gave supremacy to the husband over his wife and children. Giving him more power. This made the husband the true leader of the family.
  • Napoleon Crowns himself emperor

    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

    British Army fought a war in the Iberian Peninsula against the invading forces of Napoleon's France.The Peninsular War was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Napoleon and his men march on Russia

    Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armée invaded Russia with nearly 500,000 men, crossing the Niemen River from Poland. The invasion, known as the Russian Campaign in France and the Patriotic War of 1812 in Russia.
  • Napoleon is exiled to Elba

    Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island of Elba on April 11, 1814, after being forced to abdicate the French throne. 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.