Enlightenment and French Revolution

  • May 5, 1789 meeting with the Estates-General

    King Louis XVI, Gouverneur Morris, Barentin, and Necker attended the meeting. This meeting was held to address France's financial crisis and political instability. The meeting was held in the Menus-Plaisirs building in Versailles.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    Who: 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate
    Where: The Royal Tennis Court in Versailles, France
    Why: The National Assembly swore not to stop meeting until France had a constitution
  • Storming of the Bastille

    Who: mostly craftsmen and store owners
    Where: Bastille, Paris
    Why: The people were starved due to lack of food from low harvests, and were upset with their lives and their King and Government
  • Period: to

    Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Written by Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. It was written to establish and codify the basic natural rights of citizens during the French Revolution. It was written in Paris, France.
  • Women's March on Versailles

    Who: Women in the marketplaces of Paris
    Where: Palace of Versailles
    Why: The high price and scant availability of bread
  • Execution of King Louis XVI

    Who: Executioner: Charles-Henri Sanson. Other than him, "a large crowd"
    Where: Place de la Révolution in Paris
    Why: He was found guilty of treason
  • Period: to

    Reign of Terror

    Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Juste were the important leaders. Caused by a pervasive fear of counter-revolutionary forces within France. It occurred in France.
  • Maximilien Robespierre's execution

    Who: Robespierre and his supporters, other officials, and the crowd.
    Where: Place de la Révolution
    Why: he was unable to kill his rivals faster than they could unite against him
  • Napoleonic Code is established

    Napoleon Bonaparte and Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès helped establish the code. Made to modernize France's legal system and reflect the principles of the French Revolution. Established in France.
  • Napoleon Crowns himself emperor

    Who: Pope Pious VII
    Where: Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris
    Why: to gain prestige in international royalist and Catholic circles and to lay the foundation for a future dynasty
  • Period: to

    Peninsular War

    The British Army fought against Napoleon's France. This happened because Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor, invaded and occupied Spain. Fought in the Iberian Peninsula.
  • Period: to

    Napoleon and his men march on Russia

    Who: Napoleon and his army, Russian armies, Mikhail Kutuzov, Marshal Bessieres, Marshal Mortier, General Rapp, Viscount Castlereagh, and Metternich
    Where: Nieman River
    Why: to control Europe, gain support, and to end the war quickly
  • Napoleon is exiled to Elba

    Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain part of the coalition of nations exiled him. They did it because of his disastrous invasion of Russia, which significantly weakened his forces, a large European alliance formed against him, leading to his defeat and subsequent abdication. He was in France when he was exiled and he was exiled from France.
  • Napoleon dies

    Who: Servants, the companions, their wives and children, the doctors, British officers or priest
    Where: Longwood on the island of St Helena
    Why: a stomach ulcer; gastric carcinoma