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Monarchy to Republic
Louis ascended to the French throne in 1774 and from the start was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he inherited from his predecessors. In 1789, food shortages and economic crises led to the outbreak of the French Revolution. King Louis was imprisoned, the monarchy was abolished. Soon after, evidence of Louis' counterrevolutionary intrigues with foreign nations was discovered, and he was put on trial for treason. -
The Estates General Opens at Versailles
The Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy, the nobles, and the common people. Summoned by King Louis XVI to propose solutions to his government's financial problems, the Estates-General sat for several weeks in May and June 1789 but came to an impasse as the three estate -
3rd Estate decides to vall itself the National Assembly
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly, which existed from June 17, 1789 to July 9, 1789, was a transitional body between the Estates-General and the National Constituent Assembly. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate and some clergy who had joined them went to their meeting hall. But the door was locked. Suspecting a plot, they rushed to a nearby indoor tennis court. There, they swore the Tennis Court Oath, vowing to stay put until they had created a constitution that placed power in the hands of the people. This signified the first time that French citizens formally stood in opposition to Louis XVI. It also inspired a wide variety of revolutionary activity in the months afterwards. -
Abolition of Feudalism
A small group of deputies prepared a suprise move in the assembly with the abolishment of feudalism. A few liberal noblemen, by prearrangement, arose and surrendered their hunting rights, manors, properties, feudal and seigneurial privileges. All personal tax privileges were given up. What was left of serfdom and all personal servitudes was declared ended. With legal privilege replaced by legal equality, it proceeded to map the principles of the new order of France. -
Fall of Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France on the morning of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of the abuses of the monarchy: its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
The Passing of the Declaration of the Rights of Men and Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, or Declaration of Human and Civic Rights is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights, defining the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. Influenced by the doctrine of "natural right", the rights of man are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself. -
Royal family brought back to France
Women march to Versailles and are joined by men in bringing the royal family back to Paris. -
The Great Fear
The Great Fear in France at the start of the French Revolution. These peasant rebellions helped cause a subsequent general panic known as the Great Fear. Rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring, and fueled by the rumors of an aristocrat famine plot to starve or burn out the population, peasant and town people mobilized in many regions. -
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
It is often stated this law confiscated the Church's French land holdings or banned monastic vows: that had already been accomplished by earlier legislation. It did, however, complete the destruction of the monastic orders, legislating out of existence "all regular and secular chapters for either sex, abbacies and priorships, both regular and in commendam, for either sex", etc. It also sought to settle the chaos caused by the earlier confiscation of Church lands and the abolition of the tithe. -
Louis and Marie-Antoinette
It was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family were unsuccessful in their attempt to escape, disguised as the servants of a Russian baroness, from the radical agitation of the Jacobins in Paris. Their destination was the fortress town of Montmédy in northeastern France, a Royalist stronghold from which the King hoped to initiate a counter-revolution. They were only able to make it as far as Varennes. -
Louis XVI accepts the Constitution formally
It was Lafayette's dream to join the constitution and the monarchy, creating a Constitutional monarchy. The oath to the Constitution speech by Lafayette was significant as it brought the citizens of France together, feeling happy for themselves and others around them. Louis XVI accepting the Constitution shows the beginning of the constitutional monarchy. The National Assembly abolished many “institutions which were injurious to liberty and equality of rights” in the Constitution. -
Formation of Legislative Assembly
Followed by the Constituent Assembly, it provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention. It consisted of 745 members. The members were generally young, and, since none had sat in the previous Assembly, they largely lacked national political experience. The Left, had the dominant 330 members in Jacobins and Girondins. The right, 250 deputies belonged to no definite party. Other 165 were Feuillants. -
Declaration of War on Austira
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states from 1792 to 1802. Marked by French revolutionary fervour and military innovations, the campaigns saw the French Revolutionary Armies defeat a number of opposing coalitions. They resulted in expanded French control to the Low Countries, Italy, and the Rhineland. The wars depended on extremely high numbers of soldiers, recruited by modern mass conscription. -
Removal of King's Authority
Insurrection in Paris and attack on Tuileries palace lead to removal of king's authority. -
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September Massacres
The September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys. Outbursts of violence, in particular against the Roman Catholic Church, would continue throughout France for nearly a decade to come. -
First session of National Convention
The National Convention decreed assistance to "all peoples wishing to recover their liberty." It also ordered that French generals, in the occupied areas, should dissolve the old governments, confiscate government and church property, abolish tithes, hunting rights, and seigneurial dues, and set up provisional administrations. Thus revolution spread in the wake of the successful French armies.Prominent members included Robespierre of the Jacobin Club, Marat, Danton of the Cordeliers. -
Establishment of the Republic
The First Republic was founded by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I. This period was characterized by the fall of the monarchy, the establishment of the National Convention and the infamous Reign of Terror, the founding of the Directory and the Thermidorian Reaction, and finally, the creation of the Cons. -
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Republic of Virtue
The Republic of Virtue was a period in French history marked by the ascendancy of Maximilien Robespierre. Many proponents of the Republic of Virtue developed their notion of civic virtue from the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The idea of the Republic of Virtue has associations with the de-Christianization of France during the French Revolution. -
Execution of Louis XVI
It was a major event of the French Revolution. After the attack on the Tuileries by insurgents, Louis was arrested, interned in the Temple prison with his family, tried for high treason before the National Convention, found guilty by almost all and condemned to death by a slight majority. His execution made him the first victim of the Reign of Terror. -
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Arrests of the Griondins
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution. The were insurrected leading to an arest. -
Maximilien François Marie Isidore Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician, and one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He was nemed to the Committee of Public Safety. -
Levée en masse
Levée en masse denotes a short-term requisition of all able-bodied men to defend the nation and has to be viewed in connection with the political events in revolutionary France, namely the new concept of the democratic citizen as opposed to a royal subject. Levée en masse was created and understood as a means to defend the nation for the nation by the nation. From this event the nation understood itself as a community of all people. It was France's ever first victory against the Prussian army. -
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Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine and another 25,000 in summary executions across France -
Law of Suspects
The law ordered the arrest of all avowed enemies and likely enemies of the Revolution, which included nobles, relatives of émigrés, officials removed from office, officers suspected of treason, and hoarders of goods. Implementation of the law and arrests were entrusted to oversight committees, and not to the legal authorities. It also introduced the maxim that subjects had to prove their innocence. -
General Maximum
The General Maximum or Law of the Maximum was a law created during the course of the French Revolution as an extension of the Law of Suspects which had the same purpose: setting price limits, detering price gouging, and allowing for the continued flow of food supply to the people of France. -
Execution of Marie-Antoinette
Eight months after her husband's (Louis XIV) execution, Marie Antoinette was herself tried, convicted by the Convention of treason to the principles of the revolution, and executed by guillotine. -
Slavery Abolished in the French Colonies
Franch abolished all slavery in the French Colonies. -
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untra-revolutionaries
Arrest, trial, and executions of so-called untra-revolutionaries. -
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Danton and his followers
Arrest, trial, and executions of Danton and his followers. -
Law of 22 Prairial
It provided for a climate of moral suspicion with the clause which stipulated that: Every citizen is empowered to seize conspirators and counterrevolutionaries, and to bring them before the magistrates. He is required to denounce them as soon as he knows of them. -
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Thermidorian Recation
The Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and several other leading members of the Terror. This ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution. -
Robespierre and his Supporters
Robespierre was arrested along with his supporters. He was executed on July 28-29. The was the begining the end of the Terror. -
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St. Domingue conflict with France
From 1795 to early 1804, France controlled the entire island, before withdrawing from the western portion. Slaves and some free people of color had waged a rebellion for independence since 1791. After the last French troops withdrew in late 1803, in 1804 the territory declared independence as the Republic of Haiti. Spain reconquered the eastern portion of the island in 1809. -
Constitution
The Constitution was a national constitution of France ratified by the National Convention during the French Revolution. It effectively ended the Revolution and began the ascendancy of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Constitution of 1795 established a liberal republic with a franchise based on the payment of taxes, similar to that of the French Constitution of 1791; a bicameral legislature, to slow down the legislative process; and a five-man Directory. -
13 Vendémiaire
13 Vendémiaire Year 4 is the name given to a battle between the French Revolutionary troops and Royalist forces in the streets of Paris. The battle was largely responsible for the rapid advancement of Republican General Napoleon Bonaparte's career. -
Battle of Lodi
The Battle of Lodi was fought between French forces under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian rear guard led by Karl Philipp Sebottendorf at Lodi, Lombardy. The rear guard was defeated, but the main body of Johann Peter Beaulieu's Austrian Army had time to retreat. -
The Treaty of Leoben
The Treaty of Leoben was signed on 17 April 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It was a preliminary accord that contained many secret clauses. From these clauses, Austria would lose the Austrian Netherlands and Lombardy in exchange for the Venetian territories of Istria and Dalmatia. The treaty was confirmed and increased by a final peace accord, the Treaty of Campo Formio. -
Coup Détat of 18 Fructidor
The Coup of 18 Fructidor was a seizure of power by members of the French Directory. Three Directors, Barras, Rewbell and La Révellière-Lépeaux, staged the coup détat with support from the military. Moderates and royalist deputies had gained significantly in the recent elections, and the existing government was concerned for their newfound strength. -
Treaty of Campo Formio
The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of revolutionary France and the Austrian monarchy. The treaty marked the victorious conclusion to Napoleon's campaigns in Italy, the collapse of the First Coalition, and the end of the first phase of the French Revolutionary Wars. -
Battle of the Pyramids
Napoleon wins his Egyptian campaign with an army of 38,000. It was a battle fought between the French army in Egypt under Napoleon, and local Mamluk forces. It occurred during France's Egyptian Campaign and was the battle where Napoleon put into use one of his significant contributions to tactics, the massive divisional square. Actually a rectangle, the first and second demi-brigades of the division formed the front and rear faces, while the third demi-brigade formed the two sides. -
Napoleon named First Consul
The Coup détat was against Directory and Napoleon was named the First Consul. -
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Napolian
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution and its associated wars in Europe. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. e is best remembered for his role in the wars led against France by a series of coalitions, the so-called Napoleonic Wars. -
Napoleon Signs Concordat
The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status. -
The Napoleonic Code
The Napoleonic Code is the French civil code established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs should go to the most qualified. -
Napoleon Crowned Emperor
Napoleon crowns himself Emperor, in the company of the Pope. Napoleon used the plot to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as Emperor. Napoleon put on the crown himself, shows that he is higher in rank and authority than the Pope. Claims that he seized the crown out of the hands of Pope during the ceremony to avoid his subjugation to the authority. -
Battle of Trafalgar
It was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. British ships led by Lord Nelson defeated Napoleon`s French and Spanish ships. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. British victory spectacularly confirmed their naval supremacy. -
Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Naples
Napoleon names his elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte, king of Naples, and appoints other family members to various other posts. He was the king of Naples, Sicily, Spain and the Indies. He creates a law that only his family may rule France, hereditary comes into play. Joseph was a member of the Council of Ancients where he used his position to help his brother overthrow the Directory. -
Nappoleon's Russian Campaign
Napoleon ignored the advice of his advisers and launched an invasion on Russia. Napoleon expanded his Grande Armée to more than 450,000 men. The Russians avoided Napoleon's objective of a decisive engagement and instead retreated deeper into Russia. Due to the Russian army's scorched earth tactics, the French found it increasingly difficult to forage food for themselves and their horses. The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat, in the end fewer than 40 000 men were left. -
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Congress of Vienna
Although representatives from all the states which had participated in the wars were invited, the principal negotiations were conducted by Britain, Russia, France, and Austria. The congress met to reconstruct the map of Europe and develop a balance of power that would prevent another massive take-over by one country. Objective resulted in the redrawing of the continent's political map, and undo changes made by Napoleon in Europe. Napoleon is replaced with Louis XVIII, a Bourbon.
