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Period: to
Monarchy in Shambles
The Bourbon dynasty falters and collapses, as Enlightenment ideas coalesce into a new European revolution. -
The Revolution is born on the Court
The third estate meets to sign the Tennis Court Oath. They decided to convene there because they had been locked out of the assembly hall on order of the king. Here they vowed to "never separate and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established". This was important because it marked the true beginning of the revolution. -
The Siege of the Bastille
The bastille was a prison/former fort in Paris, holding a store of munitions and weaponry vital to the survival of the revolution. It was stormed by the gentry and easily captured with minimal casualties. The storming of the bastille marked the beginning of violence in the revolution, and served as foreshadowing for what would follow. -
The Royal Family Flees Paris
The nearly powerless king and queen Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI attempt to flee Paris to Austria, fearing for their lives. They are stopped in the countryside, recognized, and arrested, being sent back to Paris. They were then branded as traitors to France and the revolution, and put in prison. This gave the national assembly a difficult choice- whether to keep the monarchy alive at all or be gone with it entirely. -
War of the First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition begins as Austria and Prussia sign a joint pact to invade France in defence of the monarchy. This war rages for ~4 years and ends in a French victory. It is the first out of seven coalition wars against Revolutionary France over ~20 years. The first coalition was one of the many alliances that attempted and failed to bring down France during it's revolutionary era. -
Execution of Citizen Capet
Louis XVI, former monarch of France and Head of the Bourbon dynasty is put on trial for his traitorous acts towards the revolution. As punishment for his attempted flight of the country, Louis was sentenced to execution by guillotine. This is one of the only times in history where a ruler has been sentenced to death by his own nation, and been publicly executed. -
Jacobins Seize Power
The revolution takes a more radical, violent turn as the Jacobins seize control of the French government. This also marked the date that Britain joined the First Coalition against France. The rise of the Jacobins brought about the first Terror in France. During the terror, thousands of people were publicly executed by the guillotine for suspected anti-revolutionary deeds. -
Execution of Marie-Antoinette
Former queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, Marie was one of the main enemies of the revolution due to her lavish spending and perceived ignorance of the plight of the lower class. She was tried in a similar manner to Citizen Capet, and similarly sentenced to death. This was a huge insult to the Hapsburgs, whose dynasty she was part of. -
Siege of Toulon
A major naval port in mainland France, Toulon had been surrendered to the British by royalist rebels. Had the following siege been a failure for France, it would have been a huge disaster. It would be likely that the First Coalition could have snuffed out the revolution in its crib. This battle is also important as it is the first victory of Napoleon Bonaparte, and marked the beginning of his rise to fame and power in France. -
Fall of Robespierre
Tired of living in constant fear, the people and government of France turned against the perpetrator of the Reign of Terror- Robespierre. He was tried and executed, similar to the thousands he had sentenced to death- by guillotine. His death marked the collapse of the Jacobins as the leading power in France. It also ushered in a new, slightly less violent stage of the French Revolution. -
Coup d'etat of Brumaire
Napoleon and his supporters stage a coup on the French Republic, creating the French Consulate. While this government supposedly was equal, Napoleon was the true power holder. He was able to pull off the coup so easily because of his massive popularity in France due to his military triumphs. This event marked the end of the formal French Revolution and ushered in the Napoleonic Era.
