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Estates General meets
With the first estate voting for the clergy, the second estate voting for the nobility and the third estate voting for essentially the rest of French society, the Estates General came together to vote on whether taxes needed to be inflated in order to boost income. Although the third estate (making up about 97% of the population) voted against tax increase. the first/second estate who made up the other 3% voted for it. So, taxes increased to boost income. -
Oath of the Tennis Court
On this day, the Third Estate of the French government signed the Oath of the Tennis Court. This oath made them promise to "not to separate and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established". It portrayed the belief that the power of the government came from the majority of people who make up the nation, not the few people ranking at the top of the country. -
Women storm Versailles, royal family arrested trying to flee France
On this day, the women of France storm the palace of Versailles because they think the royal family has stolen all the wheat and bread for themselves. Although this is false, it causes the family to move back to Paris. Once in Paris, they try to flee from France and they are caught and arrested. -
France declares war on Austria
France declared war on Austria because they felt like a war would unify the country as one unit in order to win the war instead of being divided as a nation. So the Legislative Assembly decided that declaring war would be the best move for the country. -
France declares War on Britain, Holland
The starting point of the Anglo-French War, the main conflict was between France and Britain, but each side had their own allies. Holland's allies included Holland, and later on in March 1793, Spain. France, meanwhile, didn't have many allies throughout this conflict, but in 1778 they did sign an agreement with the newly founded United States that the two nations would help each other in times of need. -
Robespierre organizes the Committee of Public Safety
After a while, the Committee of Public Safety became irrelevant and didn't do much to live up to its name in the French Revolution. So in 1793, they decided to completely overhaul the board. With this came more passionate and dedicated people, as well as people much more committed to the cause they were working for. One of these people was Maximilien Robespierre. One of the first things they did was arrest Girondist leaders. -
Louis XVI is executed
A day after the French government accused Louis XVI of conspiracy with other countries and rulers, he was given the death sentence and publicly hanged on January 21 in front of many people. He was forced to walk an hour and a half (or more) from his heavily fortified palace to the town square, where he was hanged. -
Reign of Terror
When Robespierre took charge, his committee became relevant once more, leading to lots of "terror". Over the span of over a year, lots happened. Some of this includes the Girondins being overthrown, which then led to the Jacobins coming into power. The main basis of this was, throughout all of the civil and foreign wars, many were prosecuted (very aggressively), executed publicly if they did not support the revolution. In the year-long span, about 40,000 people died. -
Robespierre is executed
After a while of Robespierre being in charge, the other leaders got a little sick of all the terror (understandably). So, as it was done during this time period, how did they solve this problem? Execution. Robespierre was turned on by the other leaders, arrested by them, and yet again, publicly hanged along with many of the people who radically supported him. -
Napoleon overthrows the Directory
Napoleon overthrows the 5-manned directory, and replaces it with the French Consulate. He did all this after rapidly climbing through the military ranks of France. After all this he decided it was time for him to come into power, and he did just that.
