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Estates General Assemble
After bad harvests and costly wars, King Louis XVI is forced to convene this ancient assembly after 175 years in order to raise taxes. -
Creation of the National Assembly
The Third Estate declared itself the National Assembly of France, imploring the remainder of the Estates-General to join the Assembly but also vowing to do the business of France with or without them.While the National Assembly formed without the king's permission, the Assembly considered itself to be acting in the king's interests and originally they declared all their laws subject to royal approval. -
The Tennis Court Oath
The people went to the palace to talk with the king. But they were refused entry. So they decided to talk about things anyway. So they went to one of the tennis courts. They swore that they would not leave until they got a new constitution. Thus creating the National Assembly. -
Storming of the Bastille
Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This signalled the start of the French Revolution. -
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
One of the most important papers of the French Revolution. This paper explains a list of rights, such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and separation of powers. -
Women March on Versailles
A crowd of women demanding bread for their families gathered other discontented Parisians and marched to Versailles. The women got into the palace rushed to Marie's room. Marie barely escaped death. -
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Flight to Varennes
A significant episode in the French Revolution in which King Louis XVI of France, his queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution. -
France Declares War on Austria
France declared war on Austria and Prussia. Revolutionaries wanted war because they thought war would unify the country, and had a genuine desire to spread the ideas of the Revolution to all of Europe. But enemies took it as chance to carve a piece out of France. -
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The September Massacres
a wave of killings in Paris (2–7 September 1792) and other cities in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. There was a fear that foreign and royalist armies would attack Paris and that the inmates of the city's prisons would be freed and join them. -
The New Republic
The Convention abolishes monarchy and declares France a republic -
Execution of King Louis XVI
After being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. -
The Creation of The Committee of Public Safety
The Committee was intended to function as a war council and de facto executive cabinet. It contained nine seats (later extended to 10, then 12) which were rotated monthly, a procedure intended to stop one individual or faction from accumulating too much power. -
Assassination of Marat
Marat was murdered at his home on the Rue de Cordelier. Famously depicted in a painting by Jacques-Louis David, his death remains one of the revolution’s most dramatic scenes. Marat’s assassin was Charlotte Corday, a 24-year-old unmarried woman from Normandy. -
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The Reign of Terror
With civil war and enemies on all sides the new government decided to make "Terror" the order of the day. Leading to a wave of executions of suspected traitors. Ending with the execution of Robespierre. -
Danton's Execution
His disapproval of the terrorist repression had become so strong that he withdrew from political life.Before the Revolutionary tribunal, Danton boldly spoke his mind. To silence him, the Convention decreed that a suspect on trial who insulted national justice be excluded from the debate. “I will no longer defend myself,” Danton cried. “Let me be led to death, I shall go to sleep in glory.” Danton was guillotined with his friends -
The Execution of Robespierre
The execution at the national raiser of Maximilien Robespierre who came to symbolize both the brutality and idealism of the French Revolution. He was described by his contemporaries as either a tyrannical dictator or a revolutionary democratic leader. -
Creation of the Directory
A group of five men who held the executive power in France according to the constitution of the year III (1795) of the French Revolution . They were chosen by the new legislature, by the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients each year one director, chosen by lot, was to be replaced. -
Napoleon Gains Control
Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution (1789-1799). After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804.
