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Louis XVI calls the Estates General
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. Summoned by King Louis XVI to propose solutions to his government's financial problems, the Estates-General convened for several weeks in May and June 1789. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was a key moment that set off the French Revolution. On June 20, 1789, the Tennis Court Oath was taken. There, the men of the National Assembly swore an oath never to stop meeting until a constitution had been established. -
Wrting of the Declaration of the rights of men
Men are born free and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be based only on public utility. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. -
Parisians storming the Bastille
On the morning of July 14, 1789, hundreds of Parisians stormed the Bastille, a state prison, seizing 250 barrels of gunpowder and freeing its prisoners. The storming of the Bastille was a pivotal moment in the French Revolution, the violent result of a multitude of social, economic, and political crises. -
March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles was a riot that took place during this first stage of the French Revolution. It was spontaneously organized by women in the marketplaces of Paris, on the morning of October 5, 1789. They complained over the high price and scant availability of bread, marching from Paris to Versailles. -
Establisment of new french constitution
The National Assembly created the Constitution of 1791, the French constitution during the French Revolution. It retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by an indirect voting system. -
Execution of the king and queen
In 1789, faced with a grave financial crisis, the king summoned a meeting of the Estates General at the palace. Later that year, ceding to popular pressure, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette left Versailles for Paris. Both died by the guillotine in 1793. -
Reign of terror
The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervor, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. -
Napoleon overthrows the directory
Coup d'état overthrew the system of government under the Directory in France and substituted the Consulate, making way for the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte. The event is often viewed as the effective end of the French Revolution. -
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Napoleon builds an empire
Napoleon gained success during the French Revolutionary Wars by defending France and effectively defeating the Coalition armies from 1792-1802. Napoleon became the First Consul in France by 1800 and led the French Empire into a new, and powerful, era. -
Napolean invades russia
On June 24, 1812, the Grande Armée, led by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, crossed the Neman River, invading Russia from present-day Poland. The result was a disaster for the French. The Russian army refused to engage with Napoleon's Grande Armée of more than 500,000 European troops. -
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The congress of Vienna meets
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. -
6th Coalition occupies Paris
Following Napoleon's retreat from Russia and the subsequent defeat of his army by the Sixth Coalition at Leipzig (1813), the armies of the Sixth Coalition invaded France and advanced toward Paris, which capitulated on March 31, 1814. -
King Louis XVIII begins his reign
The grandson of Louis XV and brother of Louis XVI, Louis Stanislas Xavier declared himself King of France in 1795, before officially becoming King Louis XVIII in 1814 at the fall of the Empire. -
Napolean defeated at Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 between Napoleon's French Army and a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blücher. The decisive battle of its age, it concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever.