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Excessive spending and poor harvests lead to a financial crisis in France
For years, France had been subject to the whim of the French nobility and their schemes for more riches. During the reign of Louis XVI, French commoners and peasants were victims of Old Regime tyranny, inflation, high bread prices, and bad harvest. The French government at this time was heavily taxing the poor in order to keep up their global military campaigns and their lavish lifestyles. By 1787, the socioeconomic tensions were dividing France to the point of political intervention. -
King Louis XVI calls the Estates General
In 1789, the King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General. It was the first meeting of the Estates General called since 1614. He called the meeting because the French government was having financial problems. -
First and Second Estates join the Third Estate in the newly formed National Assembly
Before the National Assembly was formed, the Third Estate was informed that all voting would be "by power" not "by head", so their double representation was meaningless. Diplomacy among the estates continued without success until May, when the representatives of the 3rd Estate began to meet separately, proceeding with their "verification of powers" independently. But, starting on June 13, they were joined by some of the nobles and the clergy. This group called itself the National Assembly. -
The Tennis Court Oath
On the morning of June 20, the chamber door to the National Assembly was locked and guarded by soldiers.The deputies of the Third Estate decided to congregate in a nearby indoor tennis court in the Saint-Louis district of the city of Versailles. The members of the French Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established". -
Start of The Great Fear in the countryside
The Great Fear was a panic that took place between July and August of 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution. Rural unrest had been present in France since the grain shortage of the spring, and both peasants and townspeople mobilized in many regions when they heard rumors of an aristocrats' "famine plot" to starve or burn out the population. Fearful peasants armed themselves in self-defense. -
The storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of July 14, 1789. The Bastille, which was the medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris, represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuses of power. -
The Women’s March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries, who were seeking political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women grew into a mob of thousands. They ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched to the Palace of Versailles. They successfully pressed their demands upon King Louis XVI. -
The National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is a human civil rights document from the French Revolution.The Declaration was drafted by the Abbé Sieyès and Marquis de Lafayette, who worked with Thomas Jefferson. It became the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by the law. It is included in the beginning of the constitutions of the Fourth French Republic and Fifth Republic. The Declaration was a core statement of the values of the French Revolution. -
The Constitution of 1791 sets up a constitutional monarchy in France
The National Assembly began the process of drafting a constitution. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, eventually became the preamble of the constitution adopted on September 3, 1791. The Declaration made statements about rights, liberty, and sovereignty. The French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the absolute monarchy. It established popular sovereignty and limits on government power. -
The Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria
Reactionaries and the monarchy wanted war because they thought that the new government would be easily defeated by foreign powers. This would pave the way for a return to the old regime, with Louis at the head of government. Revolutionaries wanted war because they thought war would unify the country, and they had a desire to spread the ideas of the Revolution to all of Europe.
On April 20, 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria. -
Louis XVI is executed at the guillotine
Louis XVI's execution by guillotine was a major event of the French Revolution. It occurred at the Place de la Révolution ("Revolution Square", which was formerly called Place Louis XV, and renamed Place de la Concorde in 1795) in Paris. The National Convention had convicted the king in a near-unanimous vote. Nobody voted "not guilty", but several deputies abstained. Louis XVI was condemned him to death by a simple majority. -
Robespierre's Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror, is the label given to a period during the French Revolution after the First French Republic was established.There was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793. They were determined to avoid street violence such as the September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government.Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France. -
The Directory is installed
The Directory was a five-member committee which governed France from November 2, 1795, to November 9, 1799. It was formed when it replaced the Committee of Public Safety and ended when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, and replaced by the French Consulate. It gave its name to the final four years of the French Revolution.
