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Palace of Versailles built
Every detail of its construction was built to glorify the king.
Building it cost 2 billion dollars. -
When King Louis moved the capital of France from Paris to Versailles
Versailles, before the reign of Louis, was mostly used as a royal hunting lodge. After he moved in he invited all of the aristocracies to live with him on the grounds, not because he liked them, but because he could control them. -
When King Louis XVI married Marie Antoinette
They were hardly in their teens when they got married. They got married before they even met. -
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French Revolution
The French Revolution began in May 1789 when the Ancien Régime was abolished in favor of a constitutional monarchy. Its replacement in September 1792 by the First French Republic led to the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 and an extended period of political turmoil. -
Tennis Court Oath
the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath voting "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the Constitution of the kingdom is established". -
Bastille is Stormed
a state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy's dictatorial rule -
When The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was written
the French National Constituent Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. This defined individual and collective rights at the time of the French Revolution. -
Women’s March on Versailles
a crowd of women demanding bread for their families gathered other discontented Parisians, including some men, and marched toward Versailles, arriving soaking wet from the rain. ... The King agreed to meet with some of the women and promised to distribute all the bread in Versailles to the crowd. -
King Louis is executed XVI
King Louis is convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French national convention. He is then Executed by a guillotine. -
The Reign of Terror
It was a period of violence during the French Revolution. It involved mass executions of anyone who was even thought to be enemies of the revolution. -
Napoleon launches a Coup d’Etat on the weak & corrupt Directory.
coup d'état that 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. -
Creation of the Napoleonic Code
It codified several branches of law, including commercial and criminal law, and divided civil law into categories of property and family. The Napoleonic Code made the authority of men over their families stronger, deprived women of any individual rights, and reduced the rights of illegitimate children. -
Napoleon crowns himself emperor.
Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor and made Josephine Empress. His coronation ceremony took place on December 2, 1804, in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, with incredible splendor and at considerable expense. -
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Napoleon as Emperor
Napoleon abdicated his powers. In an effort to prolong his dynasty he pushed to have his young son, Napoleon II, named emperor, but the coalition rejected the offer. -
Defeat in Russian Campaign
In the summer of 1812 Napoleon gathered his fearsome Grande Armée, more than half a million strong, on the banks of the Niemen River. -
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo, in which Napoleon's forces were defeated by the British and Prussians, marked the end of his reign and of France's domination in Europe. -
When he was exiled
Exiled to the island of Elba, he escaped to France in early 1815 and raised a new Grand Army that enjoyed temporary success before its crushing defeat at Waterloo against an allied force under Wellington on June 18, 1815. Napoleon was subsequently exiled to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa.
