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Call of The Estates General
King Louis XVI calls forth the Estates General together for the first time in a long time. Featuring the clergy, noblesmen, and the rest of France together. -
The Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789. -
Fall of the Bastille
On July 14, 1789, an angry crowd marched on the Bastille, a medieval fortress in east Paris that was mostly housing political prisoners. To many people in France, it was considered as a symbol of the much hated Louis’ regime. -
March on Versailles
Many people in Paris and the rest of France were hungry, unemployed and restless. In October, a large crowd of protesters, mostly women, marched from Paris to the Palace of Versailles, convinced that the royal family and nobility there lived in luxury, oblivious to the hardships of the French people. -
The Passing of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government. -
Flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes served as a major journee because it showed the National Assembly as well as the French people, that Louis XVI could no longer be trusted. -
Dissolution of the National Assembly
France was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy, while the National Assembly was dissolved and replaced by a new political body named the Legislative Assembly. -
Attack on the Tuileries Palace
On August 10, a crowd of about 20,000 people attacked the Tuileries Palace. The King and Queen had escaped the Palace and placed themselves under the protection of the Legislative Assembly. Fearing further violence, the Assembly placed them under arrest. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
In 1789 the people of France overthrew their monarchy and established the first French Republic. Just six weeks after the storming of the Bastille, and barely three weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen -
The September Massacres
The September Massacres were a wave of killings in Paris 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 Trial of Louis
Louis was driven through the streets of Paris to a guillotine and decapitated. Marie Antoinette had a short trial next. -
Reign of Terror
Robespierre wanted to rid France of all enemies of the Revolution and to protect the “virtue” of the nation. From September 1793 to July 1794, an estimated 16,000 people were guillotined. -
The Execution of Robespierre
Robespierre was found guilty of "setting himself up as a dictaor of France." He was executed during a ceromony with 21 others on June 28, 1794. -
End of The Directory
The French Revolutionary government set up by the Constitution of the Year III, which lasted four years, from November 1795 to November 1799. -
The Rise of Napoleon
A successful military commander named Napoleon Bonaparte returned from a military expedition in Egypt and ousted the Directory. Napoleon established what he called the Consulate and himself as the First Consul.
