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Writing of Declaration of Rights of Men
The Marquis de Lafayette, with the help of Thomas Jefferson, composed a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and presented it to the National Assembly on July 11, 1789. In its preamble and 17 articles, it sets out the “natural and inalienable” rights: freedom, ownership, security, and resistance to oppression; it recognizes equality before the law and the justice system and affirms the principle of separation of powers. -
Tennis Court Oath
In the Tennis Court Oath, representatives of the non-clergy and non-nobles of France swore they would not disperse until a constitution was established for France. While the oath-makers were successful, the French Revolution soon tumbled out of control. -
Louis XVI calls 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. -
Parisians storm 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 mob had gathered in the Marble Courtyard and was demanding a royal appearance. Louis XVI promised to give them bread and to come to Paris. At 1.25 pm the Royal cortege left Versailles. Along the way the crowd proclaimed they were bringing back “the baker with his wife and boy”! -
Napoleon Builds an Empire
Napoleon built his empire through conquest of territories belonging to his enemies. Napoleon greatly assisted in defeating the First Coalition in 1792–1797, in which the newly formed French republic annexed a part of the Rhine and also the formerly Austrian Netherlands, in addition to client states. -
Execution of King & Queen
Louis' execution would profoundly affect the course of European history, marking a point of no return for the French revolutionaries. The first and only execution of a French king by his subjects, the death of Louis XVI marked the death of the Ancien Régime and ended a millennium of uninterrupted French monarchy. -
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 fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety. -
Napolean Overthrows Directory
Napoleon Bonaparte and Abbe Sieyes overthrew the current Directory and replaced it with a new government: a three-person Consulate. A bloodless coup d'état under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate. It took place on November 9, 1799, at 18 Brumaire, Year VIII under the French Republican Calendar. -
Napoleon 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 -
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. -
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. -
6th Coalition Occupies Paris
The War of the Sixth Coalition, known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, was the penultimate conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. The Sixth Coalition, which included Russia, Austria, Prussia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and several German states, defeated the First French Empire and drove Napoleon into exile on the island of Elba. -
Napoleon 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 concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever. -
Establishment of New French Constitution
Constitution of 1791, the French constitution was created by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. It retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by a system of indirect voting.