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Estates General Called
The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. Summoned by King Louis XVI, it was brought to an end when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, inviting the other two to join, against the wishes of the King. -
National Assembly Formed
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly, which existed from 14 June 1789 to 9 July 1789, was a revolutionary assembly formed by the representatives of the Third Estate of the Estates-General; thereafter it was known as the National Constituent Assembly, though popularly the shorter form persisted. -
Tennis Court Oath
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". It was a pivotal event in the French Revolution. -
The storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France. The medieval fortress armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille 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; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
Constitutional Monarchy formed
A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign exercises authority in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution -
Mob Overthrows the Constitutional Monarchy, France republic
The constitutional monarchy was overthrown -
Reign of terror begins
The reign of terror begins when Robespierre declares terror. This marks the beginning of almost two years of repressing perceived enemies of the Revolution. -
King Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette Beheaded
The National Convention had convicted the king in a near-unanimous vote and condemned him to death by a simple majority. -
Reign of terror ends
By the end of the Terror, 16,594 official death sentences were declared and carried out in France, of which 2,639 were in Paris. By 1794, for the most part, France was divided into two factions. -
Napoleon Bonaparte & French Nationalism
Napoleon Bonaparte promoted French nationalism based upon the ideals of the French Revolution such as the idea of "liberty, equality, fraternity" and justified French expansionism and French military campaigns on the claim that France had the right to spread the enlightened ideals of the French Revolution across Europe
