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Estates-General Meeting
It was the first meeting since 1614 of the French-Estates General, a general assembly representing the French Estates of the realm. It was a meeting that reunited an equal number of from each Estate to solve the serious political crisis. -
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
It was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The women were rioting over high prices and scarcity of bread. These events ended the king’s independence and signified the change of power and reforms about to overtake France. -
Storming the Bastille
It occurred in Paris, France on July 14, 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris in Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille. It symbolized the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. It was a flash point of of the French Revolution. -
The Great Fear
It was a period of panic and riots by peasants. They rioted because they heard rumors of the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate. Because it was responsible for the National Constituent Assembly’s dismissal of feudal rights and obligations. This led to the general unrest of the nobility of France. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
It was a fundamental document of the French Revolution passed by that National Constituent Assembly. It was influenced by Thomas Jefferson and also influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, the rights of man are held to be universal. It has helped create the idea that people everywhere are entitled to basic human rights. -
Constitution of 1791
It was a French constitution 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. It was restricted to active citizens who paid a minimal sum in taxes. The constitution lasted less than a year. -
Women's March on Versailles
It was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The women were rioting over high prices and scarcity of bread. These events ended the king’s independence and signified the change of power and reforms about to overtake France. -
September Massacres
They were a wave of killings in Paris and other cities in late 1792, during the French Revolution. There was a fear that foreign royalist would attack Paris and that the inmates of the city’s prisons would be free and join them. It showed how much the National Convention was not in control of the people and could not be stopped by anyone in the military. -
Execution of King Louis XVI
It was a major event of the revolution. It happened after the fall of the monarchy, Louis was arrested, was in prison with his family, tried for treason, executed. It was the clearest act of defiance to the idea of “Divine Right of Kings”. By him dying, the Revolutionary Government declared the right of people to make decisions for themselves. -
Execution of Robespierre
A French lawyer and politician and one of the best known and most influential figures of the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. He is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. A law was passed that suspended a suspect’s right to public trial and to legal assistance. It ended the French Revolution.
