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Louis XVI calls the Estate General
The political and financial situation in France had grown rather bleak, forcing Louis XVI to summon the Estates General. This assembly was composed of three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country. Wielded out sized influence over domestic affairs, benefited from a wide variety of privileges, and controlled significant sums of wealth. This was very important in initiating the French Revolution -
Writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Men
Is a fundamental document of the French Revolution that granted civil rights to some commoners, although it excluded a significant segment of the French population. Social distinctions can be based only on public utility. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression. -
March on Versailles
Concerned over the high price and scarcity of bread, women from the marketplaces of Paris led the March on Versailles on October 5, 1789. This became one of the most significant events of the French Revolution, eventually forcing the royals to return to Paris. The women's march on Versailles is particularly significant because it was a turning point in the revolution. Their successful storming of the palace proved that the monarchy is subject to the will of the people. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath was made to ensure the National Assembly would finish writing their new constitution on June 20th, 1789. It declared that members of the National Assembly would stay in the tennis court until they finished writing the new constitution. This was an important part of the French Revolution because it represented the power of the people. It was a clear challenge to the authority of the king, asserting that political authority derived from the people and their representatives. -
Parisians storming the Bastille
Rising bread prices, the concentration of foreign soldiers around Paris, and counter-revolutionary measures by the king, such as the dismissal of Jacques Necker, caused the people of Paris to riot. Searching for weapons and gunpowder .Signaled the start of the French Revolution, after which a republic was established based on the ideals of 'liberty, equality, fraternity'.It was also a symbol of the monarchy and the old order. -
Establishment of the New French Constitution
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. During the French Revolution, the French Constitution of 1791 created a new structure for the Government of France. Specifically, it limited the powers of the monarchy of France, delegated legislative powers to an elected National Assembly, and created an elected judiciary. -
Execution of King and Queen
Louis XVI was executed on orders from the National Convention in January 1793, and in August the queen was put in solitary confinement in the Conciergerie. She was brought before the Revolutionary tribunal on October 14, 1793, and was guillotined two days later. It is important because Louis' death emboldened revolutionaries throughout the country, who continued to alter French political and social structure radically. Following this Year 1 of the French Republic was declared. -
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. The Reign of Terror lasted for only nine months but it changed the French Revolution. Inspired by the misguided ideals of Maximilien Robespierre, all enemies of the state were executed. -
Napoleon Overthrows the Directory
The collapse of the Directory in 1799 was primarily due to internal weaknesses, political instability, and the opportunistic actions of figures like Napoleon Bonaparte. The Directory suffered from a lack of cohesive leadership and was plagued by internal conflicts, which hindered effective governance. Its policies aimed at protecting the positions of those who had supported the Revolution and preventing the return of the Bourbons. -
Napoleon Builds an Empire
Napoleon was not content simply to be master of France. He wanted to control the rest of Europe and to reassert French power in the Americas. Napoleon Bonaparte was the embodiment of the French Revolution who spread the revolutionary principles of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity wherever he conquered. Also Napoleon greatly assisted in defeating the First Coalition in 1792–1797, in which the newly formed French republic annexed a part of the Rhine -
Napoleon Invades Russia
A military campaign, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 and in France as the Russian Campaign, that began in June 1812 when Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Niemen River to engage and defeat the Russian army. The campaign exhausted the French forces, demonstrating the weaknesses of the French strategy, shaking Napoleon's reputation, and dramatically weakening French hegemony in Europe. -
The Congress of Vienna Meets
The Congress of Vienna was the first of a series of international meetings that came to be known as the Concert of Europe, an attempt to forge a peaceful balance of power in Europe. It served as a model for later organizations such as the League of Nations in 1919 and the United Nations in 1945. Congress of Vienna was signed less than two weeks before Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo. The Congress reduced France to its 1789 borders and a new kingdom of Poland was established -
6th Coalition Occupies Paris
The Sixth Coalition, which included Russia, Austria, Prussia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and several German states.With their armies reorganized, the allies drove Napoleon out of Germany in 1813 and invaded France in 1814. The Allies defeated the remaining French armies, occupied Paris, and forced Napoleon to abdicate and go into exile. -
King Louis XVlll Begins His Reign
He played a complex and nebulous game during the Revolution, awaiting his chance but remaining close to the King, his brother, until the flight to Varennes in June 1791. He continued to strive to exercise his right to the French crown and affirm his legitimacy in the face of revolutionary France and European monarchies. With the help of powerful allies, he returned to France in 1814 and finally took the throne, officially becoming Louis XVIII, “by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre”. -
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, it concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever.Napoleon's defeat meant the victory of the nation state over other concepts such as Napoleon's French Revolutionary Empire and Holy Roman Empire before it.