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Louis XVI calls the Estates General
Summoned by King Louis XVI to propose solutions to his government financial problems. -
Tennis Court Oath
On June 20, 1789, the Tennis Court Oath was taken. There, the men of the National Assembly swore an oath never to stop meeting until a constitution had been established. -
Writing of the Declarations of the 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 of the Citizen and presented it to the National Assembly on July 11, 1789. -
Parisians Storming the 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 women's March on Versailles was a riot that took place during this first stage of the French Revolution.They complained over the high price and scant availability of bread, marching from Paris to Versailles. -
Execution of the King and Queen
King Louis XVI of France and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette were both beheaded by the guillotine at the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde) in Paris, France. Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793, and Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16, 1793 -
King Louis XVII Begins His Reign
On 21 January 1793 his father was executed. The Dauphin automatically assumed the regnal title of Louis XVII, recognised and respected by the royalist party and Europe's other political powers. -
Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror, a period of the French Revolution that was conspicuous for mass executions of political suspects.09 -
Napoleon Overthrows the Directory
The coup d'état of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and led to the coronation of Napoleon as emperor. This bloodless coup d'état overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate. -
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. -
Napoleon Invades Russia
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. -
6th Coalition Occupies Paris
Following Napoleon's retreat from Russia and the subsequent defeat of his army by the Sixth Coalition at Leipzig (1813), the armies of the Sixth Coalition invaded France and advanced toward Paris, which capitulated on March 31, 1814 -
The Congress of Vienna Meets
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. -
Napoleon Defeated at Waterloo
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. -
Established of the New French Constitution
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.