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Meeting of the 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: the First Estate, the Second Estate, and the Third Estate. Summoned by King Louis XVI to propose solutions to his government's financial problems -
Tennis Court Oath
The members of the French Estates-General for the 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 early days of the French Revolution. -
Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille was when the medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of abuses by the monarchy; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
Declaration of Rights
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed by France's National Constituent Assembly, is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights. -
March on Versailles
Versailles, also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. -
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror, was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of enemies of the revolution. -
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The rise of Napoleon and Creation of an Empire
After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire. -
Napoleon's Empire Collapses
After a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon abdicates the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba. -
Congress of Vienna
The First Congress of Vienna became a turning point in the history of central Europe. After the death of the childless king Louis II at the Battle of Mohács against the Ottomans in 1526, the Habsburg-Jagiellon mutual succession treaty ultimately increasing the power of the Habsburgs and diminishing that of the Jagiellonians.