-
The Estates General Meeting
The Estates General was summoned by King Louis XVI on May 5, 1789 to address the country's financial and political instability. The meeting took place at the Menus-Plaisirs building in Versailles. -
The Tennis Court Oath
In the Tennis Court Oath, the National Assembly swore not to stop meeting until France had a constitution. This commitment to imposing a constitution on France was a threat to the power of the monarch. -
The Storming of the Bastille
On July 14 1789 the Paris mob, hungry due to a lack of food from poor harvests, upset at the conditions of their lives, and annoyed with their King and Government, stormed the Bastille fortress (a prison). -
The Great Fear
Great Fear, (1789) in the French Revolution, was a period of panic and riot by peasants and others amid rumors of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate. The Great Fear (La Grande Peur in French) was a period of panic and unrest that took place in France during the early stages of the French Revolution. -
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
In its preamble and its 17 articles, it sets out the “natural and inalienable” rights, which are freedom, ownership, security, resistance to oppression; it recognizes equality before the law and the justice system and affirms the principle of separation of powers. -
The execution of King Louis XVI
When a final decision on the question of a respite was taken on January 19, Louis was condemned to death by 380 votes to 310. He was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution in Paris on January 21, 1793. Nine months later his wife met the same fate. -
The Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , or simply the Terror (la Terreur), was a climactic period of state-sanctioned violence during the French Revolution (1789-99), which saw the public executions and mass killings of thousands of counter-revolutionary 'suspects' between September 1793 and July 1794. -
Napoleon Bonaparte’s Coup d’etat
Coup of 18–19 Brumaire, (November 9–10, 1799), coup d'état that overthrew the system of government under the Directory in France and substituted the Consulate, making way for the despotism of Napoleon Bonaparte. The event is often viewed as the effective end of the French Revolution. -
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a meeting of European nations that set out a strategy to maintain peace and stability throughout the continent. It gathered in 1814 following the first defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France and namesake of the Napoleonic Wars. -
Battle of 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.