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The French Revolution
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Financial Crisis in France Occurs
The First Assembly of Notables become stagnant over the raising and lowering of taxes on the French people. This inability to budget the nation, leads to France facing hard economic times and the Assembly of Notables to dissolve. The Third Estae/French commoners recieve the most hardship from the crisis, which leads to the first ideas of reforming government/resisting the aristocracy. -
Excessive spending and poor harvests lead to a financial crisis in France
For years, France has been at the whim of the French nobility and their schemes for more opulance and glory. During the reign of Louis XVI, French commoners were victims of Old Regime tyranny, horrible inflation, exorbitant bread prices, and bad harvest. The French government at this time was heavily taxing the poor in order to keep up their global military campaigns and their own lux lifestyles. By 1787, the socioeconomic tensions were dividing France to the point of dire poltical intervention. -
Louis XVI officially calls for the Three Estates to meet
After years of bad economic and poor political leadership, Louis XVI calls for the Estates General to meet in order to figure out some of Frances problems. However, the Third Estate, the most affected of all the Estates by the economic downturn, is neglected/scoffed at the other Estates for wanting more equality and representation in French government. The Estates agree to hold elections which will prove controversial and tumulteous. -
King Louis XVI calls the Estates General Elections
The Estates General hold elections for the represenatives from each estate. The elections are selective and rigged, which causes the Third Estate more alienation from the noble and clergy classes. This continuation of the status quo, will lead to many heated and divisive debates amoung the estates which will lead to the Third Estate wanting to resist and revolt against the Old Regime. -
First and Second Estates join the Third Estate in the Newly formed National Assembly
The merger between the Three Estates shifted the power of the Old Regime into that of the hands of the French people. The new Estate, or National Assembly, made it their mission to stop France's economic and societal woes through unification and the limiting of the power of the monarchy. This will also be bring France politically closer to Revolution. -
The Tennis Court Oath
The Tennis Court Oath is taken by most of the members of the Estates General, who were fed up with the King Louis XVI's uncompromising absolutism.This oath was made to promise that the French government would work towards creating a valid constitution and limiting the King's power. This oath is also an ill-omen for King Louis XVI because it shiows that the Revolution is nearing and his time in power is coming to a brutal end! -
The Storming of the Bastille
Due to Louis XVI disapproval of the new National Assembly and their platform for democracy/equlality, the peasants of Paris became outraged. The peasants, who were fed up with the inequality, the drowning taxes and the disenfranchisement that had been forced upon them for centuries, decided to storm the military castle of Bastille. Once getting to the Bastille, Parisians looted and armed themselves. This anti-government act commenced the French Revolution and the ending of the Old Regime. -
The Great Fear in the Countryside
The Great Fear were peasant rebellions that occurred during the Summer of 1789 throughout the French countryside. These revolts were sparked by the National Assembly and the nobility's inability to compromise, unsteady bread prices and age-old repression of the serf class. The Great Fear will heighten the intensity and voilence of the French Revolution. -
The National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Once the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, equal rights became a major platform of the Revolution. The document gave French citizens equal and unalienable rights, which led to all of France fighting for equality and true democratic citizenship. The passing of this document basically got chipped away at the pomp status of the First and Second Estates. Minority groups also fought for equality due to the document which will impact Revolutionary tensions -
The Women's March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles came about when Parisian women became outraged over the spike in price of bread and its potential shortage. Hundreds of women marched to Versailles, armed and ready to display their fury against the tyrannical Versailles royals. (The women were very upset that they and their families were starving while the French nobles live carefree lives of luxury at the expense of labor classes. -
The Constitution of 1791 sets up a Constitutional Monarchy in France
The Constitution of 1791 was a framework of the new French government that took 3 years to complete. The Constitution established France as a constitional monarchy, with a heavily influential legislative body that could declare war and regulate taxes. The Legislative Assembly was indirectly elected by "active citizens"/white, landowners. The King's role was limited to that of a figurehead. The document/government became invalid after a year due to the onslaught of the Reign of Terror. -
The Legislative Assembly Declares War on Austria
The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria because of Austria military presence in Northern France and their inabilty to validate the new republican government of France. Austria aligned itself with Pussia in order to take down the France. The Legislatve Assembly's war proved to be a failure which ended up wrecking their already fragile resources. The demise of the Legislative Assembly quickly followed, and France dissented into a bloody, unstable time known as the Reign of Terror. -
Louis XVI is Executed at the Guillotine
Louis XVI was executed after being found guilty of 33 charges that were all related to inciting tyranny and limiting the liberties of the French people. After Louis' execution, France went into a spiral of political instability and upheaval which culminated in Robespierre taking power. This will cause the Reign of Terror to occur, and all of France will be engulfed in senseless bloodshed and topsy-turvy policy for several years. -
Robespierre's Reign of Terror
After King Louis XVI's execution, the French lawyer /Revolution leader, Maximilien de Robespierre, became a predominant leader of Revolutionary France. Robespierre started a campaign to rid France of anybody who was not true to the Revolution and who supported the Old Regime. Thousands of French were tried and executed for not complying with Robespierre's revolutionary ideas and many restrictions were placed on commoners. This period of the Revolution will leave France despondent and unstable. -
The Directory is Installed
The Directory of France is an executive governmental body that ruled France under five directors from 1795 to 1799. This Directory overthrew Robespierre's repressive government, and replaced it with a biacmeral one that was focused on stabilizing the nation. With military successes in Europe and the Middle East, the Directory was able to finally unify the French people. The Directory was overthrone by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolution seemed to be coming to a close. -
Constitution of Year X promulgated
The signing of this document will officially end the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte will declare himself dicatator/ruler of France. Unfortunately, France will continue to struggle with maintaining political and societal stability. Napoleon will be disposed of twice, the monarchy will be temporarily reinstated, and another Revolution will occur in the late 1840s.
