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The French Revolution
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Meeting of Estate Generals
King Louis XVI called all Delegates that represented each Estate to decide on pressing political matters. Due to the unfair way of giving each Estate one vote each, this usually meant that the First and Second Estate would always outvote the Third Estate despite the massive population difference. This caused the Third Estate to begin their revolt against their King. -
National Assembly
The creation of the National Assembly led to a new Constitution and to help make King Louis XVI acknowledge the Third Estate and what they want. -
Tennis Court Oath
This event was a pledge where Third Estate delegates entered what used to be their meeting room, turned into a tennis court, and demanded that a new Constitution be created.What was important about this event was that it was one of the very first times that citizens started to oppose the King. -
Storming of the Bastille
Storming of the Bastille is battle where a large mob that wanted to defend its city fought against the guards of Bastille, a Paris prison, for its gunpowder and other weapons. This marked the beginning of the French Revolution -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
This list of articles state that, "men are born and remain free and equal in rights" This essentially states that everyone is given basic human rights. -
March To Versailles
A march of nearly 7,000 men and women(mostly women) headed straight for King Louis XVI luxurious palace at Versailles. They demanded that he distribute bread to his people and that he and his family come back to Paris to their people. This signaled the drastic shift of power and foreshadows the change about to overtake France. -
Flight to Varennes
This event was when King Louis XVI and his family was advised by people of the monarchy that France was unsafe for their family, so ran away to seek refuge in Austria. Eventually Louis and his family were captured and sent back to France where this stirred up more trouble and led to many more people going against the government. -
The Creation of the Legislative Assembly
The National Assembly had a meeting discussing a new constitution. This constitution essentially stripped the king of most of his power and the body had the ability to create new laws. What this did was make the King's monarchy weaker and the king himself. -
War with Europe
Other European countries were worried about the ever growing French Revolution and was afraid it would spread all across Europe. Prussia and Austria took action and told the French to give King Louis XVI back his power. The Legislative Assembly decided to to respond by declaring war -
Forming of the Jacobins.
The Jacobins were a radical political organization who despised the king and those who were opposed of the Revolution and wanted death to be granted upon them. The Jacobins eventually rose to a greater power and soon tried Louis XVI to death by guillotine(Jan. 21 1973). The significance of this event was that the Jacobins was a uniform group that led france -
Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre was a Jacobin leader who eventually rose to power during the French Revolution. His goal was to erase every bit of France's past.He also put what he called "enemies" of the Revolution into the guillotine. His dictator like control gave this period of time of ruling the," Reign of Terror." This event was ended when the National Convention went against Robespierre and executed him. The significance of this period of time was to show how extreme the Jacobins were. -
The Formation of the Directory
After Robespierre was executed; the National Convention met up yet again to discuss another change in their government. They decided on the Directory which consisted of two house legislature and an executive body of five men. The importance of the Directory was that France gained a period of order despite the few corrupt moderates. -
The Decline of the Directory./ Napoleons uprising
The Directory began to lose its footing with the people of France. After Napoleon returned after his battle in Egypt, he was pressured into taking political power and rule France. He surrounded the National legislature and threw out most of the members within. The ones who stayed voted to dispose of the Directory and establish three consuls which consisted of Napoleon. The decline of the directory was important because it led France to gaining a strong leader and an era of stabilization.
