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Meeting of the Estates General
King Louis XVI summoned the Estates General into session for the first time since 1614 to discuss the financial crisis caused by debt accumulated by the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution. The Estates General was the legislative assembly that represented the three estates, or classes, in French society: the clergy, nobility, and commoners. -
Storming the Bastile
The Bastile was an armory and political prison in the middle of Paris. The picture depicts the storming of the Bastile, and the battle plans. Though not a strategically significant event, many consider it the beginning of the French Revolution. -
Pillaging of the Hotel de Ville in Strasbourg
The Hotel de Ville was the city hall of Strasbourg. The protest depicted started over the rising price of bread. The location of this protest is important because it shows that revolutionary action wasn't jus taking place in Paris. The revolution may have started in Paris, but it spread rapidly. -
March on Versailles
Returning home from the October march to Versailles, the women and the guardsmen display the heads of troops who confronted the marchers. Note the use of tree branches, symbolizing support for the revolution here as in other prints. -
King Louis XVI Flees
This engraving depicts the King, his wife, and his children meeting at half–past midnight on 21 June 1791, about to board a carriage in which they will flee secretly from Paris toward the border. The King and Queen were poorly disguised as servants to a German noblewoman. Since most French people outside of Paris had never seen the King or Queen in person, they expected to avoid recognition if only they could get clear of the capital and the surrounding towns. -
Dissolution of the National Assembly
The long awaited constitution finally came into effect on September 30, 1791. France was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy, while the National Assembly was dissolved and replaced by a new political body named the Legislative Assembly -
War with Austria and Prussia
The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia to unify France.The battles of Verdun and Valmy were important to the war. This engraving uses classical figures to depict allegorically an alliance of Prussia, Britain, and Austria, represented as "Tyranny, Hypocrisy, and Pride," who seek to divide the map of France among themselves, while the French Nation prepares to resist so as to bring peace and tranquility to all of Europe." (http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/) -
Attack on the Tuileries Palace
On August 10, a crowd of about 20,000 people attacked the Tuileries Palace. The King and Queen had escaped the Palace and placed themselves under the protection of the Legislative Assembly. Fearing further violence, the Assembly placed them under arrest. The Revolution was moving into a more radical phase. Over the next month, hundreds of suspected royalists were executed in what became known as the “September Massacre”. Many French men and women fled for their lives. -
Declaration of the Republic
Following the arrests of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the Legislative Assembly disbanded and replaced itself with a new political body named the National Convention. Which quickly declared France a republic. -
Execution of Louis XVI
The first act of the National Convention was to declare France as a republic on September 21, 1792. Meanwhile, the French military had halted the foreign invasion and pushed back the Austrians and Prussians. Louis was charged with treason. The vote at the end of the trial was unanimous: Louis was guilty. The vote on the death penalty was much closer but it passed. On January 21, 1793, Louis was driven through the streets of Paris to a guillotine and decapitated. -
The Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre was the mastermind of the Reign of Terror who wanted to instill terror to uphold virtues of the republic and force compliance. The picture is Jean–Baptiste Carrier, a deputy sent by the Convention to suppress the insurrection at Nantes, accepted, if he did not in fact welcome, a measure proposed by the local Revolutionary Tribunal to fill seven boats with an estimated 200–300 prisoners (not all of them yet convicted) and sink them in the Loire River.
