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louis xvi calls for the estates general to meet
in the winter of 1788-1789, louis XVI called for the estate general to meet, the people especially the third estate came with a list of grievances called cahiers. -
representatives from the 3 estates meet at Versailles
the last grand ceremony of the Ancien Régime was held in Versailles: the procession of the Estates General. From all over France, 1,200 deputies had arrived for the event. -
Louis XVI calls for the National Assembly to meet to create a constitution
The political and financial situation in France had grown rather bleak, forcing Louis XVI to summon the Estates General. -
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The French Revolution
The French Revolution was a watershed event in world history that began in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte. During this period, French citizens radically altered their political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as the monarchy and the feudal system. -
Louis XVI has the Third Estate locked out of the Estates General meeting
When the Third Estate was locked out of the meeting hall of the Estates General on June 20, 1789, they went in search for a place they could continue to meet. Close by, there was a handball court, though it is what today we would call a Tennis Court. -
third estate takes the tennis court oath
On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (French: Serment du Jeu de Paume) in the tennis court which had been built in 1686 for the use of the Versailles palace. -
The women of Paris arrest Louis XVI and take him back to Paris
The women of Paris marched to Versailles because they heard he was going to send in the Austrian army. The women arrested louis xvi and his family and took them to Tuileries palace where they spent the next several years. -
The people of Paris storm the Bastille
a state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob -
reign of terror
France goes to war with various European powers. This signals the most violent phase of the French Revolution. Infighting within the National Convention leads to the radical Montagnards taking power. This marks the start of the bloody Reign of Terror. -
the directory takes power
the Directory takes power in France in 1795. The internal political situation remains unstable, but is silenced by the army, now led by a young general Napoleon Bonaparte. -
Napoleonic era began
On 9 November 1799, as frustration with their leadership reaches a fever pitch, Bonaparte stages a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s ‘first consul’. This marks the end of the French Revolution and the start of the Napoleonic era.