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Dutch Patriot Revolt stifled.
Dutch rebels (called Patriots) wanted to reduce the powers of the Prince of Orange or stadholder who had close ties with England. They demanded political reforms and new militias called Free Corps. They gained power and popularity with democratic elections and encouraged the publication of pamphlets and newspapers touting democratic ideals. The house of Orange was soon back in power because of its connections with the Prussians and British. Prussians invade to maintain monarchical power. -
French Crown grants civil rights to Protestants.
Under mounting pressure from the populace, Louis XVI grants religious rights laws to Protestants. -
Louis XVI submits reforms to the Assembly of Notables
Louis XVI submitted his response to France’s fiscal crisis to the Assembly of Notables, which consisted of nobles, clergymen and officials. He wanted uniform land tax reform but it was shot down in parliament. Louis responded by exiling the offending judges who subsequently were touted as heroes for refusing. -
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Repbulican Revolts in Europe
Republican revolts in the Dutch Republic, Austrian Netherlands, Poland and France break out hoping to spread Enlightenment ideals. Revolution in France is important because of its wealth, prominence, and educated populace and also its violence. -
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Austrian Netherlands’ resistance
Belgian Austrian nobles revolt after King Joseph II continued to place favoritism when electing judicial and governmental officials. The initial attacks galvanized democrats to prepare for revolution. In 1789, each province declared independence and declared themselves the United States of Belgium. Catholic clergy and laymen fought back and returned the fold of Austrian Emperor Leopold II. -
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Hailstorms ruin crops
Hailstorms that rained in 1788 ruined the harvest of grain for much of France, which led an increase in grain prices, which led to vast starvation for the following years. -
Third Estate becomes the National Assembly
After weeks of stalemate, the Third Estate leaves the Estates General and becomes the National Assembly. Nervous about the growing support of the National Assembly, Louis locked them out of the Versailles meeting place. The Assembly proceeded to assemble in a tennis court, and swore to become a constitutional state. -
Bastille Day
Armed Parisians captured the Bastille prison fortress in a display of popularized power against tyrannical monarchy. -
Fall of the Bastille
Louis XVI ordered royalist troops to march on Paris. He also fired one of his aides Swiss Protestant Jacques Necker who had been sympathetic to the National Assembly. Popular support turned on the king and mobs stormed the Bastille Prison, a symbol of monarchical power. Governmental power begins to crumble and new National Guard units under the direction of the National Assembly take control. -
French Flag created
Tricolor flag of blue, white and red invented and distributed to spread patriotic fervor. -
National Assembly proposes nobility reforms
Worried about spreading violence from the Great Fear, the National Assembly forced the nobles to accept the acquisition of taxes and seigniorial dues. This was the formal end of the feudal system and allowed for the social movement of peasants and nobles. They also mandated access to government positions regardless of class. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen published
The DOTROMAOC established the Enlightenment ideals of freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equality of taxation and equality before the law. It rose contention of free blacks, slaves, Jews and women but it was revolutionary in its aggressive calls for equality. -
Woman's March to Versailles
Several thousand women marched from Paris to Versailles demanding the king provide them with grain for the starving people of France. Men reinforced them the following morning and in order to prevent further bloodshed the king agreed to move his family and government to Paris. -
Estates General Meeting of 1789
The Estates General was made up of 3 estates: the 1st was the clergy, the 2nd was the nobility and the 3rd was the common people. At this Estates General Meeting, the 3rd Estate prepared by having all of its constituency in France write down its grievances and calls for reform. -
Great Fear breaks out
The Great Fear was a spreading belief that because of rising food prices, beggars and bandits would steal crops from the peasants. Peasants burned whole fields and storehouses and attacked noble chateaus. They refused to pay debts and the nobility became increasingly upset with the commoners. -
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Monarchy to Republic
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Civil Constitution of the Clergy
This set up pay scales and allowed voters to choose the priests and bishops in their parish. Church property was bought up by the state and served as a guarantee with assignats issued by the government. This backfired and increased inflation allowing only the wealthy to buy land not the peasants it was designed to help. -
National Assembly requires Clergy to Swear an Oath to the Constitution.
Pope Pius VI condemned the constitution and half of the clergy refused to take the oath. This issue divided the Catholic population. The revolutionary government lost many Catholic supporters. Riots on both sides occurred -
Polish Patriots rebel
The Polish patriots sought to reengineer the weakened Polish state after the first partition of their state. They looked to King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, who worked with the rebels to take advantage of Russia’s distraction with the Ottoman Turks, and wrote a constitution that guaranteed political rights and religious tolerance. Russia soon responded by bankrupting and taking over the new government. -
Louis XVI and family flee
Fearing the powers of the new Assembly, Louis attempted to flee to Austria with his family. Their disguises were discovered and they were forced back to Paris. Many called him a traitor for abandoning his people -
St. Domingue slave rebellion
The French colony was responsible for a large percentage of the total sugar production in the New World. During the French Revolution, few Frenchmen wanted to end slavery. However, slaves organize a large-scale revolt. The French were tied up in the Terror and so England is given temporary control over the colony. Spain undermines French power by supporting slave rebels and offer freedom to those who can defeat them. -
Society of United Irishmen presses for secession
Formed in 1791, Society of United Irishmen form under democratic ideals and French beliefs and press for religious freedom and secession from England. -
France goes to war with Austria.
After the finalization of the constitution, many wanted to go to war with Austria. The monarchs hoped the war would defeat the revolutionaries and the rebels thought the war would end the monarchy. The Prussians soon joined up with the Austrians and soon radical nobles began assembling their own armies to fight both the revolutionaries and the Austrian/Prussian Alliance. -
Prussians ally with royal family
Upset over military failures by the Legislative Assembly, crowds riot and threaten the royal family. The Prussians, who were nervous about the example that the French were setting for other formerly absolutist regimes, issued a proclamation stating they would destroy Paris if anything happened to Louis or his family, which made Louis look like he was siding with the enemy. -
Louis XVI is deposed after failing to incite a counterrevolution
Louis XVI, angry at his apparent ousting, sent royalist troops to create a counterrevolution. The attempts failed and Louis is subsequently deposed and a republic is established with a leading legislature. -
Second Revolution begins
A group of disgruntled workers called the san-culottes stormed the Tuileries palace-the residence of the king. The king and his family sought refuge in the Legislative Assembly’s meeting room and new elections were declared without any requirement for property rights. This was the first recorded use of universal suffrage. -
Prussians approach Paris spreading mass panic
Mobs stormed prisons and accused people of being traitors. Many innocent people were killed in the hysteria. Massacres occurred in all social classes and showed the dark side of the revolution. -
Abolishment of the monarchy
The Legislative Assembly abolished the monarchy formally creating the first French Republic. Most of the electors answered to the Jacobin Club, which was a radical republican political network. -
Execution of Louis XVI
The French Legislative assembly was divided as to how to deal with the king. The Jacobins were divided into two factions. The Girondins who resisted militant power and the Mountains who were militants. The National Convention sided with the Mountain and voted to have Louis killed by guillotine. -
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Catholic and Royal Army
The Catholic and Royal army was comprised of peasants, artists, and merchants under the direction of nobles. They sought reinstatement of the Catholic Church, return of church lands and an end to the draft. They became guerilla fighters and were funded by other countries like Great Britain. Both sides committed atrocities. Republican troops marched into cities to restore order and thousands were executed for treason. -
Committee of Public Safety created
Maximilien Robespierre originally created the Committee and though it was originally against the death penalty and promoted civil liberties it soon became the primary instrument of the Terror -
France defeats much of Europe
Nations like Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, Sardinia and the Dutch Republic all went to war against France and all lost key battles. All of them were appalled by the death of Louis XVI and called for a new monarchy. France instituted the first universal draft in history to help raise its army’s numbers. -
Robespierre and the Mountain arrest Girondins
As the division between the two factions acerbated, the Mountain sought to legally arrest the Girodins. They marched into the National Convention and demanded 29 Girodins. The Convention relented and allowed the Mountain to establish ‘revolutionary armies’ that hunted down and quickly tried the captured. The Committee for Public Safety led it. -
Charlotte Corday kills Jean-Paul Marat
An angry Catholic woman killed Marat, an outspoken newspaper editor who called for the end of the Church and the destruction of any opposed to the revolution, while he was in the bathtub. She was considered a monster by believed she had avenged many innocent victims. -
Slavery abolished in St. Domingue
Under intense military pressure from the revolution, the French governor abolishes slavery against the will of the government in Paris. Slave leader Toussaint L’Ouverture agrees to join the French and be a French protectorate but ex-slaves are soon reduced to the status of serfs. Toussaint is declared an enemy of the state in is invaded by Napoleon’s army and is captured, taken to Paris as a prisoner and dies ending the revolution. -
National Convention attempts to set grain prices.
The National Convention set up a General Maximum for the prices of 39 essential commodities and on government wages. -
Revolutionary Tribunal kills Marie-Antoinette
Newly established Revolutionary Tribunal kills Marie-Antoinette for treason. She was killed via guillotine. -
French Calendar Established
The new French Calendar was established because the Julian-Gregorian calendar was too Christian. Each day had 10 hours each year 100 days and the start date of the calendar was the September 22nd 1792, the foundation of the Republic. -
National Convention cracks down of Women’s Clubs
Active Women’s Clubs had been providing strife over republican ideals despite not having a vote. Not considered citizens, the clubs were shutdown and the clubs became increasingly under the direction of the National Convention. -
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Regin of Terror
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Committee of Public Safety engages the National Convention.
Convinced of ‘ultrarevolutionaries’ in the Convention, these politicians were tried and executed. Next the COPS attacked ‘indulgent’ or those who supported moderate treatment of Terror victims. Many high-ranking members were killed. -
Reduction of legal rights
The COPS elected to get rid of the right to legal counsel, reduced the number of jurors for a conviction, and allowed for only two judgments: acquittal or death. -
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France invades Austria
Having raised a large army and on the belief in spreading revolutionary fervor throughout Europe France invades Austria hoping to capture land for the starving people of France. -
Robespierre’s followers executed
A group of Jacobin dissenters infiltrated the Committee of Public Safety and convicted Robespierre’s followers of treason. They were executed and reforms were made to curb the violence -
Robespierre is executed
Robespierre appealed to the National Convention for more potential victims for execution. Worried their own names would be called; many in the Convention grew anxious and called for Robespierre’s death. Riots by the city police broke out trying to free him and Robespierre did try and commit suicide but he missed and was finally executed the next day. -
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Thermidorian Period
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Third Partition of Poland
Polish rebels once again push for independents but they put their trust in Tadeusz Kosciuszko who essentially betrayed the peasantry who joined him on the promise of the abolishment of the serfdom. Russian Empress Catherine the Great squashed the rebellion and imprisoned the revolution’s leaders. Poland is finally extinguished and is now under Russian, Austrian and Prussian control. -
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National Convention creates another constitution
Those who remained in power worked to make a new constitution with a two-house legislature and an executive power called the Directory, held by four directors. New ideas regarding dress and customs became apparent as people wanted to celebrate life and be in remembrance of the Terror. -
Dutch banks control debts
Dutch banks control 40% of Britain’s debt and 100% of the United States debt. -
Napoleon invades Egypt
Napoleon and the Directory led his army to invade Egypt in an attempt to halt British trade with India and to gain new resources for the Thermadorian Republic. The French defeat the much larger Egyptian army but British Admiral Horatio Nelson isolating the French army crushes their navy. The French then stayed in Egypt for some time, making sure to spread enlightened ideals throughout the region. -
Napoleon invades Egypt
Napoleon and the Directory led his army to invade Egypt in an attempt to halt British trade with India and to gain new resources for the Thermadorian Republic. The French defeat the much larger Egyptian army but British Admiral Horatio Nelson isolating the French army crushes their navy. The French then stayed in Egypt for some time, making sure to spread enlightened ideals throughout the region. -
Napoleon stages a military coup
After problems with the directory and under increased support by the military, the Directory is dissovled and Napoleon is unanmously elected as the first consul of France. -
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Napoleon's Empire
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Napoleon signs a peace agreement with the Pope
After having conquered much of the Papal States, Napoleon appleals to his Catholic subjects and has his rule solidified by Pope Pius VII ended decades of Church v. France conflict.