Feel the blade

A Timeline of the French Revolution

  • Raising Taxes

    Raising Taxes
    After bad harvests and costly wars, King Louis XVI is forced to convene the Estates General assembly (meeting of representatives of the Three Estates) in order to raise taxes.
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    National Assembly Government

    National Assembly government (June 13, 1789-July 9, 1789) - Revolutionary government led by the Third Estate
  • Tennis Court Oath

    Tennis Court Oath
    The National Assembly resolves not to disband until it has written a constitution.
  • Where is the Gunpowder?

    Where is the Gunpowder?
    The specific goal of storming the Bastille was to take its stash of gunpowder. The storming of the Bastille, however, has come to represent the revolt against the French monarchy. The storming of the Bastille is regarded as the beginning of the French Revolution.
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    Great Fear

    Great Fear - peasants attack noble manors.
  • Jacobin Club was born

    Nobles in National Assembly renounce feudal rights; Jacobin Club formed. Noblemen made grand speeches, declaring their love of liberty and equality. They joined with other members of the National assembly in changing the feudal privileges making everyone equal no matter which state you were in. The Old Regime no longer exists.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    Declaration of the Rights of Man
    Assembly issues Declaration of the Rights of Man.
    The basic principle of the Declaration was that all “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”, which were specified as the rights of liberty, private property, the inviolability of the person, and resistance to oppression.
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    King Louis XVI Moved to Paris

    King Louis brought from Versailles to Tuileries palace in Paris.
    The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread and they demanded the King be moved from Versailles to Paris.
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    King Louis XVI Tries to Escape

    King flees to Austria, is caught at Varennes. The royal Flight to Varennes during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant episode in the French Revolution in which King Louis XVI of France, his queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution
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    Legislative Assembly Government

    Legislative Assembly government (October 1, 1791-September 20, 1792) - Constitutional Government by elected officials
  • Down goes the King

    Down goes the King
    Paris mob storms royal palace; Legislative Assembly government collapse. Minister of Justice Danton purges (kills) thousands of presumed traitors (enemies of the state).
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    National Convention Government

    National Convention government (September 20, 1792-October 26, 1795) - elected by universal male suffrage to rewrite constitution
  • A New Government is Born

    National Convention (new gov’t) abolishes monarchy and declares France a republic.
  • New Days...

    Revolutionary calendar introduced with new day and month names.
    Sept. 22, 1792 = Day 1 of new Revolutionary calendar
  • Guilty

    Guilty
    National Convention condemns and executes the King.
  • Counter Revolution

    Counter-revolutionary revolt in the Vendee region begins.
  • A New Reign..."Terror"

    "Reign of Terror" by Committee of Public Safety (Robespierre) begins.
  • New Government New Rules

    Price controls put into place by the government, dechristianization (ex. saints names removed from street names), administrative reform (i.e. changes in how the government operates)
  • Thermidor

    In the month of “Thermidor", Robespierre is executed; Reign of Terror ends.
  • Church Bells Ring

    Churches reopen
  • New Constitution

    New Constitution
    New constitution is adopted, forming a new government called the Directory.
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    The Directory Government

    The Directory government (November 1795-November 8, 1799) - New constitution has 2 houses: Council of Ancients and Council of 500
  • Coup d'état

    Coup d'état (government takeover) removes royalists (those faithful to the monarchy) from Directory.
  • The End of the French Revolution

    Napoleon's coup d'état abolishes Directory and establishes Consulate government; end of French Revolution