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Meeting of The Estares General
The Clergy and the Nobles had dominated the Estates-General throughout the Middle Ages and expected to do so in the 1789 meeting. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate delegates found themselves locked out of their meeting room. They broke down a door to an indoor tennis court, pledging to stay untill they had drawn up a new constitution. -
Storming of the Bastille
A Mob searching for gun powder and arms stormed the Bastille, a very iconic paris prison. -
Estates Ended
Noblemen made grand speeches, declaring their love of liberty, and equality, they also joined other members of the National Assembly in sweeping any of the Feudal privileges of the First and Second estaees. By morning, the old Regime was dead. -
Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Three weeks later after the old regime was banished, the National Assembly adopted a statement of revolutionary ideas, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. -
Bread Riots
Thousands of Parisian women rioted over the rising price of bread. Brandishing knives, axes, ans other weapons, the women marched on Versailles -
Assembly Reforms Church Rights
The Assembly took over Church lands, and declared that Church officials and priests were to be Elected, and paid as state officials. -
Royal Family Flees
The royal family tried to escape from France unsafe, and Left the Country. As they neared the border, they were arrested, and taken back to Paris. -
New Constitution
The National Assembly completed the new constitution, which King Louis reluctantly approved. -
Austria & Germany War Declared
Austria and Prussia urged the French to restore Louis to his posistion as an absolute Monarch. The Legislative Assembly responded by declaring war in April, 1792 -
Prusian Forces Advanced on French
The Prusian commander threatened to destroy Paris if the revolutionaries harmed any member of the royal family. -
Storming of the Tuileries
About 20,000 men and women invaded the Tuileries, the palace where the royal family stayed. -
Jacobins take over Government
Most of the people invilved in the governmental changes in September 1792 were members of a radical political organization, the Jacobins. -
France Abolished Monarchy
This new governing body, the National Convention, took office on September 21. It quickly abolished the monarchy, and declared France a republic. -
King is Executed
On January 21, 1793, the former king walked with calm dignity up the steps of scaffold to be beheaded by a machine called the Guillotine. -
300,000 Men faught war
The Convention ordered a draftof 300,000French citizens between the ages of 18 and 40. -
Reign of Terror
Robespierre became leader of the Comittee of Public Safety. For the next year, Robespierre governed France virtually as a dictator, and the pariod of his rue was called the Reigh of Terror, -
Robespierre is Executed
In July, 1794, fearing for their own safety, some members of the National Convention turned on Robespierre. They demanded his arrest and execution. The Reign of Terror, the radical phase of the french revolution ended on July 28, 1794, when Robespierre went to the Guillotine. -
Directory Government Created
In 1795, moderate leaders in the National Convention drafted a new plan of government, the third since 1789. It is known as the Directory.
