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Louis 14th dies after 77 years in office
calling himself the 'sun king' he built France into a stable and powerful state centred on one man's authority, punishing or sending away the liberal thinkers who challenged his power. -
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French scientists break new ground
a tax inspector as well as a nobleman , Lavoisier is an outstanding scientist in Europe. He isolated oxygen and hydrogen. Later french scientists invented the international system of metre and litre and kilo, which the revolutionaries spread over the world. Because of his connections with the former kings, Lavoisier was killed in 1793 at the guillotine. -
An attack on the old system appears; Voltaire's story CANDIDE
Angry about the suffering in France’s wars, Voltaire writes his book ‘Candide’. The king forbids him to print it, and it goes around the world. -
The social contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
a book appears by a french author from Geneva about sharing power between the people and the King. Rousseau's ideas filled the minds of liberals all over Europe, giving them boldness to challenge the power of kings. -
the first western revolution - in the USA
With help from France, The USA wins a war and becomes independent of
Britain -
The first manned hot air balloon is invented in France
– The brothers Montgolfier invent the world’s first manned flying machine – a hot-air balloon - and two men fly for 9 kilometres before the fabric catches fire ; they are forced to land. Manned flight has begun. -
The first parliament meets in crisis - National Assembly
King Louis 16 needed more money, and decided to summon all the nation in the 'estates general' for the first time in 175 years . But, desperate for food after the poor harvest, the poorer people refused to pay taxes especially as the nobles and priests paid nothing. Louis threw them out, so they formed their own National Assembly at the 'Tennis court oath' -
The people of Paris rise up to demand their rights
France enters 10 years of revolution and violent change. -
Declaration of the rights of man
a statement about people's rights. People are not 'subjects' controlled by the king, but 'citizens' with their own duties as well as freedoms. The King from now on was under the National Assembly. In the next ten years that Assembly had to protect these rights against the nobles, and to reduce the power of the priests. -
Women's march on the versailles palace
Asking for grain to make bread, armed women forced King & Queen to leave Versailles and be like prisoners in a palace in Paris. -
Foreign kings attack the french revolution
To protect the King, and his wife who was Austrian, Austria starts a war against the French. French noble families hope to get control of the government; but the french people are loyal to the revolution and rise up to defeat the austrians' ally, Prussia in 1792 at Valmy. -
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the war of the first coalitioin
French troops at first defeat then invade large parts of western Europe as the kings resist the revolutionaries. -
murder of LOUIS SIXTEENTH King of France
the revolutionaries insisted that their prisoner, the King must die to prove the power of the republic. His wife was murdered a few months later -
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the terror
known as the 'Committee of public safety', a series of 'Jacobin' leaders led by Robespierre murder any person accused under a law called the 'law of suspects', of being against the virtues of the revolution. In Paris there were 2,639 death sentences. The judges decided in one day both to arrest and to try for treason. -
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second revolutionary war- rise of Napoleon
Daring to attack Egypt and Italy, defeating Austria, General Napoleon became a national hero and ended the ten-year rule of politicians in Paris. -
The 'Code Napoleon'; laws of France spread to the world
A group of lawyers replaced the divine right of kings and nobles with a system including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free markets, civil rights, democratic societies, secular governments. In all the lands Napoleon's soldiers occupied it was admired as a radical new system.The full set of laws is carved in stone at Napoleon's tomb in Paris. by 1960, over seventy different countries had based their law on Napoleon's. -
Napoleon becomes Emperor
the senate chose as their leader a popular, hard-driving soldier. Napoleon used his influence to spread French ideas of democracy, new science, and rights of man in each country he conquered. He was placed his family as kings on the throne of Italian states; the German 'HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE' ceased to exist in 1809 France became the 'empire of the French'. -
French revolutionaries force men to join the army ;'conscription'
while the aristocratic officers have run away,France has a chance to reform military organisation and to count on the enthusiasm of ordinary soldiers to fight for their revolution. Older armies could not be pushed too hard, this one was founded on forced enrolment and one year later counted half a million extra men.
