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Convening of the Estates-General
Louis calls the Estates-General for the first time in 175 years. -
Tennis Court Oath
After being locked out of the Versailles meeting chamber, the National Assembly swore an oath to never leave the nearby tennis courts until a new constitution is written. -
Storming of the Bastille
The Third Estaters stormed the Bastille fortress for gun powder to defend themselves against the king's army. -
Period: to
French Revolution
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Great Fear
Rumors circulated through the villages from town to town that the nobles were paying men to terrorize the peasants. They broke into noble’s homes and destroyed legal documents that bound them to pay feudal dues or even burned down the homes. -
Declaration of the Rights of Men
The National Assembly writes a new declaration that gives everyone the same rights, no matter what estate you are in. -
Women March on Versailles
The price of bread are so high that the thousands of women march to Versailles to demand more grain. -
Flight to Varenes
King Louis and Queen Marie unsuccessfully try to escape from Paris but are caught in Varennes and are forced to return to Paris again. They are now under house arrest and the monarchy no longer has any power in France's government. -
Constitution of 1791
France's government come up with a new constituion that gives the king very little power. This also creates a new legislation branch that has the power to make new laws. -
Brunswick Manifesto
Brunswick Manifesto was a proclamation issued by Charles William Ferdinand, cammander in the Austrian/Prussian army. He threatened to take down Paris if any harm came to anyone in the royal family. This did not work, and this led to a war between loyal nobles and revolutionists. -
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 -
The Terror
A time during the Revolution when thousands of "enemies of the revolution" were executed by the guillotine or by other executions. -
The Directory
The Directory was when a two house legislature and an executive body of five men who ran the country. -
Napoleon Takes Over
Napoleon over throws the Constitutional Government. -
The Concordat of 1801
The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status. -
Louisiana Puchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,000 square miles (2,140,000 km2) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana. -
Napoleonic Code
This code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified. -
Napoleon Bonarparte
Napoleon Bonaparte is named Emperor of France. -
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars. -
Continental System
The Continental System or Continental Blockade was the foreign policy of Napoleon I of France in his struggle against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars. -
The Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its ally, Spain. The war lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814. -
The French Invasion of Russia
The French Invasion of Russia (aka "The Patriotic War") was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces (the Grande Armée) to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe. -
Exile to Elba
Following the Treaty of Fontainebleau, French emperor Napoleon I was exiled to Elba after his forced abdication in 1814 and arrived at Portoferraio on May 3, 1814 to begin his exile there. He was allowed to keep a personal guard of six hundred men. Although he was nominally sovereign of Elba, the island was patrolled by the British Navy. -
The Battle of Waterloo
An Imperial French army under the command of Emperor Napoleon was defeated by combined armies of the Seventh Coalition, an Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher. The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French -
Exile to St. Helena
Napoleon spent the last six years of his life in confinement by the British on the island of Saint Helena.
