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Nobility Forces King Louis XVI to Call the Estates General into Session
The king was in trouble. The nobility was not happy with his attempt to tax their estate. Nobility wanted to pass the cost once again on the Third Estate. -
Estate-General Meets in Paris
King Louis XVI calls body into session to approve a new tax on the Third Estate. Had not met in 175 years. -
Third Estate Refused to Abide by the Kings One Vote for each Estate Order
They proclaimed themselves a legislate, the National Assembly, with the right to make laws for France. -
Tennis Court Oath
The Third Estate would not leave the court until they had written a constitution for France. Louis relented and allowed each representative to have a vote. -
The Storming of the Bastille
The National Assembly feared that the king would use violence to end their meetings. A group of Parisians went to the Bastille to get weapons and they tried to negotiate with the commander but it broke down and both the angry mob and prison guard exchanged fire and the mob swarmed into the prison. The commander go killed by the mob and they put his head on a stick and paraded it through the streets. -
Great Fear Begins
The Parisians feared that the king would punish them and end the revolution and some people spread rumors that the king hired foreign soldiers to punish the Third Estate. This panic was based on fiction and fact. -
National Assembly Abolishes Feudalism with August Decrees
The Assembly adopted the Decloration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen. -
Decloration of the Rights of Man
The document started that all man are born equal and remain equal before the law. -
Women of Paris March to Versailles for Bread
A crowed of perhaps 7,000 women marched through the rain from Paris to Versailles demanding for bread and broke into the palace. To make peace with the women, the king agreed to return to Paris and live in the Tuileries Palace with his family. -
Royal Family's Flight from Varennes
The king and queen suspected that they were not safe, so they put on disguises and fled Paris. They were later soon recognized and got brought back to the Tuileries Palace. -
New Constitution Adopted
It created a new legislative body called the Legislative Assembly. The constitution kept the monarchy but severely restricted the king's power. -
Beginning of Legislative Assembly
Citizens gained broad voting rights but only tax paying men who were at least 25 years of age had the right to vote. -
Brunswick Manifesto Warns that Royal Family Must not be Harmed or Else...
Austria and Prussia issued a decaration warning against harming the French monarchs and hinting that any such actions would provoke war. The declaration was not meant to be read as a serious threat but Austria sent 50,000 troops to the French border. In response, the Legislative Assembly declared war. -
Storming of the Tuileries Palace
A mob marched on the Tuileries Palace and slaughtered the guards. Louis, Marie-Antoinette, and the children were thrown in prison and faced with mob violence and foreign invasion, the Legislative Assembly felt powerless. -
French Monarchy is Officially Abolished
Revolutionary Gov't votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the first Republic. Royal family imprisoned. -
French Defeat Foreign Invaders (Austria and Prussia) who are Attempting to Preserve the Monarchy
France turns the tide of the war and takes the offensive against the invaders. -
The Execution of King Louis XVI in Paris
At the scaffold, Louis began to deliver a speech proclaiming his innocence, but a drumroll drowned out his voice. He was pushed into place on the guillotine, a device that dropped a sharp, heavy blade through the victim's neck. When the deed was done, a young guard held up the dripping head fo all to see. -
Committee of Public Saftey Established
To manage the country's military defense against the foreign forces on France's borders.The committee promptly created an unprecedented draft of all able-bodied, unmarried men between 18 and 45 for military service. -
Law of Suspects Passes-Beginning of the Reign of Terror in France
As a result, some of the revoltionary leaders feared that they would lose control. They decided to take drastic actions to avoid a possible counterrevolution, a revolution against a government that was established by a revoltuion. -
End of the Reign of Terror-Execution of Robespierre
Robespierre and his supporters were surrounded by National Convetion soldiers and taken into custody. Soon after their arrest, the heads of Robespierre and about 100 of his supporters fell into the guillotine's basket where so many heads had fallen before. -
National Concention is Dissolved and the Creation of the Directorate
After the new constitution was adopted voters elected a governing board, and this was made up of five men called directors. They pass some financial reforms that helped farmers and improved trade, but the Directory was not an effective government partly because they were weak and corrupt. -
Napolean Named First Consul
Armed supporters of Napoleon surrounded the Directory legislature and forced members to turn the government over to Napoleon and was called a coup d'etat (a force transer to power).A group of three consuls, called the Consulate, would replace the Directory as the government of France and members voted Napolean in charge as first Consul. -
Coronation of Napolean Bonaparte as Emperor of France
Napoleon crowns himself emperor of France from being elected from committe and by force.
