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Peasants are starving because the price of bread has skyrocketed. Wheat crop has died 2 years in a row making flour extremely expensive. King Louis XVI does nothing to help his people. -
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Louis XVI locks the Third Estate out of the Estates General meeting. The Third Estate meets at a tennis court nearby and agrees to create a constitution and declares that it is no longer identified as the Third Estate, it is now the National Assembly
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Peasants storm the Bastille, a tax prison. They break in initially to get gunpowder and guns. The mob is wild and proceeds to tear the brick structure down with their bare hands. It's considered "the spark of the revolution". -
Written to give power to the National Assembly and limit the king's power. Reluctantly signed by Louis XVI almost two years later.
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June 21st, 1791 Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette attempt to flee to Austria where they can get an army from her father to get back Louis's power and put him back on his throne in Versailles. They are caught and forced to return to Paris where they are imprisoned. -
Louis XVI is sentenced to death for treason. He's publicly executed by guillotine in Paris. The world is shocked by this event.
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The Committee of Public Safety, led by Maximilien Robespierre, begins to execute thousands of French people believed to be "enemies of the state."
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Maximilien Robespierre is executed. His death marks the end of the Reign of Terror.
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A 5 person executive branch and a new constitution are created following the aftermath of the Reign of Terror. Little will improve for the French people over the next 4 years as they are at war with Austria, Prussia and Italy.
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A young general who's been gaining favor with the French people launches a coup d'etat and takes over as the leader of France.
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For the first 5 years of his rule he had 2 others who worked as a group called The Consulate. In 1804, the pope came to Paris to Crown Napoleon. This marked the beginning of his sole rule of France as dictator.
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Napoleon loses a naval battle to his greatest enemy, Britain. He wins land from other parts of Europe marking some success.
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Napoleon takes his Grand Army of 600,000 troops to Moscow. Along the way they are harassed by Russian troops who use guerilla tactics and a scorched earth policy that leave nothing for French troops to use. They retreat in humiliation in December of 1812. Nearly 400,000 troops die without even firing a shot or fighting in a battle. -
Forced to surrender by Britain and Russia, Napoleon is given a pension to live off of and is sent to Elba Island. -
Napoleon leave Elba Island 100 days after he's been exiled there. He goes back to France to amass an army which is quickly defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. -
His final exile, he's sent to St. Helena Island where he will die in 1820.
