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Estates General
The Parlement of Paris demands that King Louis convene the Estates-General to deal with the grave financial situation -
Lagmoinon Edict
The King publishes the Lamoignon Edict, abolishing the Parlement's power to review royal edicts -
Estates general called
The crown backs down in its dispute with the Parlement, announcing the convening of the Estates-General in the following year -
Committee of thirty
The mysterious "Committee of Thirty" is formed by the "Nationals" group -
Election
Elections for the delegates to the Estates-General are held -
Versailles
Estates-General convenes at Versailles -
Abbe Sieyes
: In defiance of royal wishes and led by Abbe Siéyes, the Parisian delegates of the Third Estate meet separately -
Third estate
The Parisian delegates invite the remaining delegates to join them in independent convention -
National Assembly
The Third Estate proclaims itself the National Assembly -
Tennis
Tennis Court Oath. National Assembly assumes sovereignity -
King's Anger
King sides against the reformers and declares null and void the decrees of the new Assembly, to no avail -
National convention
Under pressure from the mob, the King orders the remaining abstaining delegates to join the Assembly -
Period: to
Food Riots
Several food riots in Paris -
Necker
King unwisely dismisses the popular reformist finance minister Necker; spontaneous demonstrations in protest -
National Guard
National Gaurd founded; firm commander Lafayette -
Bastille
Fall of the Bastille -
Acquiescance
King accedes to the desires of the constitutionalists -
No Feudalism
Abolition of feudal rights by the Constituent Assembly -
Rights of Man
Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen -
No Idea the significance
Dinner of the Flanders Regiment at Versailles; Sir Percy Blakeney meets Marguerite St. Just at a banquet -
Womens march to versaille
March of the women to Versailles; royal family forced to return to Paris the next day -
National Assembly
The National Assembly moves from Versailles to paris -
Archeveche
First Parisian session of the Assembly, in the Archeveche -
Pope N'Shiz
Church lands are seized -
Deputies
Decree passed barring Deputies from the active ministry -
Mo Money Mo Problems
Clerical lands and property worth 400 million livres sold at auction; money used to back the new "assignat" paper currency -
Period: to
Revolt
Peasant uprisings in Brittany and several other provinces -
Churches shuttered
Religious orders abolished, remaining monasteries and convents closed -
Period: to
Revolts
Bourbonnais revolts -
Clergy constitution
Passage of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy -
Fall of the Bastille Memorialized
Fall of Bastille celebrated at the Fête de la Federation; the King and Lafayette preside -
No Nobility
Assembly votes to revoke all titles of nobility -
Period: to
Revolt
: City of Nancy revolts; rebellion ruthlessly suppressed -
Conflict among the clergy
The Assembly demands that the clergy sign the Civil Constitution; the Church splits over the issue -
No Duties
Import duties into the city of Paris abolished -
Period: to
Revolt
Uprising in Provence -
Period: to
Recruiting
Blakeney begins recruitment for the League -
Flight
Royal family attempts to defect; caught at Verennes near the Austrian border and forced to return. King's prestige destroyed -
Fête de la Federation
The conquering of the bastille was celebrated -
Massacre of the Champ de Mars
Many people were killed -
War
Austria and Prussia threaten war in a joint declaration -
Constitutional Monarchy
King approves Constitution, giving him veto power over Assembly acts -
War looms
The new Legislative Assembly is seated, and begins deliberations concerning the war threat -
Death
Death of Leopold II of Austria -
Girondin
Brissotin/Girondin "war party" comes into power -
War
The Assembly and Girondin government declares war on Austria -
nobody cares for the king anymore
King's bodyguard is dismissed -
Bye Bye
Mob attacks the Tuileries; royal family moved to the Temple for "their own protection" -
Bastille day
Third annual Fête de la Federation -
Sneaking
The Commune creates the Committee of Surveillance to uncover counterrevolutionaries, headed by Marat and including Danton, Tallien, Collot D'Herbois, and Billaud-Varennes. First contingents of the Marseillais arrive in Paris -
Manifesto
Brunswick's Manifesto, threatening the destruction of Paris -
No more King
Marat's insurrectionists seize the Commune and the Assembly; the Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy -
Prisoners
Royal family imprisoned in the Temple -
Lafayette
Lafayette defects to the Austrians -
Period: to
September Massacres
The September Massacres. Girondins accuse - accurately - the Jacobins of complicity. Reign of Terror begins -
National Assemblt no more
The National Assembly is dissolved. Dumouriez's army wins victory against the invading Prussians at the battle of Valmy -
National convention
The National Convention is established -
French Republic
Official establishment of the Republic; Louis XVI is now "Citizen Capet." Proclamation of "Year 1 of the Republic" -
Period: to
Girondins in trouble
The Montagnards, Jacobins, and sans-culottes league against the Girondins -
Austrians defeated
Dumouriez succeeds in defeating the Austrian armies at the battle of Jemappes, completing the French conquest of Belgium -
French assistance
The Assembly votes a decree offering French assistance to "all peoples who want to recover their liberty." -
King on trial?
Convention votes to place the King on trial -
King on Trial
The King goes on trial in the Convention for treason against the Republic -
Period: to
King Killed
The King is found guilty of treason, sentenced to death by a narrow margin, and guillotined. -
More War
Declaration of war on England and the Netherlands -
Riots
Food riots in Paris -
Netherlands
Dumouriez and the French Army of the North invades the Netherlands -
More war
Declaration of war on Spain -
People about to die
Establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal -
Vendea
The Vendéan uprising begins -
Defeat
French armies in the north defeated by the First Coalition, headed by England and the Netherlands -
Defection
Dumouriez defects to the Austrians, seriously discrediting the Girondin faction -
Public safety
Establishment of the Committee of Public Safety , with Danton as its president; Danton becomes the de facto master of France -
Marat
The Girondins manuever the arraignment of Marat before a Revolutionary tribunal for treason; Marat is handily acquited -
Period: to
Revolt
Lyons revolts -
Star Wars day
First Law of the Maximum instituted -
Girondins No More
Fall of the Girondins; 29 arrested on the floor of the Convention -
Constitution
New Constitution enacted -
Goodbye Peace
Peace negotiations abandoned; a new committee of Public Safety elected -
Murder she wrote
Marat killed by Charlotte Corday -
More safety
Robespierre and Carnot appointed to the Committee -
Girondins wiped
Remaining Girondin leaders at large outlawed -
New holiday
Fête in honor of the Constitution -
Conscription
National conscription law begins the levee en masse -
Period: to
Riots
The Fructidor riots; Paul Déroulede defects -
Defeat
French forces defeated at the battle of Hondschoote -
Suspects
Law of the Suspect enacted -
Maximum
Law of the Maximum - price control edicts - revised -
New Stuff
New calendar established -
Recapture
Lyons recaptured by the Republic -
Even more public Safety
Chief executive power is officially vested in the Committee of Public Safety -
He's mad
Danton, in disgust at continuing excesses, leaves the Convention for his home in Arcis -
Cake n'Shiz
Marie Antoinette is brought to trial and condemned -
Off with her head
Marie Antoinette guillotined; the Austrians decisively defeated at the battle of Wattignies -
Dechristianization
Cult of Reason established -
Period: to
People Die
Trial and execution of Vergniaud and the remaining Girondin leadership. Philippe Égalite soon follows -
Period: to
Reign of terror picks up
The Terror gains momentum; various Citizen-Deputies are dispatched as "representatives on mission" to the provinces to lead executions. Some begin the dechristianization movement -
More dechristianization
Désirée Candéille presides as the Goddess of Reason at the first Festival of Reason, at Notre Dame -
He's back
At the urging of the Cordeliers and the remaining moderates, Danton returns to Paris and reenters the political arena -
Period: to
Napoleon and other stuff
Bonaparte retakes Toulon from Admiral Hood, Lord Nelson, and the English. The first aerial telegraph line is in operation, to the northern frontier and Kellerman's army; the first battlefield uses of hot-air balloons also occur -
More safety power
Billaud-Varennes drafts a law giving the Committee of Public Safety direct power over all provincial officials -
Period: to
End of rebellion
Vendéan rebellion crushed at Le Mans -
Decree
Decree of 27th Nivose -
Period: to
aggressor ignored
Hébert and his enragés accuse the Convention and the Jacobins of moderation; he calls for a general uprising on the 4th. The sans-culottes, for a change, do not respond -
Period: to
Dude dies
Fall and execution of Hébert -
Dantonists disliked
Mass arrests of Dantonists -
Period: to
Unlimited power
Fall and execution of Danton and Désmoulins; Robespierre reigns unopposed. -
5 O
Police Bureau instituted -
Period: to
Bad idea
Chauvelin falls from favor and is arrested. Assasination attempts on Collot D'Herbois and Robespierre fail, provoking new slaughters -
Supreme being
Declaration of the Supreme Being celebrated -
Festival
Festival of the Supreme Being celebrated -
Great terror
Passage of the Law of 22 Prairial - the Great Terror begins. More are executed in Paris in the next six weeks than in the previous two years -
Period: to
He's mortal
Robespierre taken ill, ceasing to appear at Convention or Committee functions; he restricts appearances to the Jacobin Club -
More killings promised
Robespierre returns to the floor of the Convention, promising a new, vast purge of "traitors" -
Period: to
Thermidorean reaction begins
Thermidorean Reaction; Robespierre, Louis Antoine St. Just, Couthon, Hanriot executed. Terror ends, after 17,000 executions. -
Jacobins
Jacobin Club suppressed -
Jacobins released from prison
Remaining Jacobins released from prison; Chauvelin pardoned. -
Period: to
Crack down on radicals
Many remaining Jacobites are purged; Collot D'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, and Fouquier-Tinville deported or executed. Continuing food riots in Paris -
Peace with Prussia
Peace treaty signed with Prussia -
Peace with netherlands
Peace treaty signed with the Netherlands -
Sans-Culottes suppressed
The National Guard finally suppresses the sans-culottes -
Revolutionary Tribunal suppressed
Revolutionary Tribunal suppressed -
Dead dude
Dauhpin's death announced -
Peace with Spain
Peace treaty signed with Spain -
Survivor
Emmanuel Siéyes - a miraculously surviving deputy of the Estates-General and the original Declaration - takes control of the Convention -
New constitution
New constitution, written by Siéyes, adopted -
More Napoleon
Royalist revolt put down by Bonaparte -
Even more Napoleon
Directorate begins.