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The Parlement of Paris demands that King Louis convene the Estates-General to deal with the grave financial situation
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The King publishes the Lamoignon Edict, abolishing the Parlement's power to review royal edicts
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The crown backs down in its dispute with the Parlement, announcing the convening of the Estates-General in the following year
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The mysterious "Committee of Thirty" is formed by the "Nationals" group
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Elections for the delegates to the Estates-General are held
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Estates-General convenes at Versailles
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: In defiance of royal wishes and led by Abbe Siéyes, the Parisian delegates of the Third Estate meet separately
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The Parisian delegates invite the remaining delegates to join them in independent convention
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The Third Estate proclaims itself the National Assembly
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Tennis Court Oath. National Assembly assumes sovereignity
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King sides against the reformers and declares null and void the decrees of the new Assembly, to no avail
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Under pressure from the mob, the King orders the remaining abstaining delegates to join the Assembly
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Several food riots in Paris
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King unwisely dismisses the popular reformist finance minister Necker; spontaneous demonstrations in protest
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National Gaurd founded; firm commander Lafayette
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Fall of the Bastille
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King accedes to the desires of the constitutionalists
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Abolition of feudal rights by the Constituent Assembly
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Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
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Dinner of the Flanders Regiment at Versailles; Sir Percy Blakeney meets Marguerite St. Just at a banquet
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March of the women to Versailles; royal family forced to return to Paris the next day
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The National Assembly moves from Versailles to paris
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First Parisian session of the Assembly, in the Archeveche
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Church lands are seized
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Decree passed barring Deputies from the active ministry
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Clerical lands and property worth 400 million livres sold at auction; money used to back the new "assignat" paper currency
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Peasant uprisings in Brittany and several other provinces
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Religious orders abolished, remaining monasteries and convents closed
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Bourbonnais revolts
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Passage of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
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Fall of Bastille celebrated at the Fête de la Federation; the King and Lafayette preside
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Assembly votes to revoke all titles of nobility
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: City of Nancy revolts; rebellion ruthlessly suppressed
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The Assembly demands that the clergy sign the Civil Constitution; the Church splits over the issue
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Import duties into the city of Paris abolished
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Uprising in Provence
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Blakeney begins recruitment for the League
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Royal family attempts to defect; caught at Verennes near the Austrian border and forced to return. King's prestige destroyed
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The conquering of the bastille was celebrated
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Many people were killed
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Austria and Prussia threaten war in a joint declaration
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King approves Constitution, giving him veto power over Assembly acts
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The new Legislative Assembly is seated, and begins deliberations concerning the war threat
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Death of Leopold II of Austria
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Brissotin/Girondin "war party" comes into power
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The Assembly and Girondin government declares war on Austria
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King's bodyguard is dismissed
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Mob attacks the Tuileries; royal family moved to the Temple for "their own protection"
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Third annual Fête de la Federation
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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
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Brunswick's Manifesto, threatening the destruction of Paris
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Marat's insurrectionists seize the Commune and the Assembly; the Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy
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Royal family imprisoned in the Temple
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Lafayette defects to the Austrians
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The September Massacres. Girondins accuse - accurately - the Jacobins of complicity. Reign of Terror begins
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The National Assembly is dissolved. Dumouriez's army wins victory against the invading Prussians at the battle of Valmy
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The National Convention is established
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Official establishment of the Republic; Louis XVI is now "Citizen Capet." Proclamation of "Year 1 of the Republic"
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The Montagnards, Jacobins, and sans-culottes league against the Girondins
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Dumouriez succeeds in defeating the Austrian armies at the battle of Jemappes, completing the French conquest of Belgium
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The Assembly votes a decree offering French assistance to "all peoples who want to recover their liberty."
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Convention votes to place the King on trial
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The King goes on trial in the Convention for treason against the Republic
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The King is found guilty of treason, sentenced to death by a narrow margin, and guillotined.
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Declaration of war on England and the Netherlands
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Food riots in Paris
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Dumouriez and the French Army of the North invades the Netherlands
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Declaration of war on Spain
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Establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal
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The Vendéan uprising begins
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French armies in the north defeated by the First Coalition, headed by England and the Netherlands
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Dumouriez defects to the Austrians, seriously discrediting the Girondin faction
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Establishment of the Committee of Public Safety , with Danton as its president; Danton becomes the de facto master of France
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The Girondins manuever the arraignment of Marat before a Revolutionary tribunal for treason; Marat is handily acquited
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Lyons revolts
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First Law of the Maximum instituted
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Fall of the Girondins; 29 arrested on the floor of the Convention
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New Constitution enacted
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Peace negotiations abandoned; a new committee of Public Safety elected
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Marat killed by Charlotte Corday
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Robespierre and Carnot appointed to the Committee
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Remaining Girondin leaders at large outlawed
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Fête in honor of the Constitution
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National conscription law begins the levee en masse
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The Fructidor riots; Paul Déroulede defects
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French forces defeated at the battle of Hondschoote
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Law of the Suspect enacted
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Law of the Maximum - price control edicts - revised
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New calendar established
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Lyons recaptured by the Republic
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Chief executive power is officially vested in the Committee of Public Safety
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Danton, in disgust at continuing excesses, leaves the Convention for his home in Arcis
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Marie Antoinette is brought to trial and condemned
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Marie Antoinette guillotined; the Austrians decisively defeated at the battle of Wattignies
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Cult of Reason established
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Trial and execution of Vergniaud and the remaining Girondin leadership. Philippe Égalite soon follows
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The Terror gains momentum; various Citizen-Deputies are dispatched as "representatives on mission" to the provinces to lead executions. Some begin the dechristianization movement
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Désirée Candéille presides as the Goddess of Reason at the first Festival of Reason, at Notre Dame
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At the urging of the Cordeliers and the remaining moderates, Danton returns to Paris and reenters the political arena
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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
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Billaud-Varennes drafts a law giving the Committee of Public Safety direct power over all provincial officials
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Vendéan rebellion crushed at Le Mans
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Decree of 27th Nivose
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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
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Fall and execution of Hébert
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Mass arrests of Dantonists
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Fall and execution of Danton and Désmoulins; Robespierre reigns unopposed.
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Police Bureau instituted
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Chauvelin falls from favor and is arrested. Assasination attempts on Collot D'Herbois and Robespierre fail, provoking new slaughters
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Declaration of the Supreme Being celebrated
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Festival of the Supreme Being celebrated
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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
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Robespierre taken ill, ceasing to appear at Convention or Committee functions; he restricts appearances to the Jacobin Club
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Robespierre returns to the floor of the Convention, promising a new, vast purge of "traitors"
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Thermidorean Reaction; Robespierre, Louis Antoine St. Just, Couthon, Hanriot executed. Terror ends, after 17,000 executions.
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Jacobin Club suppressed
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Remaining Jacobins released from prison; Chauvelin pardoned.
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Many remaining Jacobites are purged; Collot D'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, and Fouquier-Tinville deported or executed. Continuing food riots in Paris
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Peace treaty signed with Prussia
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Peace treaty signed with the Netherlands
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The National Guard finally suppresses the sans-culottes
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Revolutionary Tribunal suppressed
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Dauhpin's death announced
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Peace treaty signed with Spain
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Emmanuel Siéyes - a miraculously surviving deputy of the Estates-General and the original Declaration - takes control of the Convention
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New constitution, written by Siéyes, adopted
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Royalist revolt put down by Bonaparte
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Directorate begins.