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Meeting with the Estates-General
This assembly was composed of three estates – the clergy, nobility, and commoners – who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country. The opening of the Estates-General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution. -
Tennis Court Oath
This event was a dramatic act of defiance by representatives of the non-privileged classes of the French nation (the Third Estate) during the meeting of the Estates-General (traditional assembly) at the beginning of the French Revolution. -
Storming of the Bastille
On 14 July 1789, a state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy's dictatorial rule, and the event became one of the defining moments in the Revolution that followed. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
On 26 August 1789, the French National Constituent Assembly issued the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen) which defined individual and collective rights at the time of the French Revolution. -
Women's March on Versailles
The Women's March on Versailles was an important event at the start of the French Revolution. It gave the revolutionaries confidence in the power of the people over the king. In 1789 France, the main food of the commoners was bread. A poor French economy had led to a scarcity of bread and high prices. -
Execution of King Louis XVI
Louis XVI was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution on January 21, 1793. His wife, Marie Antoinette, met the same fate nine months later, on October 16, 1793. Their young son, Louis-Charles, died in prison where living conditions were horrible. -
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Reign of Terror
A lot of massacres and numerous public executions took place. -
Maximillian Robespierre's execution
Robespierre and a lot of his followers were arrested at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. Then they got their heads chopped off. -
Napoleonic Code is established
The Napoleonic Code made the authority of men over their families stronger, deprived women of any individual rights, and reduced the rights of illegitimate children. This affected more than just America. -
Napoleon Crowns himself emperor
He proclaims that he is emperor on May 18, but his coronation was on December 2 -
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Peninsular War
fought by Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal against the French. -
Napoleon and his men march on Russia
Napoleon marched into Russia with between 450,000 and 600,000 men behind him. -
Napoleon is exiled to Elba
Napoleon gets banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba. -
Napoleon dies
Napoleon dies on the island he was exiled to on May 5, 1821.