-
A poor grain harvest in 1789 caused the price of bread to soar, and inflation spread quickly through the economy. Financial crisis struck a monarchy whose royal authority was badly tarnished. This crisis forced King Louis XVI to call the Estates-General, the representative body of all three estates, which had not met since 1614. -
On May 5, 1789, the twelve hundred delegates of the three estates gathered in Versailles for the opening session of the Estates General. Controversy begun when the Third Estate realized that the two privileged estates could always outvote them. The Third Estate broke away and voted to call itself the National Assembly. This led to the Tennis Court Oath. -
On June 20, the delegates moved to a large indoor tennis court where they swore the famous Tennis Court Oath, pledging not to disband until they had been recognized as a national assembly and had written a new constitution. This encouraged merging into the National Assembly. -
On June 27, Louis XVI, fearing popular unrest, ordered the remaining deputies of the First and Second Estates to join the National Assembly. The power and authority of the King had been badly undermined. This gave the Assembly legitimacy, sparking reforms like the Declaration. -
Against the background of political and financial crisis, the people of Paris entered onto the revolutionary stage. On July 14, 1789, several hundred people stormed the Bastille, a royal prison, to obtain weapons for the city's defense. This starts the Revolution and panic spreads, leading to the Great Fear. -
In the summer of 1789, throughout France peasants began to rise against their lords. In some areas peasants reoccupied common lands enclosed by landowners and seized forests. Fear of the retaliation from the state and noble landowners against these actions was called the Great Fear, which seized the rural poor and fanned the flames of rebellion. This pressured the National Assembly, influencing the creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. -
Faced with chaos from the Great Fear, the National Assembly responded to the swell of popular uprising on August 27, 1789, issuing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The declaration had little practical effect for the poor and hungry people of France. In addition, women could no longer look to the church, leading to the Women's March on Versailles. -
On October 5 some seven thousand women marched the twelve miles from Paris to Versailles to protest the price of bread. They invaded the National Assembly and royal apartments, killed some of the royal bodyguards, and searched for the queen, Marie Antoinette. This event weakened the monarchy, and the next two years saw the consolidation of the liberal revolution, leading to the Constitution of 1791. -
The constitution of September 1791 was the first in French history. The kings/nobles of Europe who had first welcomed the revolution in France as weakening a competing power, now feared its impact. When Louis XVI accepted the constitution, a young lawyer and delegate named Maximilien Robespierre concluded that "the Revolution is over." He was wrong in suggesting that turmoil had ended, for a much more radical stage lay ahead, one that would bring war with foreign powers, specifically Austria. -
The Reign of Terror (1793-1794) enforced compliance with republican beliefs/practices. Presented as a necessary measure to save the republic, the Terror was a weapon directed against all suspected of opposing the revolutionary government. After overseeing the Terror, during which thousands of men/women accused of being enemies of the Revolution faced trial and execution, it was Maximilien Robespierre's turn to face the guillotine. The fall of Robespierre lead to the creation of The Directory. -
France declared war on Francis II of Austria, the Habsburg monarch. The Legislative Assembly declared the country in danger, and volunteers rallied to the capital. Rather than offering refuge, the Assembly suspended the king from all his functions, imprisoned him, and called for a constitutional assembly elected by male suffrage. This resulted in the execution of Louis XVI and the second revolution, during which the fall of the French monarchy introduced a rapid radicalization of politics. -
After the National Convention overwhelmingly convicted Louis XVI of treason, the Mountain carried the day and on January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was executed by guillotine. Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety tried and executed thousands suspected of treason as the power shifted to radicals during the Reign of Terror. -
To prevent a new Robespierre from monopolizing power, the constitution granted executive power to a five-man body, called the Directory. The French people grew weary of the corruption/ineffectiveness that characterized the Directory. This instability enabled Napoleon's coup. -
On November 9, 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte ended the Directory in a coup d'etat and substituted a strong dictatorship for a weak one. By 1810, Napoleon had conquered or allied with every major European power except Britain. Despite this, his expansion lead to disastrous campaigns such as the failed invasion of Russia in 1812. -
Napoleon's invasion of Russia began in June 1812 with a force that eventually numbered 600,000. The Russian army, the Russian winter, and starvation cut Napoleon's army to pieces. 370,000 men had died and another 200,000 had been taken prisoner. On April 4, 1814, a defeated Napoleon abdicated his throne.