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Alongside its funding of the American Revolution, France's participation in the Seven Years' War left the country deep in debt.
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Rene Maupeou is appointed chancellor by Louis XV to tax the monarchy and break the parlements.
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When Louis XV died, Louis XVI took power, fired Maupeou, and reinstated the parlemental system. The reinstated parlements quoted a lot of Enlightenment ideals and accused the monarchy of tyranny.
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Jacques Necker is appointed new director-general of finances, and he released a report on France's financial state.
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Calonne, minister of finance, met with the Assembly of Notables, who distrusted him and called for Necker's return.
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Brienne attempted to reform taxes, to no avail. Bankers refused to loan the government money, and Brienne resigned, to be replaced again by Necker.
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On June 1st of 1789, the Third Estate invited clergy and nobles to join their new legislative body
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The people regarded Necker's dismissal as the beginning of a royal offensive against the National Constituent Assembly
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The Parisian stronghold Bastille is taken by rioters and looted for weapons. Seven prisoners held in the Bastille were released.
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The Citizen Militia of Paris, known as the National Guard, was led by Marquis de Lafayette who chose the Cockade as an emblem.
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A meeting of the National Constituent Assembly is called to bring a halt to the riots. Liberal nobles and clerics renounces their hunting and fishin rights, judicial authority, and legal exemptions. All French citizens are now subject to the same and equal rights..
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The National Constituent Assembly meets and writes the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen.
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7,000 women march to Versailles demanding bread; Louis announces the end of feudalism and approves the Declaration
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The National Constituent Assembly isses the Civil Constitution of the Clergy to reconstuct the French church. This stressed the relations between the church and the state.
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The royal family, disguised as servants, tries to flee Paris, but is recognized and escorted back.
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After riots inspired by the French Revolution's ideals, the Polish nobles invite Russia to restore the old order. The Russian army quickly defeated Polish reformists.
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Crowds swarm the Tuileries Palace and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette have to take refuge in the Legislatve Assembly
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The Paris Commune legalized the killing of over 1200 people in jails. Inlcuded some clergyment and aristocrats, but most were assumed to be counterrevolutionaries.
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At this point, the Jacobins had control of the French government, which was at war with Austria, Prussia, Great Britain, Spain, Sardinia, and Holland
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Sans-Culottes invade the Convention and successufully demand the expulsion of Girondist members
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People thought a "new" kind of war had evolved, one to keep the revolution's ideals alive. Thousands of people were arrested and guillotined.
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Marie Antoinette, other members of the royal family, and many aristocrats were executed
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The author of the Declaration of the Rights of Women is executed
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Robespierre secures the execution of certain Sans-Culottes extremists known as enrages
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Robespierre secured the passage of the Law of 22 Prairial, which permitted the tribunal to convict suspects without hearing evidence.
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Russian troops carried out the killings of over 10000 Poles outside Warsaw