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Louis XVI Reign
French King who was tried and found guilty of treason. He was executed on January 21, 1793. Married to Marie-Antoinette. -
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Monarchy to Republic
Until July 1789, the French Revolution followed a course much like that of the protest movements in the Low Countries. Unlike the Dutch and Belgain uprisings, the French Revolution didn't come to a quick end. The French revolutionaries first tried to extablish a constitutional monarchy based on Enlightenment principles. This effort fiaied when the king attempted to raise a counterrevolutionary army. When war broke out in 1792, new tensions culminated in a second revolution that deposed the king. -
The Estates General opens at Versailles
see p. 606 -
The Third Estate decides to call itself the National Assembly
see p. 606 -
"Tennis court oath"
"Tennis court oath" shows determination of deputies to carry out a constituional revolution see p. 606 -
Tricolor devised
The combination of red, white, and blue that was to become the flag of France by Georges-Jacques Danton -
The Fall of the Bastille
• After Jacques Necker, the popular finance minister, was dismissed from his post, the commoners began to arm themselve and attack places where either grain or arms were thought ot be stored.
• An armed crowd marched on the Bastilles, a fortified prison that symbolized royal authirty. After a chaotic battle, prison officials surrender.
• The fall of the Bastille is now a national holiday -
Noble deputies announce their willingess to give up tax exemptions and seigneurial dues
• Alarmed by peasant unrest, the National Assembly decided to make sweeping changes.
• By the end of the night, amind wild entusiasm, dozens of deputies had come to the podium to relinquish their exemptions.
• The National Assembly decreed the abolition of what it called "the feudal regime" -
National Assembly abolished "feudalism"
see p. 606 -
Nation Assembly passes Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
The preamble to the French constitution drafted in August of 1789; it established the sovereignty of the nation and equal rights for citizens. -
Women's March to Versailles
• They demanded the king's help in securing more grain for the gungry and his reassurance that he did not intend to resist the emerging revolutionary movement.
• Joined the next day by thousands of men who broke into the royal family's private apartments, killing two of the royal boyguards
• The monarchy was moved back to Paris -
Passing of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
It set pay scales for the clergy and provoided that voters elect their own parish priests and bishops. The impounded property served as a guarantee for the new paper money, called assignats, issued by the gov't.The assignats soon became subject to inflation bc the gov began to sell the church lands to the highest bidders in state auctions. These auctions cut the value of paper money. -
Clergy forced to swear an oath of loyalty
• Faced with resistance to chances of the The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (CCC), in November 1790, the National Assembly required all clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the CCC.
• Half of the French clergy refused to take the oath -
The Flight to Varennes
Reluctant to recognize the new limits on his powers, Louis XVI and the royal family escaped in disguise from Paris and fled to the eastern border of France, where they hoped to gather support from Austrain emperor, Leopold II (brother of Marie). A postmaster recognized the king and the royal fmaily was arrested at Varennes. The National Assembly tried to depict the departure as a kidnapping, but it touched off demostrations in Paris againt the royal family, who were viewed as traitors. -
Slaves in St. Domingue organize large-scale revolt
The slaves in northern St. Domingue organized a large-scale revolt. To restore authority over the slaves, the Legislative Assembly in Paris granted civil and political rights to the free blacks. -
Declaration of war on Austria
see p. 606 -
Louis XVI declares war on Austria
Everyone seemed intent on war with Austria. The royals hoped that the war would lead to the defeat of the Revolution, whereas the deputies who favored a republic believed that war would lead to the king's downfalll. Prussia immediately entered on the Austrian side, including royal forces. -
Sans-culottes attack the Tuileries palace
The sans-culottes organized an insurrection and attacked the Tuileries palace, the residence of the king. The king and his family had to seek refuge in the meeting room of the Legislative Assembly, where the frightened deputies ordered elections for a new legislature. By abolishing the property qualifications for voting, the deputies institued universal male suffrage for the first time -
September Massacres
Violence soon exploded again when early in Sept 1792 the Prussians apporached Paris.Hastily gathered mobs stormed the overflowing prisons to seek out traitors who might help the enemy. In an hystical atmosphere, 1100 inmates were killed, including many ordinary and innocent people. The princess of Lamballe was hacked to pieces and her body displayed beneath the windows where the royal family was kept under guard. -
Monarchy Abolished
The National Convention abolished the monarchy and established the first republic in French history. The republic would answer onlyto the people, not any royal authority. Many deputies in the Convention belonged to the devotedly republican Jacobin Club. Lafayette and other liberal aristocrats who had supported the constitutional monarchy fled into exile. -
Establishment of the republic
see p. 606 -
New Divorce Law
Marriage became a civil contract and as such could be broken adn thereby nullified. A couple could divorce by mutual consent or for reasons such as insantiy, abandonment, battering, or ciminal conviction. 1000s of (wo)men took advantage of the measure, even tho the pope condemned it.In 1816, the law was revoked. -
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Reign of Terror
The Terror is the policy established under the direction of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution to arrest dissidents and execute opponents in order to protect the republic from its enemies. Terror was to imply that the goal of democracy justified totalitarian means, that is, the suppresion of all dissent. -
The Cockades
Everyone in France had to wear a cockade (a badge made of ribbons with the tricolor). Using the formal forms of speech–vous for you–or bc monsieur or madame might identify someone as an aristocrat; true patriots used the informal tu and citoyen or citoyenne (citizen) instead. -
King Louis XVI executed
After a long and difficult debate, the National Convention supported the Mountain and voted by a very narrow majority to execute the king. -
Beginning of uprising in the Vendée
see p. 606 -
Committee for Public Safety est.
A 12-mmeber committee which took up setting the course for govt and the war. When Robespierre was elected to teh committee 2 month later, he became its guiding spirit and the chief spokesman of the Revolution. He was convinced that the emergency situation of 1793 required severe measures, including death for those, such as the Girondins, who opposed the committee's policies. -
Deputies arrest 29 Girondin colleagues.
Because of Marat's acquittal, Parisian militants marched into the National Convention forcing the deputies to decress the arrest of their 29 Girondin colleagues. The Convention consented to the estbalishment of paramilitary bands called "revolutionary armies" to hunt down political suspects and hoarders of grain. The deputies also agreed to speed up the operation of special revolutionary courts. -
Marat's assassination
Charlotte Corday assassinated the outspoken deputy Jean-Paul Marat in his medicinal bath. Corday fervently supported the Girondins, and she considered it her patrioic duty to kill the deputy who had constantly demanded more heads. Marat was immediately eulogized as a great martyr, and Corday went to the guillotine vilified as a monster but confident that she had avenged many innocent victims. -
French commissioner frees all slaves on St. Domingue
The few 1000 French republican troops on St. Domingue were outnumbered, and to prevent complete military disaster, the French commissioner freed all the salves in his jurisdiction without permission from the government in Paris. -
Jacques-Louis David's Festival of Union
His Festival of Unity celebrated the first anniversary of the overthrow of the monarchy. In front of the statue of Liberty built for the occasion, a bonfire consumed crowns and scepters symbolizing royalty while a cloud of 3000 white doves rose into the sky. -
General Maximum establish
In an effort to stablize prices, the National Convention established the General Maximum, which set limits on the prices of 39 essential commodities and on wages. -
October 1793 Guillotine Victims
In Oct 1793, the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris convicted Marie-Antoinette of treason and sent her to the guillotine. The Girondin leaders and Madame Roland were also guillotined, as was Olympe de Gouges. -
National Convention introduces a new calendar to replace the Christian one
National Convention introduces a new calendar to replace the Christian one. Its bases were reason and republican principles. Year 1 dated from the beginning of the republic on 9/22/1792. 12 months of 30 days each received new names derived from nature. Instead of 7-day weeks, 10-day décades provided only one day of rest every ten days and pointedly emilinated the Sunday o the Christian calendar. The 5 days at the end of the year were devoted to special festives called sans-culottides. -
Execution of Marie-Antoinette
see p. 606 -
White planters and merchants signed an agreement w/ GR in St. Domingue
When the Legislative Assembly granted civil and political rights to the free blacks, infuriated white planters and merchants sign an agreement with Great Britian, now France's enemy in war, declaring British sovereignty over St. Domingue. -
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Thermidorian Reaction
The violent backlash against the rule of robespierre that dismantled the Terror and punished Jacobins and their supporters -
Slavery abolished in the French colonies
see p. 606 -
National Convention abolishes slavery
The National Convention formally abolished slavery and granted full rights to all black men in the colonies. These actions had the desired effect. One of the ablest black generals allied with the Spanish, the ex-slave François Dominique Toussant L'Ouverture, changed sides and committed his troops to the French. The French eventually appted him governor of St. Dominguee. -
Arrest, trial, and executions of Danton and his follows
Continues onto April 5. see p. 606 -
The Committee of Public Safety moved against its critics
Spring 1794. The Committee of Public Safety moved against its critics among leaders in Paris and deputeies in the National Convention itself. First, a handufl of "ultrarevolutionaries"-a collection of local Parisisan politician-were arrested and executed, including Danton, the Revolution's most flamboyant orator. The Rate of executions in Paris rose from five a day in the spring to 26/day in the summer. -
Arrest of Robespierre and his supporters; end of the Terror
On 7/27/1794, the 9th of Thermidor, Year II, Robespierre appeared before the Convention with yet another list of deputies to be arrested. Many feared they would be named, and they shouted him down and ordered him arrested along with his followers on the committee, the president of the Rev Tribunal in Paris, and the commander of the Parisian National Guard. An armed uprising failed to save MaxRobes when most of the National Guard sided w/ the Convention. MaxRob tried suicide, but failed. -
Robespierre is executed
see p. 606 -
French Armies swarm into the Dutch Republic
When Prussia declared neutrality, the French armeis swarmed into the Dutch Republic, abolished the stadholderate, and created the new Batavian Repubic, a satellite of France. -
National Convention prepares another constitution
The National Convention prepared another consistution stting up a two-house legislature and an executive body--the Directoy, headed by five directers. The Directory regim tenuously held on to power for four years, all the while trying to fend off challenges from the remaining Jacoins and the resurgent royalists. -
Direct government takes office
see p. 606 -
1798 Conquerings
After the French attacked the Swiss cantons, they set up the Helvetic Republic and curtailed many of the Catholic church's priveleges. They conquered the Papal States and intaleed a Roman Republic, forcing the pope to flee to Siena. -
Conspirators persuade the legislature to move out of Paris
The conspirators persuaded the legislatuer to mvoe out of Paris to avoid an imaginary Jacobin plot. But when Bonaparte stomped into the new meet hall thenext demanded immediate changes in the constitution, he was greeted by cries of "down with the dictator!" His quick-think borther Lucien, president of the Council of 500 (the lower house), saved Bonaparte's coup by summoning troops and claiming some deputies tried to assassinate the popular general. -
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Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte was teh French general who became First Consul in 1799 and emperor in 1804; after losing the battle of Waterloo in 1815, he was exiled to the island of St. Helena. -
Civil Code Establsihed
The French leal code formulated by Napoleon. It ensured equal treatment under the law to all men and guaranteed religious liberty, but it curtailed many rights of women.