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Convening the Estate General
It was the first meeting since 1614. It was a general assembly represeting the French estates. The Clergy (first estate) the nobles (second estate) the common people(third estate) King Louis XVI summoned them to propse solutions to his government's finacial problems. The cam to an arguement over the fisrt thing on the agends; whether they should vote by estate, giving the frist two classes an advantage, which was the kings choice, or vote all together, giving the third estate the advantage. -
Tennis Court Oath
After the Third Estate got locked out of the meeting they took an oath saying they would not stop until there was a new constitution of France. They called themselves the National Assembly. -
Storming of the Bastille
a rumor spread in the streets of Paris of a coming counter attack by the King's army, and when the towns peopel heard this they decided to fight back. So they went to the Bastille where they new was weapons they could use. When the head person of the Bastille refused to let them in they chopped of his head and put it on a stick. -
Great Fear
After an angry mob of French citizens stormed and destroyed the Bastille, rebellion spread from Paris into the countryside. From one village to the next, wild rumors were spread that the nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize the peasants. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
French Revolution document that outlined what the National Assembly considered to be the natural rights of all people and the rights that they possesd as citizens. It was written by Thomas Jefferson and General Lafayette. -
Constitution of 1791 is Drafted
A French Constituiton created by the National Assemby reluctantly accepted by King Louis XVI. It retained the monarchy bu tit was known as a Limited Monarchy. The Legislative power resided in the hands of the National Assemby whose members were elected by the economic upper half of French males. -
Women's March to Versailles
There was a rumor that the King and Queen were taking weat an keeping it for themselves. When the women of the town heard this they began to riot. They ended up forcign the King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette out of France and into Paris. -
Louis and Marie Try to Escape to France
After Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were forced to Paris, they tried to flee. They dressed up as peasents and made their peasents dress up as powerful people. So it would draw more attention to their servants then to them, but they were spotted, captured, and executed. -
National Convention
The National Convention was made up of 749 members from France, they were decided by French men over the age of 25. The National Convetion was elected to provide a new constitution for the country after the monarch, Louis XVI was overthrown. Robespierre was very involved in the governemnt until his execution, -
Reign of Terror Begins
The Reign of Terror was a period of violence tha that occured after the French Revolution, that began by the conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins. Also the mass of executions of "enemies of the revolution." There were at least 20-40 thousand deaths by the guillotine. Robespierre was a main leader in the Reign of Terror, he was the leader of the Committee of Public Saftey, he was the most powerful man in France at that time. -
The Directory Takes Power
The Directory was the governemnt of France during the penultimate stage of the French Revolution. Administrated by a collective leadership of five directors, it operated following the Committee of Public Saftey. The Directory at first had some succes in foreign policy, especially after Napoleon's conquest of Italy. The conquered lands were forced to provide huge subsidies to teh French treasury, which other wise was bakrupt. This period was a time of economic depression.
