french revolution timeline

  • Meeting with the Estates-Genral

    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

    the National Assembly swore not to stop meeting until France had a constitution. This commitment to imposing a constitution on France was a threat to the power of the monarch.
  • storming of the bastile

    The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress and political prison known as the Bastille.
  • declaration of the rights of man

    In its preamble and its 17 articles, it sets out the “natural and inalienable” rights, which are freedom, ownership, security, resistance to oppression; it recognizes equality before the law and the justice system, and affirms the principle of separation of powers.
  • womens march on versailles

    The Women's March on Versailles, also known as the October March, the October Days or simply the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution.
  • Execution of King Louis XVI

    In November 1792, a secret cupboard containing proof of Louis' counter-revolutionary beliefs and correspondence with foreign powers was discovered in Tuileries Palace. He was brought to trail for treason and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793.
  • Period: to

    reign of terror

    The Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.
  • Maximillian Robespierre's execution

    On July 27, 1794, Robespierre and a number of his followers were arrested at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris. The next day Robespierre and 21 of his followers were taken to the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde), where they were executed by guillotine before a cheering crowd.
  • Napoleonic Code is established

  • Napoleon Crowns himself emperor

  • Period: to

    Peninsular War

  • Napoleon and his men march on Russia

  • Napoleon is exiled to Elba

  • Napoleon dies