French Revolution Timeline

  • May 5, 1789 meeting with the Estates-General

    The opening of the Estates General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution. it was a assembly against the king.
  • Tennis Court Oath

    The Tennis Court Oath was a pledge that was signed in the early days of the French Revolution.It displayed the belief that political authority.
  • Storming of the Bastille

    was a turning point in the French Revolution, and a symbolic event in European history. It demonstrated that a force of people could challenge a monarchy and overpower it. The six months leading up to July 14 was a period of ever-increasing turmoil.
  • Declaration of the Rights of Man

    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.
  • Women's March on Versailles

    The March on Versailles. Concerned over the high price and scarcity of bread, women from the marketplaces of Paris led the March.This became one of the most significant events of the French Revolution, eventually forcing the royals to return to Paris.
  • Execution of King Louis XVI

    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
  • Maximillian Robespierre's execution

    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.
  • Napoleonic Code is established

    the resulting Civil Code of France marked the first major revision and reorganization of laws since the Roman era. The Civil Code.
  • Napoleon Crowns himself emperor

    Napoleon's motivations for being crowned were to gain prestige in international royalist and Catholic circles and to lay the foundation for a future dynasty.
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    Peninsular War

    Frustrated by Portugal's defiance of his Continental Blockade against trade with Great Britain, Napoleon ordered General Jerot to march French troops over the Pyrenees.
  • Napoleon and his men march on Russia

    the Grande Armée, led by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, crossed the Neman River, invading Russia from present-day Poland.
  • Napoleon is exiled to Elba

    Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France and one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba.
  • Napoleon dies

    he had been getting sicker for several months, suffering from recurrent abdominal pain, progressive weakness and unabating constipation.
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    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.