French Revolution Timeline

By Aileen Willson

  • King Louis XV dies

    leaving the country even more greatly in debt because of the wars in which France was involved

  • The American War of Independence against England begins

    France declares war against England in support of America

  • The Treaty of Paris ends America`s War of Independence

    The success of America emboldens those people in France that were pushing for change through revolution.

  • Tennis Court Oath

    The Third Estate declared themselves the National Assembly and made the Tennis Court Oath. The Third Estate maintained that the they could do a better job of ruling France than the aristocracy that was rife with waste, extravagance, and indifference towards the common people.

  • Storming of the Bastille

    ignites the French Revolution

  • Great Fear

    begins as peasants revolt across France.

  • Paris Women

    invaded Versailles

  • French peasants

    were angry because of an unfair tax system, and a poor harvest in 1788.

  • Food riots in Paris

  • King Louis XVI

    executed

  • Reign of Terror

    sentenced more than 20,000 people to death. The National Assembly was much more brutal and authoritarian as a government than the monarchy of Louis XIV ever was. Jean-Paul Marat was one of the leaders of the Reign of Rerror.

  • Napoleon begins

    his series of military campaigns.

  • French Revolution is over

    with the National Convention fully in control of the country. Napoleon takes control of the National Convention.

  • The French Army suffers

    1804-1815 increasing series of setbacks, ending in the battle of Waterloo in Belgium.

  • Napoleon exhiled to Saint Helena