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Publication of Hobbes work- social contract
Government fails to secure their natural rights (Locke) or satisfy the best interests of society. Citizens can withdraw their obligation to obey or change the leadership, through elections or other means. -
Period: to
Revolution
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Formation of the National Assembly
Revolutionary assembly formed by the representatives of the third estate (the common people) of the estates-general thereafter (until replaced by the legislative assembly on Sept. -
Tennis Court Oath
The members of the French Estates-General for the Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established." -
Bastille is stormed
Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Passed by France's National Constituent Assembly. Fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human and civil rights. -
King removed from Versailles/women’s march
Crowd compelled the king, his family, and most of the French. The women thenceforth demanded that king Louis XVI distribute the bread that the women's march brought to an end the great monarchy of Versailles. -
1st use of the Guillotine
Long after the revolution and remained France's standard method of judicial execution until the abolition of capital punishment. Last person to be executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi, who was executed by the guillotine. -
Execution of King Louis XVI
One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. -
Period: to
The Reign of Terror
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Establishment of Committee of Public Safety
Created by the National Convention and then restructured. Formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror, a stage of the French Revolution. -
Republican calendar began
Created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years. -
Robespierre killed
French Revolution's Reign of Terror, is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. As the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre encouraged the execution. -
Establishment of the Directory
The French Revolutionary government set up by the Constitution of the Year III, which lasted four years. It included a bicameral legislature. -
Napoleonic Code started
It was promulgated as the "Civil Code of the French", but was renamed "the Napoleonic Code" and once again after the Second French Empire. -
Napoleon becomes Emperor
The first Frenchman to hold the title of emperor in a thousand years. Established the Napoleonic Code, a new system of French law, and in 1804 he established the French empire. -
Continental System
The blockade designed by Napoleon to paralyze Great Britain through the destruction of British commerce. Neutrals and French allies were not to trade with the British. -
Napoleon Exiled
Exiled to the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa. Six years later, he died, most likely of stomach cancer. -
waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. -
Napoleon’s Death
Controlled most of Europe, defeated,exiled, escaped, reclaimed his title, met his final military defeat at Waterloo, was exiled again to the Atlantic Ocean island of St. Helena. Died there six years later (stomach cancer) his body was returned to Paris. -
Period: to
Second Revolution