French Revolution Timeline

By februaryfire

  • Napoleon Bonaparte born in Ajaccio, Corsica

  • Napoleon begins study at the royal military academy

  • Graduates from Ecole Militaire with the rank of second lieutenant in the artillery

  • Napoleon is given command of the French army in Italy

  • The Estates General

    King Louis XVI call the Estates General together.

  • National Assembly

    The National Assembly is formed.

  • National Assembly declares itself Constituent Assembly.

  • Armed Citizens storm the Bastille

  • The Great Fear begins

  • National Assembly decrees the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen

  • Women Storm Versaille demanding bread

  • The royal family returns to Paris

  • Church loses land

  • (18th Brumaire) Napoleon Bonaparte named “First Consul,” now the effective dictator

  • Abolishment of the nobility and titles

  • Black Citizens of French colonies gain rights

  • Royal Family tries to leave France

  • King accepts the Constitution

  • France declares war on Austria

  • While in Paris with his regiment, Napoleon witnesses the storming of the Tuileries Palace and the dethroning of the French King, Louis XVI

  • Duke of Brunswick calls for allied attack on France

  • Jacobins storm the Tuileries Palace and imprison the king

  • General mobilisation,citizens sent to the front

  • Danton instigates the execution of about 1,200 prisoners locked up in Parisian prisons

  • French forces defeat the invading forces at Valmy

  • The Convention abolishes the monarchy, Day one of the Republican Calendar

  • “Edict of Fraternity” offers aid to “subject peoples.”

  • Trial of the king begins.

  • Louis XVI executed

  • France declares war on Britain and Holland.

  • Food riots in Paris

  • Committee of Public Safety established

  • Marat put on trial for complicity in September massacre but is acquitted

  • Maximum price of bread imposed

  • Accused of being too pro-French, Napoleon and his family flee their household in Corsica

  • Jacobin Constitution accepted by the Convention

  • Marat, “the people’s friend,” murdered by Charlotte Corday

  • Corday executed amid popular outrage

  • “Law of Suspects” initiates the Terror

  • Marie-Antoinette tried and executed

  • Festival of Liberty and Reason

  • Robespierre, the Committee of Public Safety and Jacobin Club denounce the Hébertists and Dantonists on framed-up charges and execute all the popular leaders. Robespierre becomes virtually the dictator

  • Robespierre decreed the new religion of the Supreme Being.

  • (22 Prairial) procedures for mass trial and execution implemented. Victims will go to the guillotine now in batches of 50 or 60 at a time. An estimated 2,750 are executed of whom the great majority are poor

  • (9th Thermidor) Convention calls for arrest of Robespierre. Robespierre attempts insurrection which flops, is arrested and executed. After about 150 of his supporters are done away with, the Terror is over

  • Napoleon is imprisoned under suspicion of being a Jacobin and a supporter of Robespierre

  • The Churches re-open for Christian worship

  • Napoleon is promoted to General of the Army of the West

  • Royalists attempt a coup and Napoleon Bonaparte makes his name suppressing the move with grapeshot. The popular party gains strength, Gracchus Babeuf is its spokesperson, holding running meetings at the Pantheon

  • The government assigns Napoleon the task of suppressing civil strife and rebellion against the Republic

  • Napoleon assumes command of French army in Italy

  • Napoleon marries Josephine

  • He returns to Paris a hero

  • Napoleon begins his Egyptian campaign

  • Under the command of Admiral Nelson, the British fleet destroys the French navy in the Battle of Aboukir

  • Following a coup d'etat, Napoleon becomes First Consul of the new French government

  • Treaty with Austria signed at Luneville

  • Signing of the Concordat between France and Rome ends schism between the French government and the Catholic Church

  • Treaty of Amiens signed with Britain

  • Napoleon restructures French educational system

  • New constitution adopted, making Napoleon First Consul for life

  • France sells Louisiana territory to U.S.

  • Senate proclaims Napoleon Emperor

  • Napoleon names Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain, and Murat King of Naples

  • Napoleon consecrated as Emperor

  • Napoleon crowns himself Emperor in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris

  • Napoleon is crowned king of Italy in Milan

  • Napoleon names his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, king of Naples, and appoints other family members to various other posts

  • Napoleon's son born, referred to as the "King of Rome"

  • Grand Army enters Moscow to find the city abandoned and set aflame by the inhabitants; retreating in the midst of a frigid winter, the army suffers devastating losses

  • Anti-French coalition army enters France

  • Paris falls

  • Senate proclaims end of the Empire; Napoleon's wife and son flee Paris.

  • Napoleon abdicates his rule and Louis XVIII, a Bourbon, is restored to the French throne

  • Napoleon is exiled to Elba; his wife and son take refuge in Vienna

  • Escaping Elba, Napoleon returns in South France

  • Napoleon dies

  • Napoleon rallies the French army

  • Louis XVIII flees, Napoleon takes control, begins "Hundred Days" campaign

  • Defeated in the Battle of Waterloo by the British and Prussians, led by Wellington and Blucher

  • Napoleon is exiled to Saint Helena