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In Paris, citizens invaded the city’s largest prison, the Bastille, in pursuit of arms. Peasants and farmers revolted against their feudal contracts by attacking the manors and estates of their landlords.
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The National Assembly released the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which established a proper judicial code and the autonomy, or right of self-government, of the French people. The Declaration was directly influenced by Thomas Jefferson and included many general Enlightenment ideas.
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Crowds of Parisian women met at City Hall to demand bread due to a shortage and were refused of this. They marched 12 miles to Versailles to confront the royal family, and made the royal family return to Paris escorted by women carrying pikes, which held the heads of the King's guards.
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In June of 1791, the royal family left Paris in a coach headed towards Austria. The King and his family were caught in Varennes by the National Guard, and the royal family returned to Paris as prisoners.
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Some of France's neighboring countries feared that France’s revolutionary spirit would spread beyond France. The public opinion in France was to go into war for various reasons, so they declared war on Austria.
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On the morning of August 10, 1792, the National Guard and a crowd of citizens of Paris invaded the Tuileries palace, of the home of the royal family. The King and his family escaped, but no longer had any authority. The crowd swept through Paris destroying all images of and references of monarchy, and the Assembly suspended the monarchy's powers, establishing France as a republic a few weeks later.
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In January 1793, the National Convention tried and executed Louis XVI for acts of treason. Out of 700 deputies in the Convention, 361 deputies voted to execute Louis.
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Maximilien Robespierre became paranoid of counter-revolutions against France and outside attacks so he began a reign of terror throughout the country. During this time period, approximately 16,000 people were guillotined.
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After the French army successfully executed all foreign invaders and counter-revolutionists, Robespierre no longer had any justification for his actions of extremism, and he was arrested executed. This marked the end of the Reign of Terror, and a new period of governmental restructure began, leading to the Constitution of 1795 and a more conservative National Convention.
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French general Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after leaving his armies in Egypt after a major defeat. When he returned, Bonaparte lead a coup d'état, or coup, against the Directory in 1799, stepping up and naming himself the "first consul", becoming the first leader of France.
