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Series of Poor Harvests
This series of poor harvest left France with a crippling amount of food; moreover, food prices began to escalate leaving the peasants and wage earners starving. On top of rising prices King Louis XVI raises taxes on the 3rd Estate to comensate for inflation caused by France's involment in the American Revolution. Roits breakout throughout France. -
King Louis XVI calls for Estates General
For the first time in 182 year the king of France called upon État-général, or Estates General. The task was to solve France's economic problem and they were called to vote on what should be done. The contraversy in this was whether they should vote by order, using only vote per Estate and giving the aristocrates an advantage, or if they should vote by head, giving every person in the room a vote and giving the much larger 3rd Estate an advantage. -
Tennis Court Oath
After they were locked out of État-général, the 3rd Estate, now called the National Assembly, congrigated to one of the king's tennis courts and vowed to meet until France had a constitution. While they were there, the National Assembly started making new laws for France. -
Bastille Day
In search of weapons, peasants raid the Bastille, a prison that had long been been thought of a symbol of the aristocratic power, and in the process freed all of the prison. Contrary to the hype that was brought up from the raid the prison itself did not put up much of a fight and there were only seven prisoners in the whole prison. -
Writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Declaration of the Right of Man was the first constituion of France. It advocated for the right to liberty, the right to property, and the right to equality for all French citizens. -
Women's march on Versillies
After hereing the rumors that the queen, Marie Antionette was hording bread, peasant women marched on Versallies. They marched back to Paris bring the king and queen with them. -
The Royal family attempts to flee
After hearing about alll of the uprising happening throughout France the royal attempts to flee the palace. All of this is done in vain because they are recognized and her forcibly sent back to Paris. -
New Calender was instituted
Because they no longer wanted to have anything to do with the Catholic Church, the National Convention went as far as to make a new calender specifically for France. This calender had twelve months, ten days a week, one wekend, and four holidays. -
King Louis XVI is executed
After much contraversey ,inside the National Convention, between Gironin, who wanted the king to live, and the radicalist Mountian, who wanted to king the king, he was tried and, by one vote, was found guillty and he was sentenced to death. -
National Convention declares war on coalition
Because the National Convention had seized control from the French monarchy, other nations did not want their countries to do the same; therfore, Austira, England, Prussia, Spain, and Holland went ot war again the French. -
Danton is executed
Because he was one of the leaders of the revolution, Robespierre saw him as a threat to his own power. Regrdless of their shared friendship he ordered to be executed by Robespierre so that he could have complete control of the revolution. -
Robespierre is executed
As the Thermidorian Reaction, Robespierrre was executed; thus, his death resulted in the end of the Committee of Public Safey's power and the Reign of Terror. -
Churches are re-opened
As one of the first acts of the Directory, the Catholic Church was welcomed back into France. -
Directory is put in power
As a reaction by the Moderates, the Directory, a governing board of five intellectuals, was put into power. They not only slowed down the killings, but with the backing of the army under their control they also wrote a new constitution. -
Napoleon saves Directory with grape shot
To protect the Directory from angry peasants, Napoleon saves them by shooting small metal balls that are packed into his cannons to subdue the crowds, also called grape shot. -
Napoleon's coup d'etat
After returning from what he made France believe was numerous victories, by manipulating the media, Napoleon aranged and executed a coup d'etaut and the directory, which the leading power of France at the time. After this he made deals to keep the army under his control and voted out the five man board for a three man one. -
Lousiana Purchace
At first Napoleon was going to use this land that he had won back from the Spanish in 1800 to establish an empire in the Americas. However, riots in Haiti made choose to abandon this idea and, never willing to give anything to the British, he sold the Lousiana territory to the Americans for about $15,000,000. -
Napoleon dubs himself emporer
A major move that Napoleon made during his reign was that he dubbed himself emporer. To ensure no revolting against this decision, he allowed the people to vote on whether or not this should be. Against all of the ideas of the revolution the people voted to give him this much power. -
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Napoleon's conquests
Starting in the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon was continuously ceassing control of outside lands. This led Napopleon to need utilize puppet monarchs in order to maintain control of such large borders and kept control over it all until 1812. -
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Napoleon invades Russia
Napoleon sends his army of 422,000+ men into Russia;in fact, this was the largest and most powerful army to have ever been sent into Russia up to that date. The Russians retalieated by burning their farmlands to starve the French out and, in Moscow, even going so far as to release criminals from their prisons to be more of a hastle for the French. What started as a strong and stable army turned into only 28,000 survivors.
