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Preceded by more than 10 years of intense political turmoil, including armed conflict in 1775, the American Revolution takes full swing. -
Grandiose in his schemes, headstrong and difficult, Simón Bolívar nevertheless conquered enormous obstacles in gaining South American independence from Spain, particularly in his homeland of Venezuela. -
Adopted less than two months after the storming of the Bastille ushered in the French Revolution, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen remains one of the primary documents on human rights known throughout the world. -
a peasant uprising culminated in the storming of the Bastille, the armory-prison that had become a symbol of the tyranny of the ancient régime. After taking over the building, the mob massacred the staff and freed the prisoners. -
In September 1793, terror was transformed into official government policy, and extreme measures were adopted to implement radical economic and social programs. -
Toussaint Louverture led a successful slave revolt and emancipated the slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). -
With the aid of the British, the rebels scored a major victory against the French force there, and on November 9, 1803, colonial authorities surrendered. -
With full popular support behind him, Napoleon I proclaims himself emperor of the French in May 1804 -
Francisco de Miranda and Simón Bolívar lead their followers in signing the Declaration of Independence for Venezuela against Spanish rule on July 5, 1811. -
To the Inquisition, he renounced all of his previous heresies. The courts nevertheless defrocked him and sentenced him to death by.