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3rd estate declares itself the National Assembly
The 3rd estate represented the common people and bourgeoisie. After a meeting, the 3rd estate set themselvees as the National Assembly, without any input with the other estates. After some preliminary debate over the name, at the opening session, June 17, this body declared itself the National Assembly: an assembly not of the Estates but composed of "the People". They invited the other orders to join them, but made it clear that they intended to conduct the nation's affairs with or without them. -
Estates-General convenes
In 1789, the Estates-General was summoned for the first time since 1614. The Third Estate demanded, & received, double representation, which they already had in the provincial assemblies. When the Estates-General convened in Versailles on 5 May 1789, however, it became clear that the double representation was something of a sham: voting was to occur "by orders", which meant that the collective vote of the 578 representatives of the Third Estate would be weighed the same as the other estates -
Storming of the Bastille
The anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation. It is celebrated on July 14th, every year. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen issued
A fundamental document of the French Revolution. Defines the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. -
Louis XVI executed
Louis XVI, the King of France, was found guilty of high treason. He was executed by the guillotine and was the only king to ever be executed. -
Maximilien Robespierre assumes leadership of the Committee of Public Safety
Robespierre largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror. The National Convention had given power to the Committee since they were faced with internal anarchy and external war. Robespierre claimed that individual wills and rights did not matter against the will of the nation. People lived in a constant state of fear that they would be accused of something very trivial. -
Robespierre's Execution
Maximilien Robespierre was the leader of the Reign of Terror. “The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution." He was a brilliant orator whose own over-zealousness led to his death. Robespierre was accused of treason and made Sinisterly, he was executed facing the blade of the guillotine. -
Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power
Napoleon seizes his power in France with the coup of 18 Bruma. Napoleon managed to seize power by overthrowing the Directory or the government at the time and making himself the First Counsel and later on the emperor. The main reason he was able to become such a figure was because he was an excellent soldier/lieutenant/general. -
Napoleon is defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon was defeated by a combined army of the Seventh Coalition( An Anglo-Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington combined with a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard von Blücher.
