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Parisians Storm Tuileries Palace
A Parisian mob storms the Tuileries Palace and slaughters the guards, believing the king to be allied with their enemies because of disastrous battles. The royal family escapes harm by fleeing to the Legislative Assembly. -
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September Massacres
Citizens attack prisons containing nobles and priests accused of political crimes, killing somewhere around 1200 prisoners, many of them ordinary criminals. -
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Radicals Seize the Assembly and Set up New Government
Radicals seize the Assembly and call for a National Convention to be elected. Suffrage was also to be extended to all male citizens. When the Convention met, it voted to abolish the monarchy in favor of a French Republic. A new constitution was then drawn up. -
King Louis XVI is Executed
After being tried and convicted of treason by a single vote, Louis XVI is sentenced to death. He stands on the platform and begins to address the crowd, but most of his words are drowned out by a roll of drums. Louis is beheaded, and his head is displayed to the crowd by the executioner. -
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The Committee of Public Safety is Established and Takes Action
The Convention, faced with dealing with the many interior and exterior threats to France, creates the Committee of Public Safety, a 12-member committee with near absolute power that would eventually be led by Maximilien Robespierre. The Committee prepared France for war by requiring all citizens to contribute to the war effort. Additionally, the members of the Committee were in charge of trials and executions. -
La Marseillaise
Troops marched from Marseilles to a new song that spurred feelings of patriotism. This song, La Marseillaise, would eventually become the national anthem of France. -
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The Reign of Terror
During this period, 300,000 people were arrested, suspected of resistance to the revolution. 17,000 were executed, many of whom were either falsely accused by neighbors or cases of mistaken identity. Many more were victims of death by disease in overcrowded prisons. The Terror's engine was the guillotine, which ended life in an instant. However, the Terror soon engulfed its own, as members of the Convention, horrified by the body counts and afraid they might be next, turned on the Committee. -
The Constitution of 1795 Sets Up Another New Government
The Constitution of 1795, the third since 1789 and the document marking the start of the revolution's third stage, sets up the Directory, comprised of 5 people, and a two-house legislature elected by male property-owning citizens. -
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The Directory is in Power
The Directory faces growing discontent as there were corrupt leaders that failed to solve major problems and, while the wars with Prussia and Spain had ended, wars with Great Britain and Austria raged on. Riots were suppressed and royalist feeling returned. In 1797, the majority of seats in the legislature were won by supporters of constitutional monarchy. As chaos loomed, politicians planned to use Napoleon to further their aims, but he eventually outwitted them to become the ruler of France. -
Nationalism Spreads Throughout France
The French people began celebrating the country and the revolution.