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The moment the crisis becomes national and public; the spark that ignites everything. -
The Third Estate vows not to disband until France has a constitution — a direct challenge to royal authority. -
The symbolic fall of royal tyranny; the Revolution becomes a popular uprising. -
Centuries‑old privileges of the nobility are eliminated in one night. -
The Revolution’s core ideological document — liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty. -
Parisian women force the king back to Paris, effectively ending his independence. -
Louis XVI attempts to escape; his credibility collapses and the monarchy’s fate is sealed. -
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A secret Vodou ceremony led by Dutty Boukman that ignited the coordinated slave uprising across northern Saint‑Domingue. -
Tens of thousands of enslaved people launched a massive revolt, destroying plantations and challenging French colonial rule. -
The monarchy is overthrown by force; the king is arrested. -
Toussaint emerges as the dominant leader, defeats rival factions, and stabilizes the colony while abolishing slavery. -
The Revolution crosses the point of no return — a republic with no king. -
Napoleon seizes power, ending the Revolution and beginning a new era. -
A fierce, symbolic battle where Haitian forces resisted Napoleon’s troops, marking the beginning of France’s ultimate failure to retake the colony. -
Jean‑Jacques Dessalines proclaims Haiti’s independence, creating the first free Black republic and ending the revolution.