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The Estates General Meeting Opening
This was a meeting where the King and other estates gathered to discuss politics. The poorest estates had the oppurtunity here to voice their concerns directly to the king. This estate was called the third estate and were represented by a lawyer from North France named, Maximilien de Robespierre. At this time only the third estate was paying taxes. -
Fall of the Bastille
Days before the crowds of men invaded the prison the kingdecided to dismiss Necker from the office of finance minister. This angered the people which rebelled by stealing weapons and then going to Bastille to get the gun powder. The crowd pleaded with the governer, Marquis Bernard-Rene de Launay, to release the powder but when he refused they became furious and forced their way in killing hundreds. In the end two men found Launay cut off his head, scewered it to a stick, and carried it around. -
March on Versailles
King Louis and his family were eating feasts daily while the people of Paris were startving. Nearly 7,000 women marched in the rain from Paris to Versaille for bread to feed their families. The women were armed with pitchforks, musketts, and pikes. They got into the Queens quarters looking for Marie Antonette but she had slipped through a secret passage way to safety. -
Flight to Varennes
The King and his family attempted to escape to the Belgium border but was met by loyal troops. The royal family was taken back to Paris as Prisoners at this time. At this attempt the revolutionists lost any bit of trust they had left in the King. Some revolutionaries called for the immediate abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a republic -
Dissolution of the National Assembly
The National Assembly was disolved and replaced by the Legislative Assembly. No one that was a member of the National Assembly was aloud to be a part of the new assembly because of Robespierre's motion. The new Assembly consisted of about 745 middle class men with little to no political experience. -
France declared war on Austria
"Reactionaries and the monarchy wanted war because they thought that the new government would be easily defeated by foreign powers." -
Attack on the Tuileries Palace
Nearly 30,000 French people came together to invade the palace looking for King Louis XVI. Lucky for him he got word of the mob and was able to escape. The guards of the palace went to the top and tried to stop the mob but it was too big to control. The mob got into the palace and spared no lives looking for the King. -
Declaration of the Republic and the Trial of Louis
The first steps to writing a constitution for the Republic of France. The Declaration was written to proclaim freedom, liberty, and equal rights to all. This was influenced by the United States Declaration of Independence. -
Reign of Terror
Maximilien Robespierre was the mastermind behind the Reign of Terror. This was a time after the death of King Louis XVI in 1793, Over 30,000 people lost their lives to The Guillotine, a machine invented to decapitate criminals. -
The Thermidorian Reaction
The time after Robespierre was killed when the government started to be rebuild and a new constitution was started. -
Directory and the Rise of Napoleon
Napoleon was a brave, couragious man that was well respected by his men. By 1800 Napoleon had become the First Consul of France, and was now in a position of total power."
