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Adopted this title on 7/9/1789, to show its goal of creating a constitution for France. The Constituent Assembly went through many crises until it dissolved in September 1791. The King tried to weaken the government even attempted to escape, leading to his suspension and later return. They drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the 1791 Constitution, tackled the financial crisis with assignats. Its results were mixed, but it became France’s first true legislature
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Summoned by King Louis XVI to address the kingdom's financial crisis. The Estates General brought together delegates elected from each of the three ‘orders’ of French society: the clergy, the nobility and the third estate. Their duty was to allow the sovereign to exercise power, but also to oversee that he did so in a just way–their primary function was to ratify the taxes that were to be given to the king. Also, the representatives wrote and submitted petitions, remonstrances, and grievances. -
The Estates-General had been called to address the country's fiscal and agricultural crisis, but they quickly got stuck in debates over representation right after meeting in May 1789. On June 17, the Third Estate deputies, aware they’d be outvoted by the clergy and nobility, created the National Assembly. When locked out of their usual hall on June 20, fearing the king wanted to dissolve them, they gathered in a nearby tennis court swore not to separate until France had a written constitution. -
The Storming of the Bastille was an act of political violence in which revolutionaries seized the old fortress and prison that symbolized royal power in Paris. After four hours of battle and 94 deaths, the insurgents were able to enter the Bastille and they took control, killing the governor, Bernard-René de Launay, and others after their surrender. Even though holding only seven prisoners and set for demolition, the Bastille’s fall became the spark of the French Revolution. -
In late July 1789, as peasant uprisings spread across France, the National Assembly began debating deep social reform. During the night of August 4–5, deputies renounced local privileges and voted to “abolish the feudal system entirely,” ending noble and clerical privilege that had shaped France for centuries. Yet, since feudalism no longer truly existed, defining the decree’s details became their main task for the next two years. -
After agreeing to draft a declaration of rights, the National Assembly faced the challenge of creating one most deputies would support. They debated its length, whether to include duties, and what defined “the natural, inalienable, and sacred rights of man.” After days of discussion, they approved seventeen articles outlining a government based on protecting natural rights instead of royal will, embracing Enlightenment ideals like freedom, fair taxation, and justice. -
This assembly met from October 1, 1791, to September 20, 1792. Elected indirectly, its deputies faced unrest and a distrusted king, Louis XVI, whose vetoes and minister changes caused constant deadlock and fueled political clubs. Both the King and Assembly sought war with Austria and Prussia, to regain power, they punished monarchs aiding counterrevolutionaries. War began in March 1792. The King’s obstruction led to the August 10 uprising and the fall of the monarchy.
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By spring 1791, Louis XVI and his family had been confined in the Tuileries for over 18 months. Disturbed by the revolution’s growing radicalism and anti-clericalism, the king, with Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen, planned to flee to Montmédy, near the German border. The king was recognized by a local postmaster, they were captured and returned to Paris. The failed “Flight to Varennes” ended hopes for a constitutional monarchy, proving the king’s betrayal of the revolution. -
The National Convention governed France from 1792 to 1795 during the French Revolution, succeeding the Legislative Assembly and proclaiming the First Republic after the monarchy’s fall. Holding both legislative and executive powers, it was first led by the Girondins. However, conflicts with the radical Montagnards over King Louis XVI’s trial and execution led to intense divisions, ending with the Girondins’ downfall in June 1793.
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The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria on April 20, 1792. Marie Antoinette heard that the Girondins, now part of the king’s government, were planning to attack the Austrian Netherlands and warned her brother Leopold. Encouraged by the Girondins, the Assembly pushed for war that spring. As France faced financial collapse and a fragile army, Louis XVI responded by dismissing the Girondin ministry. -
In early August, the Legislative Assembly was deadlocked, unsure how to handle the King, the constitution, the war, and the Paris uprisings. On August 4, the radical “section of the 300” warned of revolt if no action was taken by August 9. That night, the alarm rang, and crowds marched to the Tuileries Palace. As guards prepared to fight, Louis XVI fled with his family to the Legislative Assembly for protection, where he was arrested, an event later called the “second French Revolution.” -
After unanimously declaring the King guilty, the deputies voted on his punishment. By just one vote, Louis XVI was condemned to death “within twenty-four hours.” On January 21, 1793, Louis Capet, the former King of France, was executed by guillotine. For the first time in a millennium, France was without a monarch. A letter by Philippe Pinel recounts the event, praising Louis’s calm dignity during his public execution. -
During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre addressed the National Convention on July 26, 1794, accusing unnamed conspirators and traitors within it. His refusal to identify them alarmed deputies, who feared another purge. The next day, Jean-Lambert Tallien and others turned the Convention against him, leading to his arrest. On July 28, Robespierre was executed by guillotine, marking the end of the Terror and the start of the more moderate Thermidorian Reaction. -
This five-member body served as the executive branch under the Constitution of 1795 and gave its name to the government: the Directory. It ruled from October 1795 until November 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte, aided by Director Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès, overthrew it. The Directory carried out coups in 1797 and 1798 to cancel unwanted elections, and later faced purges itself. Though it secured revolutionary gains and military victories, it ultimately failed to safeguard the republic.
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The Consulate was the government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) until the rise of the Empire on May 18, 1804. As First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte created a centralized, autocratic republic without declaring himself ruler. Historians regard this as one of France’s most crucial periods, as Bonaparte’s reforms laid lasting foundations and led to his authoritarian military dictatorship.
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The empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe. After occupying Vienna, Napoleon wins against the Russians and Austrians in 1805. As the Empire expands, more forces establish themselves against the French Empire. In 1808, trying to invade Spain, France is defeated. In 1814, united European troops close in on Paris in an attempt to stop the expanding French Empire. Napoleon loses Paris and rejects any agreements to restore old boundaries.
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The Battle of Austerlitz which took place the 2nd of December, was the first major clash of the War of the Third Coalition, was one of Napoleon’s greatest triumphs. Near Austerlitz in Moravia, his 68,000 soldiers defeated nearly 90,000 Russian and Austrian troops led by Tsar Alexander I and Kutuzov. Known as the “Battle of the Three Emperors,” it forced Austria’s Francis I to sign the Treaty of Pressburg, granting Venetia to France and ending the coalition. -
The Battle of Trafalgar, fought on October 21, 1805, was a major naval clash between Britain’s Royal Navy and the combined French and Spanish fleets during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Napoleon’s plan to invade Britain, the allied fleets aimed to secure the English Channel. Commanded by Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, they left Cádiz on October 18 but soon they met Lord Nelson’s British fleet off Cape Trafalgar, along Spain’s southwest coast. -
The Coalition forces of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia led by Tsar Alexander I, Schwarzenberg, and Blücher defeated Napoleon’s Grande Armée, which included Polish, Italian, and German troops. The 1813 Battle of Leipzig, involving 560,000 soldiers and 133,000 casualties, was the largest in Europe before World War I. Decisively defeated, Napoleon retreated to France, the Confederation of the Rhine collapsed, and by May 1814 he abdicated and was exiled to Elba. -
This battle marked the definitive defeat of Napoleon and the collapse of the French Empire, altering the political landscape of Europe. Its outcome led to the Congress of Vienna, where the continent’s borders were redrawn the absolute monarchies, threathened since the French Revolution, were restored. The conflict was the French army against British, Dutch, and German forces. After the defeat, public opinion in France turned against Napoleon, leading to his exile on the island of Saint Helena.