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Louis XIV Calls the Estate General
Before Louis XIV called the Estate General, France was facing a series of economic hardships. This involved the low tariffs that inhibited the profit of the French people when it came to trade, leading to exponential impoverishment. France also imported large quantities of items from other countries, ignoring their own possibility for exporting goods and resources. In 1789, the Estates General met under the eye of Louis XIV. They advised the king of petitions and consulted on the fiscal policy. -
Parisians Storm the Bastille
The Parisians (the people of Paris) stormed the Bastille to retrieve weapons and, to a lesser motive, break out those wrongly imprisoned through cruel means by the King. They had swarmed into the Bastille to protect themselves against the perceived threat they faced when the King sent military officials to regulate the rebellious uprisings in Paris -- which the people saw as a form of intimidation, breaking into and swarming the Bastille to protect themselves with weaponry. -
The Tennis Court Oath is Signed
The 3rd Estate, becoming increasingly known as the National Assembly, took and signed the Tennis Court Oath. This agreement stated that, should there be a lack of executive power and France be left without a constitutional government, the National Assembly would come to power and rule as they see fit until there was a proper ruler. This event was detrimental to the French Revolution. -
Writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Declaration of the Rights of Men was written to establish the individual liberties and personal freedoms of all French men and citizens, establishing the rights that they hadn't previously been subjected to. In the declaration, the civil rights of every human being is established individuality from their cruel sovereign leader, paving the way for a later constitution in 1958. -
Establishment of the New Constitution
The New Constitution was created by the National Assembly to proclaim the individual rights and liberties of each French citizen via an indirect voting system. The Constitution established the renewed, reconstructed fundamental laws of the French government and guaranteed the basic, inalienable rights of each person. Although the constitution still retained the same sovereign rule, it established constitutionality and clearly defined the lines for bureaucratic structure and authority. -
Execution of the King and Queen / the Beginning of the Reign of Terror
The gruesome deaths of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette due to the dissatisfaction and consequent rioting of the 3rd Estate in France led to the Reign of Terror, in which the Committee of Public Safety put everyone against the revolution to death via the guilottine. The Reign of Terror lasted just over a year and nearly 17,000 people were brought to death. -
Napoleon Overthrows the Directory
Napoleon Bonaparte, a successful military leader and revolutionary (who eventually came to regal power), overthrew the Directory, an executive council who had ruled France for a considerable time. However, due to the Directory's frail nature and ultimate weak foundation, Napoleon was able to succeed in climbing the ranks using connections to Emmanuel Joseph Seiyes, Roger-Ducos, and his own brother, Lucien. The end of the Directory led to Napoleon establishing the French Consulat. -
Napoleon Builds an Empire
The Napoleonic Wars, a series of battles in which Napoleon's primary goal was to conquer and expand, led to France taking complete control over major trading centers such as Egypt to cripple European trade. From there, he returned to France and conquered neighboring states, such as Spain, Italy, and Germany, crippling them socioeconomically. Due to Europe's fragmented nature, overtaking smaller countries was an easy, and Napoleon eventually ruled a vast majority of Europe by the end of 1812. -
Napoleon Invades Russia
To strike back at Czar Alexander I for not complying with his embargo against British merchants, Napoleon invaded Russia on June 24, 1812, taking 650,000 troops onto Russian land. However, due to a constant back-and-forth, the many months began to add up and the harsh winter set it. By October 19, thousands of French troops began to die off; by the end of the invasion, Napoleon returned home with nearly 1/10th of his army. Invading Russia was his costliest and most detrimental defeat. -
The Congress of Vienna Meets
To concert a long-term peace treaty and settle the problems arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, head delegates from across Europe came together to hash out a final decision. Eventually, this led to the resize of balanced powers within Europe and the loss of French control across all territorial conquests and growing countries took the left-over chunks of land. The Congress settled borders and power disputes, both of which still generally exist to this day. -
Napoleon Defeated at Waterloo
Near present-day Belgium, Napoleon had attempted an assault and Invasion of Waterloo after his return from exile (known as the Hundred Day's Reign). At the hands of the Duke of Wellington and the seminal weather leading to months of detrimental rainfall, Napoleon suffered a final, critical defeat, ending both the Napoleonic Era and all chances of Napoleon's return to power. -
