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Third Estate becomes the National Assembly and swears the Tennis Court Oath
A pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General. They made a makeshift conference room inside a tennis court located in the Saint-Louis district of the city of Versailles, near the Palace of Versailles. -
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The French Revolution
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Parisians storm the Bastille
A group formed of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to the Invalides to steal some weapons. The mob stole 28,000 riffles there, however no powder was to be found. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it. At the time of the storming, the Bastille was only guarded by a few soldiers. The people took over the Bastille, and tore it down, brick by brick. -
Great Fear sweeps France
During the summer of 1789, rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring, and fueled by the rumours of an aristocrat "famine plot" to starve or burn out the population, peasant and town people mobilized in many regions. In response to rumours, fearful peasants armed themselves in self-defense and, in some areas, attacked manor houses. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen adopted
Once they had agreed on the necessity of drafting a declaration of rights, the deputies of the National Assembly still faced the daunting task of composing one that a majority could accept. They finally drafted a document in which appeared: freedom of religion, freedom of the press, no taxation without representation, elimination of excessive punishments, and various safeguards against arbitrary administration. -
Poor women of France march on Versailles
The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries who were seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. They marched on the royal palace in Versailles and forced the King and his family to move to Paris. -
Royal Family brought to Paris
When the revolutionaries, led by thousands of women, marched to Versailles, they triumphantly seized and then brought the king to Paris, where he would live in the midst of his people. Here this image attempts to maintain a perception of royal pomp and grandeur, ignoring the reality that the king was forced against his will. Still few could fully foresee the ultimate changes underway –– that the king had lost much of his sacred aura and was now headed toward an uncertain future. -
Constitution of 1791
After very long negotiations, the constitution was reluctantly accepted by King Louis XVI in September 1791. Redefining the organization of the French government, citizenship and the limits to the powers of government, the National Assembly set out to represent the interests of the general will. It abolished many “institutions which were injurious to liberty and equality of rights”. -
Royal Family attempts to flee France
A significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution at the head of loyal troops under royalist officers concentrated at Montmédy near the frontier. Their escape only led them as far as the small town of Varennes, where they were arrested after having been recognized at their previous stop in Sainte-Menehould. -
Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria
In France the public opinion was for war. Reactionaries and the monarchy wanted war because they thought that the new government would be easily defeated by foreign powers. This would pave the way for a return to the old regime, with Louis at the head of government. Revolutionaries wanted war because they thought war would unify the country, and had a genuine desire to spread the ideas of the Revolution to all of Europe. On April 20, 1792, the Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria. -
National Convention abolishes the monarchy and declares France a republic
The Legislative Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. The measure came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power. -
Louis XVI beheaded
The execution of Louis XVI, by means of the guillotine, took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution ("Revolution Square") in Paris. It was a major event of the French Revolution. Louis was arrested, interned in the Temple prison with his family, tried for high treason before the National Convention, convicted in a near-unanimous vote, and condemned to death by a slight majority. His execution made him the first victim of the reign of terror. -
Committee of Public Safety is created
The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous Committee of General Defence and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committee was given broad supervisory powers over military, judicial, and legislative efforts. -
Republic of Virtue established
A period marked by the ascendancy of Maximilien Robespierre. Many proponents of the Republic of Virtue developed their notion of civic virtue from the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The idea of the "Republic of Virtue" has associations with the de-Christianization of France during the French Revolution. The de-Christianization process involved the closing of churches, as well as selling many church buildings to the highest bidders. Many churches became store-houses for arms or grain. -
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Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with 16,594 executed by guillotine, and another 25,000 in summary executions across France. -
Robespierre beheaded
The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre. Robespierre tried to kill himself with a pistol but managed only to shatter his lower jaw, although some eyewitnesses claimed that Robespierre was shot by Charles-André Merda. For the remainder of the night, Robespierre was moved to a table in the room of the Committee of Public Safety where he awaited execution. The next day Robespierre was guillotined without trial in the Place de la Révolution. -
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Directory Takes Power
The period of the revolution under the governmnet of the Directory was an era of corruption and gaft. People reacted against the sufferings and sacrifices that had been demanded in the Reign of Terror. Some of them made fortunes in property by takong advantage of the government's severe money problems. -
Constitution of 1795
The Constitution of 1795 was a national constitution of France ratified by the National Convention on the 22nd of August 1795 during the French Revolution. It established the Directory, and remained in effect until the coup of 18 Brumaire effectively ended the Revolution and began the ascendancy of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Constitution established a liberal republic with a franchise based on the payment of taxes, a bicameral legislature, and a five-man directory.
