This is a period of time where social and political upheaval occur in France. This period of time also has a lasting impact on the French history.
The Enlightenment is a movement where intellectuals used reason and challenged tradition and faith through the scientific method. Contributions were made from thinkers such as Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Montesquieu etc. The movement worked towards promoting scientific thought and reason.
France loses the Seven Years War in North America and the cost of the war leaves France with heavy debts which they struggle to pay off.
18 year old Louis XVI ascends the throne after the death of his grandfather Louis XV. His father died before he could ascend the throne, therefore the weight of the crown falls on Young Louis' shoulders.
America started fighting against Britain since they wanted independence and France saw this as an opportunity to get revenge and allied with American forces to fight against Great Britain.
The American War of Independence escalates pulling other nations into the battle. France and Britain declare war on one another.
People never really liked Marie Antoinette. She spent so much money even though France was in an economic crisis, her vast amounts of spending added to the debt. The diamond necklace affair wasn’t actually her fault but people hated her even more after the incident.
France's economy is not in a good state and Louis is being convinced to call the Estates-General to come up with a new tax plan.
Louis XVI calls a meeting with the Estates General to vote and discuss on a new tax plan.
The vote between the estates is always a vote by block where each estate gets one vote. This is unfair for the third estate since the first and second estates have similar ideas and vote against them. Therefore the third estate wants to vote by head, giving them an advantage since they are 98% of France's population. They name themselves the National Assembly. Yet when on the day to vote, they find their conference room locked against them and gather in an indoor tennis court to sign an oath that they won't disband until a constitution is drawn up for France.
Necker is dismissed for deciding not to attend Louis XVI's speech to the Estates-General. The people of France are incredibly angry at his dismissal and rumors spark up about the king planning to attack Paris and arrest the deputies. This leads to the storming of the Bastille.
The people of France were determined and armed themselves by storming into fortress. The Bastille had more arms and rumored hoards of political prisons. They stormed the Bastille but there were only 7 prisoners and no arms for them to take. The Bastille was a symbol of the king's absolute power so the invasion symbolized the king's inability to maintain absolute power. It caused the revolution to gain momentum.
The declaration was issued by the national assembly and it is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and the history of human rights. These rights applied to those with citizenship and owning property (the bourgeoisie). It said nothing about women and nothing on the aspect of slavery either.
Angry mobs of women from Paris invaded Versailles and ordered the royal family to move into Paris. A closer eye could then b kept on the royal family. The family were considered prisoners in the city. Versailles was looted and partly burned.
The legal statuses of nobility were abolished since it was one of the fundamental remaining aspects of feudalism in the old regime.
Act that the National Assembly passed that would nationalize the church land. A new currency "assignats" were introduced with the backing of the vast amounts of land. The clergy were also required to sign an oath of loyalty to the constitution, making them employees of the state.
Bread had already risen 90% and many found themselves working to only keep bread on the table. There were food riots because of the inflation of the price of food due to the continuous debts of France.
It's the first written constitution of France created after the collapse of the old regime that adopted constitutionality and popular sovereignty.
The king has allies outside of France that want him to take back his throne for fear of the revolution spreading into other European countries. The royal family tries to escape but is recognized at the town of Varennes and is forced back to Paris. The people feel that their king is a traitor to their country.
The Jacobins held a demonstration on the Champ De Mars to gain signatures for their petition. The National Guard soldiers opened fire on the crowd killing at least fifty. To some the massacre was counterrevolutionary of the loyalists.
The king has no choice but to sign the constitution making a France a Constitutional Monarchy which was stripping the king's power little by little.
France wages war against Austria and Prussia joins Austria in the war against France.
Paris Commune stormed Tuileries Palace, massacring the Swiss Guards, and arresting the King. It holds major significance to the French Revolution and was one of the bloodiest movements during the revolution, calling for more of a need for change.
During this time in the French Revolution, mobs of angry citizens of Paris attacked the prisons of Pairs and massacred the prisoners. Approximately 1200 of the prisoners were dead, which was half of Pairs' prison population.
Abolition of the monarchy was a direct consequence of the storming of the Tuileries Palace. France was declared a republic and the date was later adopted as day one of the French republican calendar.
Louis XVI is beheaded for conspiracy with foreign powers. He was sentenced to death on a narrow vote of one which ended his life by the guillotine.
Girodins had a more moderate view on the revolution than the Jacobins. Robespierre claimed that the Girodins were a threat to the republic and had 22 of their leaders arrested.
A young girl by the name of Charlotte Corday goes to France seeking an audience with Marat claiming that she has a list of counter-revolutionists. Instead she stabs him while he is in his bathtub and within moments, Marat is dead.
Charlotte Corday does not deny murder but people suspect she was working for an organization but she denies and says she was acting on her own. She thought by murdering Marat, who was one of the extremists running the revolution, would end the Reign of Terror.
Maximillien Robbespierre starts the reign of terror where whoever opposed his idealism was murdered. 25000 people were killed because of their political veiws through the use of the guilloteen, the firing squad, canon and drowing en mass.
French calendar was introduced to de-Christianize the calendar to follow in the revolution to promote reason instead of religion.
22 of the Girodons leaders that were arrested and under house arrest are ordered to be executed.
This was the official rejection of religion. The cult was made up of mostly atheist and human centric philosophical views.
It was intended to be a state religion for France. The primary principle was the belief in the existence of a god and the immortality of the human soul.
At another round of purges at the convention, Maximillien announces that he has another list of traitors but doesn't announce the names. Members of the convention fearing that their names may be on the list shout him down and have him arrested. He is executed along with more than 80 of his followers.
A new constitution proposed, dismantling the laws that lead to the reign of terror. The new constitution is aimed for the country to regain order and stability. The directory is also established.
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