The following is a timeline of the French Revolution.

French Revolution
The execution of Louis XVI on the Place de la Révolution (now Place de la Concorde) (January 21, 1793)
Date1789–1799
LocationFrance
ParticipantsFrench society
Outcome
Louis XVI in 1777

1787 – The royal treasury is empty; aristocracy demands sweeping reform

The Assembly of Notables meets at Versailles in February 1787.
Étienne Charles de Brienne, minister of finance 1787-88

Background: French finance minister Charles Alexandre de Calonne has revealed to King Louis XVI that the royal government can no longer service its enormous debt load, acquired during two wars (including the American Revolutionary War) and other lavish spending. In December 1786, at Calonne's behest, Louis calls an Assembly of Notables to approve a new round of taxes.

The Estates-General consists of the First, Second and Third Estates, comprising respectively the clergy, nobility, and commoners, and they have not convened in 275 years. Louis, who is 43 years old and has been on the throne for 14 years, is accustomed to ruling without a legislature, and refuses the demand.

1788 – Power struggle between king and courts

Day of the Tiles in Grenoble, June 7, 1788
Jacques Necker, Comptroller-General 1788-90

1789 – The Revolution Begins; the Estates-General and the Constituent Assembly

Important representatives
from the Third Estate
The King opens the meeting of the Estates-General (May 5, 1789)
The Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789), by Couder
Cartoon showing the Third Estate carrying the weight of the clergy and the nobility (1789); protected game animals eat the farmer's precious seeds

January

February
March
April

May

June

July

July 14 – The Siege and Surrender of the Bastille

Important representatives
from the Third Estate

August – Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

October 6 – Women's March on Versailles

The Women's March on Versailles (October 5–6, 1789)

1790 – Rise of the political clubs

Meeting of the National Assembly (February 4, 1790)

July 14 – Fête de la Fédération

Fête de la Fédération (July 14, 1790)

1791 – The unsuccessful flight of the Royal Family from Paris

The comte de Mirabeau (1791)
Title page of Paine's Rights of Man

June 20–21 – The Royal Family flees Paris

The King and his family are recognized and arrested at Varennes (June 21, 1791)
King Louis XVI is returned to Paris after his attempted flight (June 25, 1791)
The National Guard fires on demonstrators in the Champ de Mars (July 17, 1791)

1792 – War and the overthrow of the monarchy

Slave uprising in Haiti, 1791
The king is forced to wear a Phrygian cap and drink a toast to the Nation (June 20, 1792)

August 10 – Storming of the Tuileries; Downfall of the King

Sans-Culottes take possession of the Tuileries Palace and massacre the Swiss Guards (August 10, 1792)

September 2–7 – Massacres in Paris prisons

Massacre of prisoners in Paris prisons (September 2–7, 1792)

September 20 – French victory at Valmy; Debut of the Convention

French victory over the Prussians at the Battle of Valmy (September 29, 1792)

December 10, 1792-January 21, 1793 – Trial and Execution of Louis XVI

The execution of Louis XVI (January 21, 1793)

1793 – France at war against Europe; The Jacobins seize power; The Terror begins

The Revolutionary Tribunal at work in 1793

. On Monday, 21 January, Louis XVI, at age 38, was beheaded by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution.

Uprising in the Vendée

April 6–May 30 - Committee on Public Safety takes control of government

The triumph of Marat after his release from arrest

May 31-June 2 – The Jacobin Coup d'État

Sans-culottes threaten deputy Lanjuinais, on the podium during the takeover of the Convention (June 2, 1793)

July 13 – Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday

Charlotte Corday is apprehended immediately upon stabbing Jean-Paul Marat to death in his bath tub.

September 17 – The Reign of Terror begins

October 16 – The execution of Marie-Antoinette

Marie-Antoinette in the Temple Prison (1793)

1794 – The fury of the Terror, the Cult of the Supreme Being, and the Downfall of Robespierre

March 30 – The arrest and trial of Danton and Desmoulins

June 8 – Festival of the Supreme Being; Acceleration of the Terror

July 26–28 – Arrest and execution of Robespierre; End of the Terror

Main articles: Thermidorian Reaction and Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

1795 – The Directory Replaces the Convention

General Pichegru, leader of the royalist party
Two Muscadins in Paris (1795)
Paul Barras in the ceremonial dress of a French Director

May 20–24 – Last Paris uprising by the Jacobins and sans-culottes

June 25-July 27 – Renewed uprisings in the Vendée and a royalist invasion of Brittany

August 22-September 23 – The new Constitution is approved: the Directory takes power

October 5 – "A whiff of grapeshot": General Bonaparte suppresses a royalist rebellion in Paris

1796 – Napoleon's campaign in Italy; Defeat of the royalists in the Vendée; a failed uprising in Paris

The capture of François de Charette, the royalist leader in the Vendée (February 23, 1796)
General Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Lodi (May 10, 1796)
Failed uprising at the Grenelle military camp by Montagnards and followers of Babeuf (9 September 1796)
General Bonaparte leads his soldiers across a bridge at the Battle of Arcole (November 15–17, 1796)

1797 – Bonaparte chases the Austrians from Italy; a republican coup d'état against the royalists in Paris

September 4 – A republican coup d'état against the royalists

1798 – New republics in Switzerland and Italy; an election annulled; Bonaparte invades Egypt

1799 – France at War in Italy and Germany; Bonaparte returns from Egypt; the Consulate seizes power; End of the Revolution

Conflicts between the Directory and the Legislature (June 1799)

Bonaparte returns to France (October 9, 1799)

The Coup d'État of November 9–10

Bonaparte confronts the deputies of the Council of Five Hundred (November 10, 1799)

See also

References

Notes and CItations

  1. ^ Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard, Alfred Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française, Robert Laffont,
  2. ^ Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard, Alfred Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française, Robert Laffont, Paris, 1998. (In French)
  3. ^ Tulard, Fayard and Fierro, p. 318.
  4. ^ Tulard, Fayard, and Fierro 1998, p. 79.
  5. ^ a b Tulard, Fayard, Fierro 1998, p. 339.
  6. ^ Ghachem, Malick W. The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
  7. ^ Mignet, François (1834). "History of the French Revolution, from 1789 to 1814". Retrieved October 16, 2016. [H]e thought he ought not to reject a symbol, meaningless for him, but in the eyes of the people, that of liberty; he placed on his head a red cap presented to him on the top of a pike. The multitude were quite satisfied with this condescension. A moment or two afterwards, they loaded him with applause, as, almost suffocated with hunger and thirst, he drank off, without hesitation, a glass of wine presented to him[.]
  8. ^ Tulard, Fayard, Fierro 1996, pp. 1094–1095.
  9. ^ Howe, Foreign Policy and the French Revolution, Springer, 2008, p. 113.
  10. ^ Cited in Tulard, Fayard and Fierro, Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française (1998), p. 1113
  11. ^ Koch, Christophe-Guillaume, Histoire abrégée des traités de paix entre les puissances de l'Europe, depuis la Paix de Westphalie, Tome I, Méline, Cans & Compagnie, Bruxelles, 1857, p. 550. [1] (French)
  12. ^ Tulard, Fayard, Fierro 1998, p. 367.
  13. ^ Tulard, Fayard, Fierro 1998, p. 369.
  14. ^ Ministère de l'Intérieur: Police nationale, République française, Histoire, section La Révolution française (1789-1799)[2], (French)
  15. ^ Traité de Réunion de la République de Genève à la France, 26 April 1798.[3] (In French)
  16. ^ Thiers, Adolphe, Histoire de la Révolution française, 1839 (Ninth edition), Volume 10, Chapter XIII, Project Gutenberg digital edition
  17. ^ Tulard, Fayard and Fierro, p. 410.

Bibliography

Print – English

Print – French

Web

online

* Revolution Category:France-related lists