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Convocation of the Estates General
May 1789, Meeting of the three estates of France. (Three major social classes of France.) First estate was the clergy, 0.5% of the population. Second estate was the nobility 1.5% of the population. Third estate is everyone else which is 98% of the population. -
Tennis Court Oath
June 1789 The Third Estate was locked out of the meeting room as preparations were being made for a royal session of all three estates. Confused and angry, they met instead at an indoor tennis court on the palace grounds and signed an oath not to disband until they had drawn up a new, fair constitution for France. -
Storming of the Bastille
July 14 1789, People were going hungry and those in Paris said the king would try to suppress them again and so they should arm themselves. Thus causing them to storm Bastille. There was a major arms cache there, and so by storming Bastille and getting weapons they could fend of any threat the king and troops would have. This was really the starting point of the French Revolution. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
August 1789, Third estates equivalent of the Declaration of Independence. It essentially put everything into question like what is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It wasn’t a constitution, it was really just a statement of the things that they think need to govern any type of constitution or country, or the ideas that any country should be based on. -
Women’s March
October 1789, Rumors spread that Marie Antoinette, the King’s wife,was hoarding grain at the Versailles palace. Many people were angered by the thought of this, because this was a time where people couldn’t get their bread and it was a main thing in their diets. All this caused a march of armed peasant women onto versailles, actually storming inside demanding that the king and queen move to paris.They met the demands of the women and moved to paris where they couldn't do things like hoard grain. -
Champ de Mars Massacre
July 1791, People started gathering over in Champ-de-Mars and things got a little ugly. Troops controlled by the national assembly were sent in to calm everyone, but rocks were thrown at some of the troops, causing some troops to first start firing into the air causing things to get even more hectic in which they then started shooting into the crowd. About 50 people had died by this causing a massacre, the Champ de Mars massacre. -
Constitution of 1791
August 1791, The national assembly create a constitution establishing france as a constitutional monarchy. It basically said that they would still have a king yet he would just remain as a sort of figurehead not necessarily someone who could create laws, because the national assembly would be responsible for that. Most of the king's power would be removed but he would get few abilities to veto legislation and whatnot. -
King’s Execution
January 1793, King is imprisoned while they’re at war with other countries that have intentions of having the King gain back power. So they execute the King. He was guillotined, which was a ‘more humane’ way of killing people by quickly chopping off their head. -
Committee of Public Safety
April 1793, The national assembly created the Committee of Public safety. Essentially this committee of public safety becomes the default government or de facto government and was put in the control of Maximilien Robespierre. Under his control he was extremely paranoid and executed many people, causing the start of the reign of terror. -
End of the Reign of Terror
July 1974, People really get sick of Maximilien Robespierre and he too meets the end so many people faced at his simple order and is guillotined.
