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Enlightenment Ideals Begin
Many ideas from philosophes surfaced and made the people of France think differently about government. -
Social Inequality
The people from the first two estates enjoyed many privileges. Though they had high income they paid very few taxes. The third estate people provided most of the revenue to the government. Middle class people were financially comfortable, but they wished to have more power. -
Bancrupcy of King & State
Many Expensive wars were faught and government revenue came only from third estate, which angered them. Eventually, the third estate could not pay the taxes and the government began to fall deeper and deeper into bancrupcy. -
Estates General Meets
Government officials all met together, where the first and seccond estate would always vote against the third estate. -
National Assembly Forms
After being locked out of the Estates General meeting, the third estate representatives decided to form their own sepreate group called the National Assembly. -
Storming of the Bastille
People from france stormed the medieval fortress and took it down with their bare hands. It was a symbol of the abuses of the monarchy and its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
Women's March of 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 involved with the activities of revolutionaries. -
Fight to Varennes
King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution. They escaped as far as Varennes but were then arrested. -
Declaration of War on Austria & Prussia
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. At first, the French were losing terribly and then ended up winning as their army got stronger. -
Abolition of Monarchy
The National Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. This came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power. -
Execution of Louis XVI
Louis was arrested, jailed 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. -
The Reign of Terror Begins
This was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, started by conflict between two 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. -
Execution of Marie Antoinette
Nine months after the execution of her husband, the former King Louis XVI of France, Marie-Antoinette follows him to the guillotine, condemned for treason. -
Execution of Robespierre
As the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre encouraged the execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the Revolution. The day after his arrest, Robespierre and 21 of his followers were guillotined before a cheering mob in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. Many refer to this as the end of the Reign of Terror. -
Napoleon Bonaparte Crowns Himself Empereor
After rising through the ranks of the military and gaiing power, Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France -
France Invades Russia
France loses war against Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates the throne and is Exilied to the island of Elba.
