French Revolution
The upheaval that ended the French monarchy and remade the state, 1789-1799.
Category: Society
- 1788Louis XVI convokes the Estates General for 1789
Faced with a fiscal crisis after the failure of reforms in 1787, Louis XVI called the Estates General, which had not met since 1614, as a last attempt to approve new taxes.
- May 5, 1789The Estates General opens at Versailles
Representatives of the clergy, nobility and Third Estate met at Versailles for the first time in 175 years. A dispute over voting by order or by head quickly paralysed the assembly.
- June 17, 1789The Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly
Deputies of the Third Estate, joined by some clergy, proclaimed themselves the National Assembly, claiming to represent the French nation and challenging the king's and nobility's authority.
- June 20, 1789Tennis Court Oath at Versailles
Locked out of their meeting hall, members of the National Assembly gathered in a nearby tennis court and swore not to disperse until France had a constitution.
- July 14, 1789Parisians storm the Bastille
A Paris crowd seized the royal fortress-prison of the Bastille in search of arms, an uprising that came to symbolise the start of the French Revolution and the collapse of royal authority in the capital.
- August 4, 1789National Assembly votes to abolish feudal privileges
After the Great Fear peasant revolts, the Assembly voted on the night of 4 August to end seigneurial rights, tithes, tax exemptions and venal offices; the decrees were issued between 4 and 11 August.
- August 26, 1789Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The National Assembly adopted a charter of liberty, equality before the law and national sovereignty, which became a foundation text of modern human-rights and constitutional thought.
- October 5, 1789Parisian women march on Versailles; the royal family is taken to Paris
A crowd of Parisian women, followed by the National Guard, marched on Versailles over bread prices and forced Louis XVI and his family to move to the Tuileries in Paris.
- July 12, 1790Civil Constitution of the Clergy
The National Assembly made French priests and bishops elected, salaried state officials, splitting the clergy and Catholics between oath-takers and refusers and deepening opposition to the Revolution.
- October 1790Vincent Ogé leads a revolt of free people of color in Saint-Domingue
In October 1790 Vincent Ogé, a free man of color back from Paris, rises in the north of Saint-Domingue to demand equal political rights. He is defeated, handed over by the Spanish and executed at Le Cap in March 1791.
- June 1791Louis XVI and his family flee Paris and are caught at Varennes
The royal family tried to escape Paris by night to reach royalist troops, but were recognised and arrested at Varennes and brought back, destroying much public trust in the king. The flight began on the night of 20-21 June.
- September 3, 1791France adopts its first written constitution
The National Assembly adopted the Constitution of 1791, creating a constitutional monarchy with an elected Legislative Assembly and a suspensive royal veto. It took effect on 14 September.
- April 4, 1792France's Legislative Assembly grants equal rights to free people of color
The decree of 4 April 1792 gives free men of color in the colonies full political and civil equality with whites. It is sent to Saint-Domingue with commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel and 6,000 troops.
- April 20, 1792France declares war on Austria, opening the Revolutionary Wars
The Legislative Assembly voted for war against Austria on the proposal of Louis XVI's ministers, starting the French Revolutionary Wars that would last until the Napoleonic era.
- August 10, 1792Insurrection of 10 August: the Tuileries Palace is stormed
Armed Parisians and provincial volunteers stormed the Tuileries; the royal family took refuge in the Legislative Assembly, which suspended Louis XVI, effectively ending the monarchy.
- September 20, 1792French army halts the Prussians at Valmy
French forces under Kellermann and Dumouriez stopped a Prussian army led by the Duke of Brunswick in Champagne, the first major French success of the Revolutionary Wars and a boost to the new regime.
- September 22, 1792The National Convention abolishes the monarchy; the First French Republic is proclaimed
The newly elected National Convention ended royal rule in France, a day after the victory at Valmy. The Republic was proclaimed on 22 September 1792.
- 1793 – July 27, 1794The Reign of Terror
Under the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre, the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Law of Suspects (17 September 1793) sent many thousands to prison and the guillotine. Historians date its start variously from March to September 1793; it ended 27 July 1794.
- January 21, 1793Louis XVI is guillotined in Paris
Convicted by the National Convention, which voted for death by a one-vote majority on 20 January, Louis XVI was executed on the guillotine at the Place de la Révolution.
- April 6, 1793Committee of Public Safety established
The National Convention created the Committee of Public Safety, which became the de facto wartime government of France and directed the Reign of Terror.
- August 1793Sonthonax proclaims the abolition of slavery in northern Saint-Domingue
Civil commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, facing revolt and foreign invasion, decrees the end of slavery in the north of Saint-Domingue in August 1793 without Paris's approval. Polverel soon does the same in the south and west.
- February 4, 1794The French National Convention abolishes slavery in all French colonies
On 4 February 1794 the Convention in Paris confirms emancipation across France's colonies, making formerly enslaved people citizens. It is the first abolition of slavery by a major colonial power.
- May 1794Toussaint Louverture leaves the Spanish side and rallies to the French Republic
In May 1794, after the Convention's abolition decree, Toussaint Louverture turns his forces against Spain and Britain and joins France's side in Saint-Domingue. He rises to become the colony's leading general.
- July 27, 1794Robespierre is overthrown on 9 Thermidor and executed
The National Convention turned on Maximilien Robespierre and his allies, arresting them on 27 July 1794; they were guillotined the next day, ending the Terror.
- July 22, 1795Treaty of Basel: Spain cedes Santo Domingo to France
On 22 July 1795 Spain makes peace with the French Republic and gives up the eastern part of Hispaniola in exchange for the Spanish territory France had occupied. The handover is delayed for years.
- October 26, 1795 – November 9, 1799The Directory takes power in France
Under the Constitution of Year III, a five-man executive called the Directory replaced the Convention's committees. It governed amid war, inflation and instability until 1799.
- April 1796 – 1797Bonaparte's first Italian campaign against Austria and Piedmont
Commanding the French Army of Italy, Bonaparte began a campaign in Italy in April 1796 (the Montenotte campaign) during the Revolutionary Wars, the first major step in his rise.
- 1798Revolutionary France annexes the Republic of Geneva
In 1798, under economic and political pressure, Geneva's government asks for annexation, and the French Directory annexes the city and its territory. This ends the independent Republic of Geneva.
- 1798 – 1799Bonaparte invades Egypt and Syria
A French army under Bonaparte invaded Ottoman Egypt in 1798, fighting the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July. The army was cut off from France after the British naval victory at the Nile in August.
- November 9, 1799Napoleon Bonaparte overthrows the Directory (18 Brumaire)
General Napoleon Bonaparte and conspirators dissolved the Directory in a coup and set up the Consulate, with Bonaparte as First Consul, ending the Revolution's republican phase.