Meeting of the Estates General :
The Estates General is called to other by King Louis XVI to solve the financial crisis. There were three classes in theEstates General: the nobles, clergy and the peasantry. Each estate had only one vote. As a result, the nobility and clergy could always overrule the Third Estate. Fearing they would be forced to bear the brunt of the financial crisis, the Third Estate formed their own National Assembly. After being locked out of the meeting of the Estates General, they moved to an indoor tennis court where they pledged the Tennis Court Oath. Storming of the Bastille : The storming of the Bastille was an important milestone during the french revolution, for the Bastille represented the tyranny of the previous french monarchy. The media of the time exaggerated how bad the Bastille was, going so far as to use parts of a printing press and old armour as supposed examples of ‘torture equipment’ March on Versailles : Many people in Paris and the rest of France were hungry, unemployed and restless. In October, a large crowd of protesters, mostly women, marched to Versailles. Believing that the royal family had a lot of food there. They demanded that the royal family had to return to paris to live ‘among the people.’ Flight to Varennes : National assembly continues to work on the new constitution, they institute limits on the king’s authority. Royal family flees to Austria however they are captured when they reach the town of Varennes when someone recognised them. They are dragged back to Paris were the general consensus is that they do not support the revolution. Dissolution of the National Assembly : The national assembly is dissolved and replaced by the legislative assembly. However the legislative assembly is formed from new members with not a single National Assembly member being included. Therefore no one in the new assembly has any political experience. New assembly is formed of various political factions ranging from moderate and royalists to radicals and republicans. War : Other nations become afraid of this new Revolutionary france, afraid that it will spread to the rest of Europe the monarchs of Austria and Britain declare war on France, hoping to establish the king who is their relative. Attack on the Tuileries Palace : When Prussia and France begin to invade France. King is viewed as a traitor for trying to flee the country. The Legislative assembly is becoming more and more radical. On August ten a crowd of twenty thousand people attack the Palace. The Royal family escape and place themselves under the protection of the Assembly. Assembly places them under arrest. Revolution becomes more and more radical and the guillotine becomes more and more used. Over the next month, hundreds of suspected royalists are executed. Declaration of the Republic and the Trial of Louis : The king is charged with treason. He is driven through the streets of Paris and then executed by guillotine. His wife, the Marie Antoinette has a short trial afterwards. She is accused of numerous crimes most of them based on hearsay and rumour. She is executed the same day as her trial. Reign of Terror : Maximilian Robespierre comes to dominate the committee of public safety and begins the reign of terror. His goal is to rid the nation of it’s enemies and to protect it’s virtues. From September 1793 to July 1794, an estimated 16,000 people were guillotined. Radicals, Moderates and others are executed. Many leaders of the French Revolution are now dead or fled from the Republic. On July 27, 1794, Robespierre was arrested. He was guillotined the following day. Directory and the Rise of Napoleon : After the fall of Robespierre, the National Convention created a new constitution for France that was put into motion in 1795. Leading the new government was the Directory which consisted of a council of five people. From the start, the Directory was full of corruption, political conflict, financial problems and depends on the army to remain in power. In 1799, a successful military commander named Napoleon Bonaparte returns from an expedition in Egypt and establishes the Consulate and himself as the First Consul. |