The Course of the French Revolution
|
1787 |
Feb. 22 |
The First Assembly of Notables (Calonne’s) |
|
1788 |
Aug. 8 |
Decision to call the Estates-General |
|
Aug. 25 |
Necker returns to the government |
|
|
Sept. 25 |
The Paris Parlement rules that the Estates-General be constituted as in 1614 |
|
|
Nov. 6 |
The Second Assembly of Notables |
|
|
Dec. 17 |
The Royal council decides to double the Third Estate |
|
|
1789 |
March |
Elections to the Estates General |
|
March - April |
Peasants revolt in several provinces |
|
|
April 27 - 28 |
The Reveillon riots in Paris |
|
|
May 5 |
The Estates-General open at Versailles |
|
|
June 17 |
The Third Estate adopts the title of National Assembly |
|
|
June 19 |
A majority of the clergy votes to join with the Third Estate |
|
|
June 20 |
The "Tennis-Court Oath" |
|
|
June 23 |
The King formally rejects the demands of the Assembly |
|
|
June 27 |
The King commands the First and Second Estates to join with the Third Estate |
|
|
July 9 |
The Assembly renames itself the Constituent Assembly |
|
|
July 11 |
Necker is dismissed |
|
|
July 14 |
Storming of the Bastille |
|
|
July 15 - 31 |
Revolts in the major towns of France |
|
|
July 16 |
Necker returns |
|
|
July 20 - Aug. 6 |
The worst part of the "Great Fear" |
|
|
July 22 |
The murder of the Intendant of Paris, Berthier de Sauvigny |
|
|
Aug. 4 - 11 |
The Assembly abolishes "feudalism" |
|
|
Aug. 26 |
The Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen |
|
|
Sept. 11 |
The Assembly votes to grant a suspensive veto to the King |
|
|
Oct. 5 - 6 |
The "October Days", resulting in the removal of the King and National Assembly from Versailles to Paris |
|
|
Oct. 10 |
Louis XVI is declared "King of the French", no longer "King of France" |
|
|
Oct. 29 |
A decree creates the distinction between "active" and "passive" citizens |
|
|
Nov. 2 |
The state takes over the property of the Church |
|
|
Dec. 19 |
The first assignats are issued |
|
|
1790 |
Jan. 28 |
Full legal and political equality is granted to the Jews |
|
Feb. 13 |
Monastic vows are suppressed along with most religious orders |
|
|
June 19 - 23 |
Hereditary nobility is abolished |
|
|
July 12 |
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is decreed |
|
|
July 14 |
The first official celebration of Bastille Day |
|
|
Oct. 26 |
The King authorizes secret overtures to foreign courts on possible intervention |
|
|
1791 |
Jan. 3 |
All civil servants, including priests, are required to take an oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy |
|
March 2 |
Guilds and monopolies are officially abolished |
|
|
March 11,
|
The Pope denounces the Civil Constitution of the Clergy |
|
|
June 17 |
The Le Chapelier Law restricts the right of association, in practice especially workingmen’s associations |
|
|
June 20 |
The royal family's attempted flight, stopped at Varennes |
|
|
July 16 |
The Feuillants separate from the Jacobins |
|
|
July 17 |
The Massacre of the Champs de Mars |
|
|
Sept. 13 |
The King formally accepts the Constitution |
|
|
Oct. 1 |
The Legislative Assembly, elected by restricted suffrage, meets for the first time |
|
|
Nov. 9 |
Decree of the Assembly on émigrés, vetoed by the King |
|
|
Nov. 29 |
Decree of the Assembly on non-juring priests, vetoed by the King |
|
|
Dec. 7 |
A Feuillant ministry is formed |
|
|
1792 |
Feb. 9 |
The property of émigrés is declared forfeit |
|
March 10 - 23 |
The Assembly forces a new, Brissotin (Girondin) ministry on the King |
|
|
April 20 |
France declares war on Austria |
|
|
June 12 |
The King dismisses the Brissotin (Girondin) ministry |
|
|
June 20 |
A mob invades the Tuileries Palace |
|
|
July 21 |
Proclamation that the country is in danger |
|
|
Aug. 3 |
A petition of the Paris sections demands that the King be deposed |
|
|
Aug. 9 - 10 |
A "revolutionary commune" takes over as the government of Paris, the Tuileries are stormed and the King is suspended from his functions |
|
|
Sept. 2 - 16 |
The September massacres |
|
|
Sept. 20 |
The battle of Valmy, the first victory of the French revolutionary army over the invading Prussians |
|
|
Sept. 21 |
The Convention (elected by universal and direct manhood suffrage to replace the Legislative Assembly) abolishes the monarchy by unanimous vote at its first public session |
|
|
Sept. 22 |
Start of Year I of the Republic |
|
|
Oct. - Nov. |
French armies carry the war outside French frontiers into German and Belgian (Austrian) territories |
|
|
1793 |
Jan. 21 |
King Louis XVI is executed |
|
Feb. - March |
War is declared on Britain, Holland and Spain (over the next two years the fortunes of war swing back and forth) |
|
|
March 10 |
The Revolutionary Tribunal is established |
|
|
March 11 |
The rebellion in the Vendée starts |
|
|
March - April |
The Committee of Public Safety is created |
|
|
April 5 |
General Dumouriez, leader of the French Republican armies, deserts to the enemy |
|
|
May 4 |
The Law of the Maximum on grain prices |
|
|
May 31 - June 2 |
Purge of the "Girondins" from the Convention |
|
|
June 24 |
The Constitution of 1793 is adopted (but not put into effect) |
|
|
July 26 |
Hoarding is made a capital crime |
|
|
Aug. 1 |
The metric system is adopted |
|
|
Aug. 23 |
Decree of the levée en masse |
|
|
Sept. 5 |
Insurrection in Paris forces radicalization of the government's program and wider terror |
|
|
Sept. 22 |
Start of Year II of the revolutionary calendar |
|
|
Sept. 29 |
General Maximum on prices and wages |
|
|
Oct. |
Beginning of de-Christianization |
|
|
Oct. 16 |
Queen Marie Antoinette is executed |
|
|
Oct. 24 - 31 |
Trial and execution of the "Girondin" leaders |
|
|
Dec. 23 |
End of the war in the Vendée |
|
|
1794 |
Feb. 4 |
Slavery is abolished in the French colonies |
|
March 14 - 24 |
Arrest, trial and execution of the "Hébertists" |
|
|
March 30 -
|
Arrest, trial and execution of the "Dantonists" |
|
|
June 8 |
The Festival of the Supreme Being (20 Prairial) |
|
|
June 10 |
The Great Terror begins |
|
|
July 27 |
Denunciation of Robespierre and his associates (9 Thermidor), who are executed the next day |
|
|
Sept. 21 |
Suspension of the Maximum (abolished December 24) |
|
|
Sept. 22 |
Start of Year III of the revolutionary calendar |
|
|
Nov. 12 |
Closing of the Jacobin Club |
|
|
1795 |
April 1,
|
Unsuccessful insurrections by sans-culottes (12 Germinal and 1-4 Prairial), ending in the disarming of the Paris Sections by the army |
|
April - July |
Peace is signed with Prussia, Holland and Spain |
|
|
Aug. 22 |
The Constitution of the Year III is adopted |
|
|
Oct. 1 |
Belgium is annexed to France |
|
|
Oct. 5 |
Bonaparte's "whiff of grapeshot" puts down a royalist attack on the Convention |
|
|
Oct. 26 |
The Directory is inaugurated, the Convention disperses, and the Place de la Révolution is renamed the Place de la Concorde |
|
|
1796 |
March |
The insurrection in the Vendée and Brittany is finally suppressed |
|
April |
Start of Bonaparte's victorious campaigns in Italy, which last through October 1797 |
|
|
May 10 |
Arrest of the socialist Gracchus Babeuf (executed in May 1797) |
|
|
1797 |
March - April |
Elections register royalist gains |
|
May |
Start of Bonaparte's campaigns in Egypt and the Middle East, which last through October 1799 |
|
|
May 27 |
Execution of the socialist Gracchus Babeuf |
|
|
Sept. 4 |
Coup of 18 Fructidor, Year V, purges the legislature of supposed royalists |
|
|
1798 |
March - April |
Elections in which the Jacobins do unexpectedly well |
|
May 11 |
Coup of 22 Floréal, Year 6, against the Jacobins |
|
|
1799 |
Nov. 9 |
Bonaparte's coup d'état of 18 Brumaire overthrows the Directory and establishes him as First Consul; effective end of the Republic |
|
1802 |
Aug. 2 |
Napoleon makes himself Consul for life |
|
1804 |
May 18 |
Napoleon makes himself Emperor |