The French Revolution, a period of radical political and societal transformation in France that spanned a decade from 1789 to 1799, indelibly shaped the trajectory of modern history. This seismic event, beginning with the financial crisis of the Bourbon monarchy and ending with Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup of 18 Brumaire, was driven by socio-economic inequities, Enlightenment ideas, and widespread famine.
Its profound legacy has been a continuous source of study and interpretation, serving as a critical touchstone for discussions on liberty, equality, and fraternity — the fundamental principles that still inform democratic ideals today, not to mention the French Revolution fostered the rise of a middle-class society.
Table of Contents
I. Lead-Up: 1786-1789
August 20, 1786: Calonne presents to Louis XVI his Précis sur l’administration des finances, which proposes an audacious program of administrative and fiscal reforms inspired by that of Turgot. It includes the creation of the territorial subvention, land tax payable by the nobility and the clergy, conversion of the corvée (essentially a forced labor tax) into a tax in cash, abolition of internal customs, freedom of trade in grain, creation of provincial and municipal assemblies elected by suffrage censitaire without distinction of order.
November 29, 1786: King Louis XVI convenes the Assembly of Notables to meet in 1787, primarily to present Calonne’s financial reform program.
February 22-May 25, 1787: The convocation of the Assembly of Notables by the king and his chief minister Calonne — the first meeting of the Assembly of Notables since 1626. Calonne’s plan to get his reform scheme the go-ahead from the Assembly of Notables fails, due to a combo of distrust of Calonne and the fact that the Assembly of Notables doesn’t represent France, and therefore cannot legislate any fiscal reforms and taxation — only the Estates-General, the Assembly says, can do that.
February 19, 1788: Creation of the Society of Friends of Blacks by journalist and revolutionary Brissot, which advocates for the abolition of slavery in French colonies.
May 3, 1788: The Parlement of Paris, feeling threatened with suppression by the royal government, takes the lead and by a decree, spearheaded by Jean-Jacques Duval d’Eprémesnil, which spells out what the Parlement saw as the fundamental laws of the realm, emphasizing “the right of the Nation freely to grant subsidies through the organ of the Estates-General regularly convoked and composed,” plus the right of the parlements to register new laws, and the freedom of all Frenchmen from enduring arbitrary arrest (e.g., lettres de cachet); the message also emphasizes the importance of intermediate bodies linked to the society of orders (or estates) as the essential character of the monarchical constitution. This view of the fundamental laws of the realm is in opposition to the ideals of absolutism.
May 5-6, 1788: The Marquis d’Agoult, captain of the guards, attempts to arrest the councilors Epremesnil and Montsabert in the middle of a session. Protected by their colleagues, they manage to escape but ultimately give themselves up the next day.
June 7, 1788: The Day of the Tiles (Journée des Tuiles) in Grenoble occurs; arguably the first open revolt against the king and royal policies pushed through by Étienne Charles de Brienne, minister of finance from 1787 to 1788.
July 21, 1788: The Assembly of Vizille convenes what in actuality is essentially the Estates-General of Dauphiné. Claude Perier, inspired by all of the liberal ideas around him, assembled a meeting in the room of the Jeu de Paume (indoor tennis court) in his Chateau de Vizille and hosted this meeting, which was previously prohibited in Grenoble. Almost 500 men gathered that day at the banquet hosted by Claude. In attendance there were many “notables” including churchmen, businessmen, doctors, notaries, municipal officials, lawyers, and landed nobility of the province of Dauphiné. The demands sounded out at this meeting aligned with the sentiments of many Frenchmen: The convocation in Paris of the national Estates-General, echoing some prominent voices in the Assembly of Notables (like Lafayette) as well as the calls for the Estates-General dating back to the exiled members of the parlements during Maupeou’s coup (1771-1774), when he tried to completely restructure the court system and neutralize the power of the judiciary. What’s important about the Assembly of Vizille is that it marks a step toward far more open opposition to the absolutist monarchy. with increasing support for its demands from diverse corners of society. Two lawyers who led much of this meeting would go on to play critical roles in the early phases of the Revolution: the Protestant Antoine Barnave and Jean-Joseph Mounier.
August 8, 1788: The royal treasury is declared empty, and the Parlement of Paris refuses to reform the tax system or loan the Crown more money. To win their support for fiscal reforms, the Minister of Finance, Brienne, sets May 5, 1789, for a meeting of the Estates-General, the national assembly of the three estates (or orders) of the realm:
- The First Estate: The Clergy
- The Second Estate: The Nobility
- The Third Estate: Commoners (ranging from peasants to wealthy bourgeoisie; basically defined as those that don’t belong to either the First or Second Estate)
August 16, 1788: The treasury suspends payments on the debts of the government. As a result, the Paris Bourse (stock exchange) crashes.
August 25, 1788: Brienne resigns as Minister of Finance, and is replaced by the Swiss banker Jacques Necker, who is popular with the Third Estate, in part because he seemingly financed France’s involvement in the American Revolutionary War while at the same time producing a surplus on the balance sheet. French bankers and businessmen, who have always held Necker in high regard, agree to loan the state 75 million, on the condition that the Estates-General will have full powers to reform the system.
December 27, 1788: Over the opposition of the nobles, Necker announces that the representation of the Third Estate will be doubled and that nobles and clergymen will be eligible to sit with the Third Estate.
December 29, 1788: Marseilles calls for an increase in the number of elected members of the Third Estate and also for voting by head in the Estates-General.
Delving into the tumultuous period of 1789 to 1794, we encounter one of the most defining chapters of the Bourbon Dynasty — the French Revolution. This critical juncture not only reshaped the political, social, and economic landscape of France, but it also sent seismic waves across Europe and beyond, heralding the beginning of modern political ideology.
1789: Estates-General, the Bastille, and the Constituent Assembly
[The assemblage of the national Estates-General in Versailles in May 1789 — the first time this once significant body met in 175 years]
January 1789: French intellectual, writer, and member of the clergy Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes his famous and highly influential political pamphlet, What Is the Third Estate? (Qu’est-ce que le Tiers-État?).
February 7, 1789: Orders for the estates to draw up customary notebooks of grievances (cahier de doléances) in anticipation of the meeting of the Estates-General.
April 27, 1789: Riots occur in Paris, fueled by workers of the Réveillon wallpaper factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine who mistook a statement about fixing wages at a liveable level as meaning that wage cuts were about to take place. Twenty-five workers were killed in battles with police.
April 30, 1789: Deputies to the Estates-General from Brittany (Bretagne), including Le Chapelier, Lanjuinais and Glezen, lawyers at the bar of Rennes, establish the Breton Club at Versailles. The Breton Club would eventually evolve into the far more famous Jacobin Club.
May 2, 1789: The presentation by order of the 1,200 deputies to King Louis XVI at Versailles, during the grand opening procession of the Estates-General.
May 5, 1789: The Estates-General convenes for the first time since 1614. The Estates-General was nominally convoked by finance minister Jacques Necker to help solve the kingdom’s dire financial straits. However, very soon, the representatives elected to the Estates-General move beyond this narrow remit and discuss the implementation of political, not just fiscal, reforms.
June 3, 1789: The scientist Jean Sylvain Bailly is chosen the leader of the Third Estate deputies.
June 10-14, 1789: At the suggestion of Sieyès, the Third Estate deputies decide to hold their own meeting, and invite the other Estates to join them. Nine deputies from the clergy decide to join the meeting of the Third Estate on June 13-14, 1789.
June 17, 1789: The Third Estate votes to leave the Estates-General and form a new body of government, calling itself the National Assembly, led by Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau.
June 20, 1789: The famous Tennis Court Oath takes place (Serment du Jeu de Paume). The Tennis Court Oath came about after the bodies comprising the Estates-General — the clergy, the nobility, and the Third Estate — reached an impasse over issues of representation, especially on the question of voting by order or voting by head, the latter of which would benefit the more numerous Third Estate representatives. The Third Estate representatives moved to meet in the royal tennis court because, on the morning of June 20, when they arrived at the chambers of the Estates-General, the door was locked and guarded by soldiers. Interpreting this as an attempt to try and silence them, or outright suppress them, the Third Estate instead held their own congregation in the nearby tennis court, where they swore “not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the Constitution of the kingdom is established.”
June 25-27, 1789: Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (later known as Philippe Égalité because of his commitment to the Revolution), leads 48 nobles to join the National Assembly. Partly due to this, on June 27, Louis XVI changes course, instructs the nobility and clergy to meet with the other estates, and recognizes the new Assembly. However, at the same time, Louis XVI orders reliable military units, primarily composed of Swiss and German mercenaries, to gather in Paris.
July 9, 1789: The National Assembly becomes the National Constituent Assembly. After the storming of the Bastille, the National Constituent Assembly became the effective government of France. It dissolved on September 30, 1791, and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.
July 14, 1789: A large armed crowd, including both armed civilians and the mutinous French Guards (Régiment des Gardes françaises), besieges and eventually storms the Bastille, which holds only seven prisoners but has a large supply of gunpowder, which was the main objective of the crowd. After several hours of resistance, the governor of the fortress, de Launay, finally surrenders. But as he exits, he is killed by the crowd. The crowd also kills de Flesselles, the provost of the Paris merchants.
August 4, 1789: The Night of August 4, 1789 is the session of the National Constituent Assembly during which the suppression of feudal privileges was voted. Beginning on Tuesday, August 4, at 7 o’clock in the evening, the meeting goes on after midnight, until 2 o’clock in the morning. It is a fundamental event of the French Revolution , because, during the session which was then held, the Constituent Assembly put an end to the feudal system. It abolishes all feudal rights and privileges as well as all the privileges of classes, provinces, cities, and corporations. The main impetus for the initiative comes from the Breton Club, the future Jacobin Club.
August 20-August 26, 1789: The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l’Homme et du citoyen de 1789) is drawn up and published. This declaration, crafted by France’s National Constituent Assembly in 1789, is one of the preeminent human civil rights documents of the French Revolution and the entire Enlightenment movement in general. Deeply influenced by Enlightenment philosophers — from moderate philosophes like Montesquieu to more radical philosophes like Diderot and d’Holbach — the Declaration was a central statement of the values of the French Revolution at this point. It would have an indelible impact on the development of popular conceptions of individual liberty and democracy in Europe and the world at large.
September 16, 1789: First issue of Jean-Paul Marat‘s newspaper, L’Ami du peuple, proposing a radical social and political revolution.
October 5, 1789: The Women’s March on Versailles, also known the October Days (Journées des 5 et 6 octobre 1789), was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were nearly rioting over the high price of bread. The unrest soon became caught up in the activities of revolutionaries seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France and the mob of women marched from Paris to the royal residence of Versailles. The March on Versailles ended with the crowd forcing Louis XVI, his family, and most of the French Assembly to return with them to Paris.
October 6, 1789: The Breton Club moved to the Couvent des Jacobins rue Saint-Honoré in Paris and took the name of “Society of Friends of the Constitution”, before officially becoming the Jacobin club on August 10, 1792. The founders — Lanjuinais and le Chapelier — were joined by Barnave, Duport, Lafayette, Lameth, Mirabeau, Sieyès, Talleyrand, Brissot, Robespierre.
October 10-12, 1789: Deputies of the National Constituent Assembly decree that Louis XVI would bear the title of King of the French, as opposed to King of France. On the same day, Doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotin proposes the use of the guillotine to the Assembly as a more humane and equal form of execution. With the revolution accelerating, the arch conservative brother of Louis XVI, Charles the Comte d’Artois, writes to the Holy Roman (Austrian) Emperor Joseph II, asking him to intervene in France.
November 2-December 24, 1789: Decree on the nationalization of the property of the clergy, proposed by Talleyrand, is adopted by 568 votes against 346 on November 2, placing the property of the clergy of the Catholic Church at the disposal of the nation in order to reimburse the debts of the state. Notably, Necker tries to oppose the confiscation. The next day, the former parlements are put on vacation by decree of the National Assembly and, on November 5, a decree of the National Assembly puts an end to the provincial Estates of Artois. On November 28, Doctor Joseph Guillotin demonstrates to the deputies of the Constituent Assembly his new machine used to execute those condemned to death, stating it’s the “safest, fastest, and least barbaric” way to carry out a capital execution. Returning to the nationalization of church property, on December 19, the Assembly approves the creation of assignats, paper certificates pledged on the sale of national property, which eventually turn into currency. On December 22, the Assembly decrees the division of France into departments based on the size of territories and population, eliminating the old and convoluted territorial divisons of the Ancien Regime. And, finally, on December 24, non-Catholics gain citizenship.
1790: Rise of the Political Clubs and Breakdown of the Revolutionary Consensus
January 18-22, 1790: Marat publishes a fierce attack on finance minister Necker on January 18. A few days later, on January 22, Paris municipal police try to arrest Marat for his violent attacks on the government, however he is defended by a crowd of sans-culottes and absconds to London. He returns to Paris on May 18, 1790.
February 13-March 12, 1790: The National Assembly passes a number of acts fundamentally altering the way of society as it was under the Old Regime. On February 13, the National Assembly forbids the taking of religious vows and suppresses the contemplative religious orders. Later, on February 23, the National Assembly requires curés (parish priests) in churches all over France to read out loud the decrees of the Assembly. In the area of the military, on February 28, the National Assembly abolishes the requirement that army officers be members of the nobility. On March 8, the Assembly decides on the continuation of the institution of slavery in French colonies, but permits the establishment of colonial assemblies. Returning to the church, on March 12, the National Assembly approves the sale of the property of the church by municipalities.
March 29, 1790: Pope Pius VI condemns the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in a secret consistory.
April 17, 1790: Foundation of the Cordeliers club, which meets in the former convent of that name. It becomes one of the most vocal proponents of radical change.
May 12, 1790: Lafayette and Jean Sylvain Bailly institute the Society of 1789.
May 22, 1790: The Assembly decides that it alone can decide issues of war and peace, but that the war cannot be declared without the proposition and sanction by the King.
June 19, 1790: The National Assembly officially abolishes the titles, orders, and other privileges of the hereditary nobility.
July 26, 1790: It is claimed that Camille Desmoulins published the now famous phrase and national motto of the French Revolution and modern France: Liberté, égalité, fraternité. He supposedly originally coined the phrase on July 14, 1790, during the Fête de la Fédération (Festival of the Federation), which marked the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. On the same day, Avignon, then a territory of the Papal States, asks to be joined to France. The National Assembly, wanting to avoid a confrontation with Pope Pius VI, delays a decision. Also on June 26, diplomats of England, Austria, Prussia and the Dutch Republic meet at Reichenbach to discuss possible military intervention against the French Revolution.
July 12, 1790: The Assembly adopts the final text on the status of the French clergy. Clergymen lose their special status, and are required to take an oath of allegiance to the government: Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
July 14, 1790: The Fête de la Fédération is held on the Champ de Mars in Paris to celebrate the first anniversary of the Revolution. The event is attended by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the National Assembly, the government, and a massive crowd. Lafayette takes a civic oath vowing to “be ever faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the king; to support with our utmost power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly, and accepted by the king.” This oath is taken by his troops, as well as the king. The Fête de la Fédération is the last event to unite all the divergent factions in Paris during the Revolution.
July 23, 1790: The Pope writes a secret letter to Louis XVI, promising to condemn the Assembly’s abolition of the special status of the French clergy.
July 28, 1790: The National Assembly refuses to allow Austrian troops to cross French territory to put down an uprising in Belgium — the Brabant Revolution in the Austrian Netherlands — partily inspired by the French Revolution, though actually conservative in its goals.
July 31, 1790: After Marat publishes a demand for the immediate execution of 500 to 600 aristocrats to save the Revolution, the National Assembly decides to take legal action against Marat and Camille Desmoulins because of their calls for such revolutionary violence.
September 4, 1790: The once wildy popular finance minister Necker is dismissed. The National Assembly takes over management of the public treasury.
October 6, 1790: Louis XVI writes his cousin, Charles IV of Spain, to express his hostility to the new status of the French clergy.
October 21, 1790: The National Assembly decrees that the tricolor of red, white, and blue will replace the white flag and fleur-de-lys of the French monarchy as emblem of France.
November 4-25, 1790: Insurrection in the French colony of Isle de France (now Mauritius) begins on November 4, followed weeks later by the uprising of black slaves, on November 25, in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti).
November 27, 1790: The National Assembly decrees that all members of the clergy must take an oath to the Nation, the Law and the King. A large majority of French clergymen refuse to take the oath.
December 3, 1790: Louis XVI writes to King Frederick William II of Prussia asking for a military intervention by European monarchs to restore his authority.
1791: Moderates, Deadlock, and Failed Flight of the Royal Family
January 1, 1790: Mirabeau is elected President of the Assembly.
January 3, 1789: Priests are ordered to take an oath to the Nation within twenty-four hours. A majority of clerical members of the Assembly refuse to take the oath.
February 24, 1791: Constitutional bishops, who have taken an oath to the State, replace the former Church hierarchy.
February 28, 1791: The so-called Day of Daggers takes place, in which Lafayette orders the arrest of 400 armed aristocrats who have gathered at the Tuileries Palace to protect the royal family. They are freed on March 13.
March 2, 1791: Abolition of the traditional trade guilds, one of many Old Regime corporative bodies the Revolution will eliminate.
March 10-25, 1791: Pope Pius VI condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and on March 25, diplomatic relations break between France and the Vatican.
June 20-21, 1791: The infamous Flight to Varennes takes place. In the night of June 20-21, Louis XVI, the Marie-Antoinette, and their children abscond from the Tuileries Palace and flee by carriage in the direction of Montmédy. Unfortunately for them, they are spotted and recognized in the town of Varennes by a postman.
July 16, 1791: The formation of the Feuillants Club (offically called “The Society of the Friends of the Constitution”). This political club came into existence because the National Assembly was diverging, with moderates on the right, who wanted to preserve the position of the king and supported the creation of a constitutional monarchy, along British lines; and the radical Jacobins on the left, who wanted to push for a democratic republic and the overthrow of Louis XVI. The Feuillant deputies emerged when they publicly split with the Jacobins, on July 16, over the latter’s plan for a popular demonstration against Louis XVI to take place on the Champ de Mars the following day.
August 21, 1791: The Haitian Revolution begins on the night of August 21, 1791, when the slaves of the French colony of Saint-Domingue rise in revolt, with thousands of slaves attending an underground vodou ceremony and proceeding to kill their masters, plunging the colony into civil war. Soon, the Haitian slaves take control of the entire Northern Province, while whites kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps.
1792: The Revolution Goes to War and Overthrows the Monarchy
January 23, 1792: The slave uprising in Saint-Domingue — part of the Haitian Revolution — causes severe shortages of sugar and coffee in Paris, leading to riots against food shortages and the looting of many food shopsin Paris.
February 7-19, 1792: Treaty of Berlin is made between Prussia and Austria, a defensive alliance, against Poland (which was being dismantled in the Partitions of Poland, not to mention the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth drafted their own highly liberal constitution) and revolutionary France. Treaty is ratified on February 19. This sets the stage for the eventual invasion of France by Austrian and Prussian forces.
March 10-23, 1792: Brissot gives a speech attacking Minister Lessart (a minor nobleman who supported reforms but not full-blown revolution) because of his opposition to war against the conservative and interventionist monarchies of Austria and Prussia. He is impeached for his pacifism by the Girodin faction on March 10. The Feuillant ministers resign in his wake. Dumouriez gets appointed to Foreign Affairs on March 15 (and later becomes a general). Later, on March 23, a Brissotin government is formed with Étienne Clavière in the Finance Ministry and Roland as Minister of the Interior.
March 24-April 4, 1792: A decree recognizing the political rights of free men of color and free blacks is put forth on March 24, and later ratified by Louis XVI on April 4. The next day, France delivers an ultimatum to Francis II, king of Bohemia and Hungary — aka the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor — to disperse the gatherings of emigrants in the Rhineland, and it is rejected. On March 28, the Brissotin government passes an amnesty decree for political crimes. Meanwhile, on March 30, they pass a decree confiscating the property of nobles who had emigrated since July 1, 1789.
April 20, 1792: Beginning of the War of the First Coalition, as France declares war on the King of Bohemia and Hungary — the Austrian Habsburg Emperor Francis II. Months later, in July, the King of Prussia — Frederick William II — declares war on France under the terms of the Treaty of Berlin of February 7, 1792.
April 25-26, 1792: The first execution by the guillotine takes place in the Place de Grève on April 25. The next day, Rouget de l’Isle composes in Strasbourg a song called the “War Song for the Army of the Rhine,” which soon would become known by the far more famous name, the Marseillaise.
June 8-13, 1792: Political deadlock is undermining the idea of a constitutional monarchy — the political system supported by moderates like the Feuillants. On June 8, the Brissotin government passes a decree for the formation of a camp of National Guards of the provinces in Soissons in order to defend Paris. However, on June 11, Louis XVI vetoes the decree organizing the raising of these 20,000 fédérés (volunteer troops of the French National Guard) as well as the decree deporting refractory priests. In a move to break the deadlock and sideline the democratic republican factions, Louis XVI and his council, on June 12-13, forces the Brissotin ministry to resign and allows for the formation of a new ministry composed of Feuillants.
June 20, 1792: The Demonstration of 20 June 1792 (Journée du 20 juin 1792) was the last, and unsuccessful, peaceful attempt made by the people of Paris — especially the so-called sans-culottes — to persuade King Louis XVI of France to abandon his current policy and attempt to follow what they believed to be a more empathetic approach to governing. Its objectives were to convince the government to enforce the Legislative Assembly’s rulings, defend France against foreign invasion, and preserve the spirit of the French Constitution of 1791. The demonstrators hoped that the king would withdraw his veto and recall the Girondin ministers. The Demonstration was the last phase of the unsuccessful attempt to establish a constitutional monarchy in France. After the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, the monarchy fell.
July 10-14, 1792: Under pressure from the pro-war Brissotins, the Feuillant ministers resign on July 10, while the following day, the Legislative Assembly issues the famous proclamation of “Le patrie en danger” (“the homeland is in danger”), resulting in fédérés flocking to Paris despite Louis XVI’s veto. On July 14, another Fête de la Fédération at the Champ de Mars is held in the presence of the king, in which the fédérés illegally participate and most of whom remain in Paris after the celebration.
July 25, 1792: The First Coalition powers issue the Brunswick Manifesto to the people of Paris, so named because it was pronounced by the commander-in-chief of the Prussian and Austrian armies, Charles Guillaume de Brunswick. The manifesto threatens the people of Paris “with an exemplary and forever memorable vengeance, by delivering the city of Paris to military execution and total subversion” if the slightest outrage were made against the royal family. On the same day, the 48 Parisian sections — the most radical political groups in the revolution — are authorized to sit permanently by decree.
July 29-30, 1792: Robespierre delivers a speech at the Jacobins Club on the usurpation of national sovereignty. The speech legitimizes direct action and violence when the superior interest of the nation and of the “state” justifies it and presents the elected officials as simple “clerks” of the sovereign power held by the people. The speech effectively spells out the authoritarian populist, anti-representative democracy ideology of the Robespierrists and the Montagnards. The next day, July 30, troops from Marseilles arrive in Paris singing the “War Song for the Army of the Rhine,” hence why it becomes popularly known as the “Marseillaise”.
August 10, 1792: Due to the combination of Louis XVI’s obstructionism, the Brunswick Manifesto, and Robespierre’s speech, the Storming of the the Tuileries Palace occurs: A major insurrection carried out by the National Guard of the Paris Commune and fédérés from Marseille and Brittany in Paris, which attacked the Tuileries defended by the Swiss Guards. Hundreds of Swiss guardsmen and 400 revolutionaries were killed in the battle, and Louis XVI and the royal family take shelter with the Legislative Assembly. The formal end of the monarchy occurred six weeks later on September 21, 1792, as one of the first acts of the new National Convention, which established the First French Republic on the next day.
September 2-6, 1792: The September Massacres take place and were a series of killings of prisoners in Paris, during which between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by fédérés, guardsmen, and sans-culottes, with the support of gendarmes responsible for guarding the tribunals and prisons, the Cordeliers, the Committee of Surveillance of the Commune, and the revolutionary sections of Paris.
September 2-19, 1792: The French legislative elections of 1792 take place, after primary elections of the electoral colleges were held on August 26, in order to elect the deputies of the National Convention . It takes place just after the day of August 10 and the suspension of Louis XVI and his royal power. Following these events, the Constitution of 1791 becomes null and void, and now one of the primary tasks of the new Assembly are to proclaim the forfeiture of the king, to establish a new regime, and to draft a new Constitution.
September 21, 1792: The formal end of the monarchy is proclaimed.
1793: The King’s Execution, Counter-Revolution, the Montagnard Coup, and the Reign of Terror
January 1, 1793: The creation of the General Defense Committee with the aim of supervising all the specialized Committees. It would later transform into the infamous Committee of Public Safety.
January 15-21, 1793: Louis XVI is declared guilty of conspiring against public freedom, unanimously (693 votes), on January 15. The appeal to the people is rejected by 423 votes against 281. On January 16-17, Louis XVI is sentenced to death by the Convention, with a majority of 387 voting for “unconditional death” out of 721 deputies who voted. The day of execution comes on January 21, 1793, when Louis XVI is guillotined in Paris.
February 1-17, 1793: Already at war with Austria and Prussia, France declares war on Great Britain and the United Provinces (Dutch Republic), resulting in the formation start of the First Coalition: Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. General Dumouriez manages to implement his offensive plan for an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, which begins on February 17.
April 6, 1793: Formation of the Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public) by the National Convention. Originally meant to be just a provisional government and war cabinet, the Committee of Public Safety eventually became all-powerful. Its composition would change over time, but in the wake of the Thermidorian Reaction and overthrow of Robespierre, it lost its former power. Later, on October 25, 1795, the committee was abolished.
May 31-June 2, 1793: The Days of May 31 and June 2, 1793 (Journées du 31 mai et du 2 juin 1793) sees a political putsch carried out by the Montagnards, led primarily by Robespierre and his followers who stir up popular uprisings — especially of the sans-culottes — to eliminate the Girondins. On June 2, 1793, 31 Girondin deputies are arrested, marking the beginning both of the Federalist Uprisings and of the Mountagne Convention, the latter of which will end on July 27, 1794.
June 24, 1793: The Constitution of Year I is promulgated, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1793 included the preamble. However, this constitution is never applied because the state of revolution and war, it is argued, prevents its implementation. It makes the right to rebel a sacred, imprescriptible right. It grants the “primary assemblies” the right to make the law during popular initiative referendums. It proclaims the right to work, to assistance, to education, recognizes the right of asylum and the naturalization of foreigners. The constitution embodies an interesting mix of elements of the socio-political left and right.
July 13, 1793: Charlotte Corday assassinates Jean-Paul Marat by stabbing him with a knife while he takes a medical bath. Corday isn’t a counter-revolutionary but detests the ignorant, authoritarian populism represented by Marat and his groundless, conspiracy theory-laden publications.
August 23, 1793: The Levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention. The decree states: “From this moment until such time as its enemies shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic, all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the services of the armies. The young men shall fight; the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn old linen into lint; the old men shall betake themselves to the public squares in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic.” All unmarried able-bodied men between 18 and 25 were requisitioned with immediate effect for military service. This significantly increased the number of men in the army, reaching a peak of about 1,500,000 in September 1794, although the actual fighting strength probably peaked at no more than 800,000. In addition, as the decree suggests, much of the civilian population was turned towards supporting the armies through armaments production and other war industries as well as supplying food and provisions to the front. The Levée en masse marks the first real instance of universal conscription and, in many ways, the initiation of “total war”.
1794: The Terror Intensifies, Purging the Ranks, Suppressing Revolts, and the Fall of Robespierre
January 8-13, 1794: At the Jacobins Club, Robespierre denounces Fabre d’Églantine, one of the instigators of the September Massacres, father of the Republican calendar, and ally of Danton. On January 13, d’Églantine is arrested for alleged diversion of state funds.
January 29, 1794: Death of Henri de la Rochejaquelein, royalist and military leader of the counter-revolutionary Vendéens, fighting at Nuaillé.
February 4, 1794: The Convention votes to abolish slavery in French colonies.
February 5, 1794: Robespierre lectures the convention on the necessity for the Terror: “The foundations of a popular government in a revolution are virtue and terror; terror without virtue is disastrous; and virtue without terror is powerless. The Government of the Revolution is the despotism of liberty over tyranny.”
February 6, 1794: Napoleon Bonaparte is promoted to general for his role in driving the British from Toulon. On the same day, Jean-Baptiste Carrier is recalled from Nantes. As official delegate of the convention, he was responsible for the drownings (noyades) at Nantes of as many as 10,000 Vendéen prisoners, in barges deliberately sunk in the Loire River.
February 10, 1794: Jacques Roux commits suicide in prison. He was one of the key figures of the Enragés faction.
February 22, 1794: In a speech at the Cordeliers Club, Hébert attacks both the factions of Danton and Robespierre.
March 4-11, 1794: At the Cordeliers Club, Jean-Baptiste Carrier calls for an insurrection against the convention. On March 11, the Committees of Public Safety and General Security denounces the planned uprising by the Cordeliers.
March 13-15, 1794: Saint-Just, President of the convention, denounces a plot against liberty and the French people. Hébert and many other Cordeliers are arrested. Two days later, on March 15, Robespierre tells the Convention that “All the factions must perish from the same blow.”
March 20, 1794: Arrest of General Hoche, a member of the Cordeliers. He is freed in August 1794 after the fall of Robespierre.
March 21-24, 1794: Trial of the Hébertists begins. To compromise them, they are tried together with foreign bankers, aristocrats and counter-revolutionaries. Then, on March 24, Hébert and leaders of the Cordeliers are condemned to death and guillotined.
March 27, 1794: The philosopher and mathematician Condorcet — often called the “last witness” of the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment — is arrested. He is found dead in his cell two days later.
March 30, 1794: Purging of factions continues, with Danton, Camille Desmoulins and their supporters arrested.
April 2-5, 1794: Trial of Danton before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He uses the occasion to ridicule and insult his opponents. This leads to the Convention decreeing on April 4 that anyone who insults the justice system is excluded from speaking, barring Danton from defending himself. The next day, April 5, Danton and Desmoulins are convicted and guillotined the same day.
April 8, 1794: Robespierre makes accusations against the Convention delegate Joseph Fouché at a meeting of the Jacobins.
April 10, 1794: The members of the alleged Conspiracy of Luxembourg, a diverse collection of followers of Danton and Hébert and other individuals, are put on trial. Seven are acquitted and 19 are condemned and executed, including Lucile Desmoulins, the widow of Camille Desmoulins, General Arthur Dillon, who had fought in the American Revolutionary War, Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, Françoise Hébert, the widow of Jacques Hébert, and the defrocked Bishop Gobel.
April 14, 1794: At the request of Robespierre, the Convention orders the transfer of the ashes of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the Panthéon.
April 20, 1794: In a report to the convention, the deputy Billaud-Varenne delivers a veiled attack against Robespierre: “All people jealous of their liberty should be on guard even against the virtues of those who occupy eminent positions.”
April 22, 1794: Malesherbes and the deputés Isaac René Guy le Chapelier and Jacques Guillaume Thouret, four times elected president of the Constituent Assembly, were taken to the scaffold and executed.
April 23, 1794: Robespierre creates a new Bureau of Police attached to the Committee of Public Safety, in opposition to the existing police under the Committee of General Safety.
May 7, 1794: Robespierre asks the convention to decree “that the French people recognize the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul”, and to organize celebrations of the new cult.
May 8, 1794: The chemist Antoine Lavoisier, along with twenty-six other former members of the Ferme générale, is tried and guillotined.
May 10, 1794: Arrest of Jean Nicolas Pache, the former mayor of Paris, followed by his replacement by Jean-Baptiste Fleuriot-Lescot, a close ally of Robespierre. Execution of Madame Élisabeth, the sister of Louis XVI, on the same day.
June 2, 1794: Naval battle between British and French fleets off Ouessant. The French lose seven warships, but a convoy carrying grain from the United States is able to dock in Brest.
June 4, 1794: Robespierre is unanimously elected president of the convention.
June 8, 1794: Festival of the Supreme Being, conducted by Robespierre. Some deputies visibly show annoyance with his behavior at the Festival.
June 10, 1794: The Law of 22 Prairial comes into effect: As the prisons are full, the Convention speeds up the trials of those accused. Witnesses are no longer required to testify. From June 11 to July 27, 1,376 prisoners are sentenced to death, with no acquittals, compared with 1,251 death sentences in the previous fourteen months. The convention also gives itself the exclusive right to arrest its own members.
June 12: Without naming names, Robespierre announces to the Convention that he will demand the heads of “intriguers” who are plotting against the convention.
June 24-26, 1794: Carnot foresightedly despatched a large part of the Parisian artillery to the front. And on June 26, French forces under Jourdan defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Fleurus.
June 29, 1794: Dispute within the Committee of Public Safety. Billaud-Varenne, Carnot and Collot d’Herbois accuse Robespierre of behaving like a dictator. He leaves the committee and does not return before July 23.
July 1, 1794: Robespierre speaks at the Jacobin Club, denouncing a conspiracy against him within the convention, the Committee of Public Safety, and the Committee of General Security.
July 8, 1794: French forces under Generals Jourdan and Pichegru capture Brussels from Austrians.
July 9, 1794: Robespierre speaks again at the Jacobin Club, denying he has already made lists, and refusing to name those he plans to arrest.
July 14, 1794: At the request of Robespierre, Joseph Fouché is expelled from the Jacobin Club.
July 23, 1794: Alexandre de Beauharnais is tried and executed; his widow Joséphine de Beauharnais became Napoleon’s mistress, and his wife in 1796. Meanwhile, on the sme day, Robespierre attends a meeting of reconciliation with the members of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, and the dispute seems settled.
July 25-27, 1794: The poet André Chénier is among those guillotined, followed by Marie Thérèse de Choiseul, the princess of Monaco, on July 27. Her execution would be one of the last during the Reign of Terror.
July 26, 1794: Robespierre gives a violent speech at the convention, demanding, without naming them, the arrest and punishment of “traitors” in the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. The Convention first votes to publish the speech, but Billaud-Varenne and Cambon demand names and attack Robespierre. The Convention sends Robespierre’s speech to the Committees for further study, without action.
July 27, 1794: According to the revolutionary calendar, the date is 9 Thermidor Year II. At noon, Saint-Just began his speech in the convention, preparing to blame everything on Billaud, Collot d’Herbois and Carnot. After a few minutes, Tallien interrupted him and began the attack. When the accusations began to pile up the Convention voted the arrest of Robespierre, and of his younger brother Augustin Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon and Lebas. François Hanriot warned the sections that there would be an attempt to murder Robespierre and mobilized 2,400 National Guards in front of the town hall. In the meantime the five were taken to a prison, but refused by the jailors. An administrator of the police took Maximilian Robespierre around 8 p.m. to the police administration on Île de la Cité; Robespierre insisted being received in a prison. He hesitated for legal reasons for possibly two hours. At around 10 p.m. the mayor appointed a delegation to go and convince Robespierre to join the Commune movement. Then the Convention declared the five deputies (plus the supporting members) to be outlaws. They expected crowds of supporters to join them during the night, but most left losing time in fruitless deliberation, without supplies or instructions. This marks the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction.
July 28, 1794: At 2 o’clock in the morning, soldiers loyal to the Convention take the Hôtel de Ville without a fight. Robespierre is wounded in the jaw by a gunshot, either from a gendarme or self-inflicted. His brother is badly injured jumping from the window. In the morning, Robespierre and his supporters are taken to the Revolutionary Tribunal for formal identification. Since they have been declared outside the law, no trial is considered necessary. In the evening of July 28, Robespierre and his supporters, including his brother, Saint-Just, Couthon and Hanriot, 22 in all, are guillotined.
July 29, 1794: Arrest and execution of seventy allies of Robespierre within the Paris Commune. In all, 106 Robespierrists are guillotined.
August 5, 1794: Inmates of Paris prisons arrested under the Law of Suspects are released.
August 9, 1794: Napoléon Bonaparte is arrested in Nice, but released on August 20.
August 24, 1794: The Convention reorganizes the government, distributing power among 16 different committees.
August 29, 1794: First anti-Jacobin demonstration in Paris by disaffected young middle-class Parisians called Muscadins.
August 30, 1794: French army retakes Condé-sur-l’Escaut. All French territory is now freed of foreign occupation.
August 31, 1794: The Convention puts Paris under the direct control of the national government.
September 13, 1794: The Abbé Grégoire, a member of the convention, coins the term “vandalism” to describe destruction of religious monuments across France.
September 21, 1794: The remains of Marat are placed in the Panthéon.
October 1-3, 1794: Confrontations in the meetings of the Paris sections between supporters and opponents of the Terror. On October 3, leaders of the bands of armed sans-culottes in Paris are arrested.
October 6, 1794: A French army captures Cologne.
October 22, 1794: Foundation of the Central School of Public Works, the future École Polytechnique.
November 9-12, 1794: Muscadins attack the Jacobin Club. The attack is repeated on November 11. Then, on November 12, the Convention orders the suspension of meetings of the Jacobin Club.
December 3, 1794: The Convention forms a committee of 16 members to complete work on the Constitution of 1793.
December 8, 1794: The return of 73 surviving Girondin deputies, who are given seats again in the Convention.
December 16, 1794: Conviction and execution of the Jacobin Carrier for ordering the mass execution of as many as 10.000 prisoners in the Vendée.
December 24, 1794: The Convention repeals the law setting maximum prices for grain and other food products.
1795: The Directory Assumes Control, a New Constitution, and Napoleon’s Rise
February 2, 1795: Confrontations begin between Muscadins and sans-culottes in Paris streets. The former represent a somewhat right-wing reaction among Parisian young men against the left-wing radicalism of the years 1793-1794.
February 14, 1795: A number of former Jacobin leaders in Lyon, who carried out the Reign of Terror there, are assassinated, marking the start of the so-called First White Terror.
May 2-11, 1796: The Conspiracy of the Equals: A proto-communist movement led by Grrachus Babeuf as well as Italian revolution Philippe Buonarroti, tries to stage a putsch to implement their regime of total equality. On May 2, 1796, the Directory considered that the Babouviste propaganda was dangerously agitating public opinion and ordered the dismissal and disarmament of a police legion because that had fallen under their influence. The Directory thought it time to react and discovered through its agents evidence of a conspiracy for an armed rising fixed on May 11, 1796, in which Jacobins and socialists were combined. Babeuf, who had taken the pseudonym Tissot, was arrested on May 10, along with many of his associates.
1796-1797: Napoleon Ascendant in Italy and at Home, Defeat of Royalists in the Vendee and in Paris by Republican Forces
1798: Sister Republics and Napoleon in Egypt
February 11-15, 1798: French troops led by General Louis-Alexandre Berthier invaded the Papal States and seized the city of Rome on February 11, 1798. Pope Pius VI is deposed and deported to Tuscany, then to France, where he dies in exile. As a result, in place of the Papal States, General Berthier proclaims the Roman Republic on February 15, with a political organization modeled on the French Republic, by Daunou and Monge, plus with the help of local revolutionaries like the engraver Francesco Piranesi and some Frenchmen like Florens.
April 12, 1798: The Helvetic Republic is the officially proclaimed and replaces the old names of the Swiss Confederacy. The Helvetic Republic lasts until March 10, 1803, when Napoleon, recognizing the failure of this unitary republic, dissolves it and establishes a new federal Swiss state. This period of the history of Switzerland is also called “the era of Helvetia”. Its beginning marks the end of the Ancien Régime in Switzerland and the beginning of the political modernization of the country. For the first time in fact, the cantons are equal to each other and there are no longer subject countries.
May 11, 1798: The Law of 22 Floréal Year VI is passed, which in actuality is more like a bloodless coup, by which 106 left-wing deputies are deprived of their seats in the Council of Five Hundred, the lower house of the legislature under the French Directory. Following the Coup of Fructidor, the power of the Monarchists and the Royalists was largely broken. However, in order to do this, the Directory needed to rely on support from the Left. Once th Left’s usefulness ran out and they proved successful in the elections, the Directory convinced the Council of Five Hundred to annul the elections results in 53 departments, leading to almost 130 deputies losing their seats. These were then replaced by individuals chosen by the Directory.
July 21, 1798: The Battle of the Pyramids took place between the French Army of the Orient, commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, and Mamluk forces commanded by Mourad Bey, during the former’s Egyptian campaign. Napoleon emerges victorious.
August 1-2, 1798: The Battle of Aboukir (also called Battle of the Nile) is a major naval battle between the British and French fleets in the Bay of Aboukir, near Alexandria in Egypt. The battle results in a decisive British victory, effectively isolating and cutting off Napoleon and his forces in Egypt.
October 12-24, 1798: Revolts break out in Belgium against the French occupiers. by October 24, these revolts against the French occupiers has become widespread in Belgium.
November 2, 1798: Similar to Belgium’s situation, revolts break out on the island of Malta against the French occupiers.
November 4-13, 1798: In Belgium, on November 4, 8,000 priests are proscribed and deported because of the revolts raging there against the French occupiers. On November 13, Belgian peasants too take part in the revolt against the French occupiers, takinge the city of Diest, under the leadership of Emmanuel Rollier.
December 4, 1798: Massacre of Hasselt is perpetrated by the French troops, putting an end to the Belgian revolt.
December 24, 1798: Alliance between Russia and Great Britain is formed, presaging the War of the Second Coalition.
1799: The Directory in Turmoil, Napoleon’s Return, the Coup d’état of 18 Brumaire and the Consulate
April 9-16, 1799: The French legislative elections of 1799 took place on 20 and 27 germinal year VII. The 1799 election ended with a massive victory for the left-wing republican Montagnards. However, the Royalist parties, the Clichy Club (moderate constitutionalists) and Ultra-Royalists (absolute monarchists) won almost half of the seats within the council. The Extreme Left Group (Groupe de Extrême-Gauche) also won their first group of seats in the election. These are the last elections under the Directory but also the last free legislative elections before 1815.
June 17-19, 1799: The Battle of the Trebbia takes place during the Italian campaign waged by the Second Coalition, spearheaded especially by the Russians. It ends with the victory of the Austrians and the Russians, commanded by General Suvorov, over the French commanded by General Macdonald.
November 9-10, 1799: The coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire occurs, in which Napoleon Bonaparte overthrows the Directory, beginning of the provisional consulate. The Council of Elders votes to transfer the Legislative Body to Saint-Cloud to protect it from an attempted Jacobin plot. Bonaparte receives the command of the troops, while Sieyès obtains the resignation of the Directors. Bonaparte presents himself to the Ancients, then to the Cinq-Cents, where he is booed and threatened. The President of the Five Hundred, his brother Lucien Bonaparte, uses these threats as a pretext to request the intervention of the troops, which releases the meeting room. The Legislature is vacant, which was not the aim of the conspirators who wanted a legal investiture by the Legislative Body. During the night, they manage to bring together a few deputies from both chambers, who vote to abolish the Directory and exclude 62 deputies. They decide on the formation of a legislative commission and appoint a committee to revise the Constitution.
November 11, 1799: The new provisional Consulate gets up and running, led by a triumvirate of Sieyès, Roger Ducos, Bonaparte, as well as the establishment of the consular government. Berthier is appointed Minister of War, Laplace Minister of the Interior and Gaudin Minister of Finance. Cambacérès, Fouché and Reinhard, Ministers of Justice, Police and External Relations, appointed by the Executive Board, continue in their functions.