French Revolution Timeline

1740: War of Austrian Succession – France goes into debt
May 1770 – Louie marries Marie Antoinette
1774 – Louis XVI takes power
1776 – American Revolution begins
1778 – France gives aid to the colonists, goes further into debt
1783 – Treaty of Paris ends American Revolution…the colonists freedom makes the French people jealous
1786 – France is broke
1787 – the government works to crate a new tax plan to help the country get money
July 2-parliament rejects the new tax law
Aug 6-Louis calls an impromptu parliament who passes it. Parliament declares Louis’s move illegal
Aug 15- Louis disbands parliament
1788 (Dec) The Minister of Finance, Jacques Necker, doubles the representatives of the third Estate in the Estates General
1789 – (May 5 ) Estates General meets
June 10 – The third estate’s vote is vetoed by the 1st and 2nd estate
Jun 17 –upset by their lack of power, the 3rd estate declares itself a National Assembly
June 20 – the national assembly is locked out of the meeting house and signs the Tennis Court Oath, declaring that thy will continue to met until they sign a constitution
Members of the other estates join the national assembly
July 14 – a large crowd storms the Bastille
July 17 –beginning of the Great Fear
August 4 –August decree –abolition of feudalism
Aug 26 – Assembly adopts the declaration of the rights of man and citizen
October 5-6 – Paris Mob forms; the women march to Versailles and take the king hostage and move him to Paris; Louis agrees to pass the August decrees
November – Church property and money is taken by the state
1790 –July 12 – Civil Constitution of the Clergy
1791 –Jun 20-25 – Louis and his family attempt to flee…they’re captured and brought back to Paris
Oct 1 – National Assembly disband – Legislative Assembly is formed
1792 – Jan – March: food riots in Paris
August: storming of the palace – Louis and his family are arrested and taken into custody
September - September massacres – half the population of Paris is executed.
Sept 13 –Louis accepts the Assembly’s constitution.
Sept 20: National Convention is formed, made up of elected French men, mostly of the Jacobin Cordelier, and Girondin clubs.
Sept 21 – monarchy is abolished
1793 – Jan – Louis XVI executed
July – Robespierre takes control of the Committee of Public Safety
July 1793 – 1794 – Reign of Terror
1794 – July 28 - Robespierre executed; reign of terror ends
1794 – 1795 – Thermidorian Reaction: marked the return to moderation; the focus went back to how to fix the economy of France
1795-1799 – the Directory rules France
1799 – Napoleon overthrows the government and takes control of France