| Event |
Description |
| Estates-General (May 1789) |
Louis XVI convenes the Estates-General; subjects submit grievances that shape the liberal ideology of 1789. |
| Voting Controversy |
Debate over voting by order (separate estates) or by head (joint vote), with different consequences for the Third Estate. |
| Sieyès' Influence |
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès argues the Third Estate represents the true nation and calls for reforms. |
| Political Shift |
A shift in power dynamics between the people, absolutism, and aristocratic privilege; emergence of a new concept of sovereignty. |
| Resistance from the King |
King Louis XVI takes a passive stance as the Estates meet in Versailles; Third Estate forms the National Assembly. |
| Tennis Court Oath |
The Third Estate swears to continue meeting until a new constitution is created; the king’s compromise comes too late. |
| Royal Concession |
The king promises civil liberties but insists on separate voting; fails to win the nobility over. |
| National Assembly's Defiance |
Jean-Sylvain Bailly declares the nation cannot receive orders from the king; the king accepts the National Assembly. |
| Parisian Revolt |
Parisians revolt, storming the Bastille, marking a major shift in the revolution. |
| Peasant Revolts |
Peasants rise against nobles due to fears of hunger and land loss, culminating in the Great Fear. |
| Event |
Description |
| Abolition of Feudal Privileges (August 4, 1789) |
The National Assembly abolishes feudal privileges, including church tithes, venality of office, and regional privileges. |
| Declaration of the Rights of Man (August 27, 1789) |
Affirms natural rights, social equality, and sovereignty of the nation, challenging the ancien régime. |
| Restructuring France (1790–1791) |
The National Assembly drafts a constitution, establishing a limited monarchy with sovereignty in the Legislative Assembly. |
| Revolutionary Administrative Changes |
France is divided into 83 départements, local officials are elected, and new judicial reforms are implemented. |
| Event |
Description |
| Sale of Church Property |
The French Assembly sells church land to issue assignats, which leads to inflation. |
| Seeds of Discord |
The revolution alienates elites, leading to emigration, and increases urban-rural tensions. |
| Religious Tensions |
The Nationalization of church property and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy divide the clergy and society. |
| Political Tensions |
The rise of political clubs and the free press leads to more radical actions and divisions. |
| Maximilien Robespierre |
Robespierre rises as a leader of the Jacobin Club, pushing for more radical policies. |
| The Flight to Varennes (June 1791) |
Louis XVI’s failed attempt to escape Paris worsens the situation and divides revolutionaries. |
| Reign of Terror Overview |
The Reign of Terror saw a period of intense political purges and executions, beginning after the Girondins were expelled. Parisian militants, under the leadership of figures like Jacques-René Hébert and Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette, gained control over the Paris Commune.
On September 5, 1793, radicals led a mass demonstration demanding action on food prices and the implementation of terror. This was the beginning of a policy of state-sanctioned terror against perceived enemies of the Revolution.
|
| Marie-Antoinette |
Marie-Antoinette, the Queen of France, was executed in 1793 during the Reign of Terror. Her execution, depicted in the Carnavalet Museum, was part of the wider purging of royalists and aristocrats during this period.
|
| The Law of Suspects |
One of the most significant laws passed during the Terror was the Law of Suspects, which authorized the arrest of individuals suspected of being counter-revolutionaries. Over 200,000 people were detained, with about 10,000 dying in prison.
The law led to widespread paranoia, with local revolutionary committees given power to arrest anyone who was seen as an enemy of the Revolution.
|
| Execution and the Role of the Revolutionary Tribunal |
Approximately 17,000 death sentences were handed down, with most of the executions taking place in the regions of the Vendée and the southeast. Revolutionary tribunals were key in sentencing those found guilty of rebellion or treason.
However, many regions experienced fewer executions and remained relatively calm during the period.
|
| The Armées Révolutionnaires |
The Convention authorized the creation of the Armées Révolutionnaires, paramilitary forces that helped enforce the Maximum price laws and requisition grain in rural areas.
These forces were instrumental in spreading revolutionary fervor but also exposed rural populations to violence from wealthier citizens.
|
| The Jacobin Constitution of 1793 |
In June 1793, a democratic constitution was drafted, incorporating universal male suffrage, the right to subsistence, and free public education. It was approved by a referendum but was never enacted due to the Revolution's ongoing emergency.
The provisional government was declared revolutionary, and the Convention would rule with complete sovereignty until peace was restored.
|
| Robespierre and the Ideological Justification for Terror |
The Jacobins, particularly figures like Maximilien Robespierre, believed that terror was necessary to secure the Revolution. They argued that virtue and terror were inseparable, with terror serving to defend the public good and ensure equality.
Robespierre viewed terror as a tool of justice, while others saw it as a necessary measure in an emergency.
|
| De-Christianization and the Revolutionary Calendar |
The Convention adopted a new republican calendar, replacing the Gregorian calendar. It was intended to create a new, secularized order by abolishing religious influences.
Efforts to de-Christianize France were pursued, with radical groups vandalizing churches and pressuring priests into abandoning their vocations. However, Robespierre opposed these actions, favoring a deistic civil religion instead.
|
| The Law of 22 Prairial |
The Law of 22 Prairial, passed in June 1794, streamlined revolutionary justice, denying the accused the right to self-defense and increasing the number of death sentences.
This law, combined with the law of suspects, contributed to the mounting terror and rapid executions during the final stages of the Reign of Terror.
|
| The End of the Terror: The Arrest of Robespierre |
After military victories, the need for extreme measures lessened, but Robespierre continued to escalate the Terror. On July 27, 1794, Robespierre was arrested by the Convention, and the following day, he was executed, signaling the end of the Reign of Terror.
|
| Army Overview |
The Jacobin dictatorship was a blend of exalted patriotism, resolute political leadership, ideological fanaticism, and populist initiatives. It employed new rhetoric and symbolism of democracy, matched by bold egalitarian policies.
The army was a primary focal point of the democratic impetus. In 1790, the National Assembly opted for a small military of long-term professionals.
One-year volunteers bolstered the line army after the outbreak of war. In March 1793, the Convention called for an additional 300,000 soldiers, with quotas provided by each département.
In August 1793, the Convention decreed the lévee en masse, a requisition of all able-bodied, unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25. Despite draft evasion and desertion, nearly three-quarters of a million men were under arms within a year.
The citizen-soldiers merged with line-army troops in new units called demibrigades, reinforcing the Revolution’s militant spirit. Soldiers had to be supported by all means, including forced loans on the rich and vigilance against suspected disloyalty.
The army became a model of democratic practice with both noncommissioned and commissioned officers chosen by a combination of election and appointment. Demonstrated talent on the battlefield brought the fastest promotions.
The republic insisted that officers be respectful toward their men and share their privations. Soldiers received revolutionary newspapers and sang revolutionary songs, exalted as models of the sansculotte.
Soldiers’ families received subsidies, and wounded common soldiers earned generous veterans’ benefits.
|
| The Revolution's Egalitarian Promise |
The Revolution’s egalitarian promise never assaulted private property but involved “social limitations” on property. It abolished seigneurial dues, slavery in the colonies, endorsed progressive taxation, and regulated the economy in favor of consumers.
The Convention enacted a national system of public assistance entitlements in 1793–94, including small pensions for poor families with dependent children, aged and indigent farm workers, artisans, and rural widows.
The Convention also committed to primary education with free public schooling for both boys and girls. The Lakanal Law of November 1794 authorized public schools in communes with more than 1,000 inhabitants, with teachers selected by examination and paid by the government.
|
| The Thermidorian Reaction |
The fall of Robespierre in 1794 set off a brutal struggle for power. The moderation hoped to put the Terror behind but quickly gave way to reaction.
The "white terror" occurred, especially in the south, with lynchings, murder gangs, and prison massacres of arrested sansculottes.
The Thermidorian Reaction caused a new economic crisis as price controls and economic regulation were dismantled. The depreciation of assignats resumed, leading to food shortages and famine for the working people.
In 1795, sansculottes in Paris attempted an uprising for bread and the Constitution of 1793, but it failed.
Instead of implementing the 1793 Constitution, the Thermidorians prepared a new, more conservative charter, leading to a liberal republic with a franchise based on tax payments and a two-house legislature.
|
| The Directory |
The Directory began in October 1795 with a successful constitutional plebiscite and amnesty for political prisoners. However, the Convention’s “Two-thirds Decree” required two-thirds of its deputies to sit in the new legislature, angering conservatives and royalists.
The Directory survived a royalist uprising and the Babeuf plot, exposing the instability within the political structure. It implemented regular elections to replace one-third of deputies annually but struggled with partisanship and political apathy.
In 1797, royalist forces were purged during the coup of Fructidor, and further purges occurred in 1798, leading to the suppression of opposition from both the right and left.
|
| Sister Republics |
During the Revolution, France successfully exported its revolutionary ideals, creating sister republics in western Europe. French expansion had initially stopped at the natural borders, but after victories, territories like Belgium were annexed in 1795.
Revolutionary movements in other European countries were supported by France, with native patriots seeking French aid against their rulers. The establishment of sister republics like the Batavian Republic marked French influence beyond its borders.
|
| Napoleon Bonaparte |
By 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte’s successful campaign in northern Italy led to the Treaty of Campo Formio, with Italy and Switzerland coming under French influence, establishing republics like the Cisalpine and Helvetic Republics.
Despite the success of these republics, their dependence on French military presence drained French resources, and the Republic's extended lines of occupation made it vulnerable to the second coalition, which included Britain, Russia, and Austria.
|
