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Rise of the Sans Culotte
The Sans Culotte were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life. -
Estates General
In 1789, in a desperate attempt to address France's economic crisis, Louis XVI assembled the Estates-General, a national assembly that represented the three “estates” of the French people–the nobles, the clergy, and the commons. -
Aristocratic Revolution
A precursor to the French Revolution, the dubbed "Aristocratic Revolt" of 1787-1788 was a reaction against the economic reforms suggested by Charles-Alexandre Calonne -
Estates General 1789
In France of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy, the representative assembly of the three estates. Orders of the realm the clergy and nobility which were privileged minorities and a Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people. -
Women's March on Versailles
On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women demanding bread for their families gathered other discontented Parisians, including some men, and marched toward Versailles. -
National Assembly / Tennis Court Oath
On 20 June 1789, the members of the French Estates-General for the Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath. Vowing not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require. -
Bastille Day / Great Fear
Great Fear. Great Fear, French Grande Peur, in the French Revolution, a period of panic and riot by peasants and others amid rumors by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate. -
August Decrees
The August Decrees were nineteen decrees made in August 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly during the French Revolution. -
Constitution of 1791
Constitution of 1791, French constitution created by the National Assembly during the French Revolution. It retained the monarchy, but sovereignty effectively resided in the Legislative Assembly, which was elected by a system of indirect voting. -
War with Austria
Britain, and the Netherlands against Prussia, France, and Spain in support of the right of succession of Maria Theresa to the Austrian throne and against the territorial aims of Prussia. -
French Republic
A period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799, and was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire. -
Death of the King
Louis XVI was the last king of France in the line of Bourbon monarchs preceding the French Revolution of 1789. He was executed for treason by guillotine in 1793. -
Committee of Public Safety/Robespierre
Created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793 formed the executive government in France during the Reign of Terror. -
Virtue changes
Robespierre provided a comprehensive statement of his political theory, in which he equated democracy with virtue and justified the use of terror in defending democracy. -
Directory
A group of five men who held the executive power in France according to the constitution of the year III. They were chosen by the new legislature, by the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients each year one director, chosen by lot, was to be replaced. -
Coup d'état
Coup d'état, also called Coup, the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group. The chief prerequisite for a coup is control of all or part of the armed forces, the police, and other military elements. -
Napoleon
He was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution. -
Consul
French government established after the Coup of 1819, during the French Revolution. Napoleon abolished the Consulate when he declared himself emperor in 1804. -
Wars 1807-1812
A series of wars between Napoleonic France and shifting alliances of other European powers that produced a brief French hegemony over most of Europe.
