Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items36
1
Estates General of 1789
May 5, 1789
Louis XVI brought the clergy, nobility, and Third Estate to Versailles as the crown struggled to manage its finances. Their dispute over who had a voice in the meeting soon made the rules of representation more urgent than the business the king had called them to discuss.
More about Estates General of 17892
National Assembly (French Revolution)
June 17, 1789
Deputies of the Third Estate declared themselves a National Assembly. The change was more than a name: they claimed the right to speak for the nation without waiting for the three orders to agree separately.
More about National Assembly (French Revolution)3
Tennis Court Oath
June 20, 1789
Finding their meeting room closed, deputies gathered in an indoor tennis court and pledged to remain together until France had a constitution. The setting is memorable because the promise made the assembly something the king could no longer dismiss simply by clearing a room.
More about Tennis Court Oath4
Storming of the Bastille
July 14, 1789
Parisians took the royal fortress after seeking weapons and ammunition. The fall of the prison showed the difference a crowd could make in a contest that had begun with speeches and votes at Versailles.
More about Storming of the Bastille5
Great Fear
Summer 1789
In many rural districts, fear of brigands armed villagers. In some places they turned on local lords and destroyed records that proved what peasants owed. The revolution's arguments about privilege now reached into everyday obligations in the countryside.
More about Great Fear6
Abolition of feudalism in France
August 4–11, 1789
After reports of rural unrest, the assembly voted to dismantle feudal privileges. The resulting decree ended some obligations immediately and required compensation to extinguish others. That distinction explains why one dramatic night did not settle what peasants actually owed.
More about Abolition of feudalism in France7
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
August 26, 1789
The declaration set out freedom, equality before the law, and the idea that sovereignty came from the nation. The language gave people a standard against which they could judge the laws the revolution produced.
More about Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen8
Women's March on Versailles
October 5–6, 1789
Women from Paris marched to Versailles amid an acute bread shortage. The royal family went to Paris with the crowd the next day. With the king back in the capital, the cost of bread and the future of the monarchy could no longer feel like separate questions.
More about Women's March on Versailles9
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
July 1790
The assembly reorganized France's Catholic Church, making bishops and priests elected officials. An oath of loyalty divided the clergy. The split brought revolutionary politics straight into the life of the parish.
More about Civil Constitution of the Clergy10
Flight to Varennes
June 1791
Louis XVI and his family left Paris in secret but were stopped at Varennes and brought back. A constitution depended on cooperation between king and assembly. After the escape attempt, the king's willingness to accept that arrangement was much harder to believe.
More about Flight to Varennes11
Champ de Mars massacre
July 17, 1791
The National Guard fired on a crowd gathered to back a petition against the king's return to power. Varennes had made a republic easier to imagine. The shootings made clear that those pressing for one could come into conflict with other revolutionaries.
More about Champ de Mars massacre12
Haitian Revolution
August 1791
An uprising of enslaved people in Saint-Domingue forced the question of slavery into the revolution's politics. From the colony that would become Haiti, people claiming freedom challenged legislators in France to reckon with who actually shared the rights they proclaimed.
More about Haitian Revolution13
French Constitution of 1791
September 1791
France adopted a written constitution that gave lawmaking to an elected assembly while keeping the king and allowing him to delay laws with a veto. It was a defined settlement, useful for seeing exactly what the next uprising would dismantle.
More about French Constitution of 179114
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
September 1791
Olympe de Gouges rewrote the language of the 1789 declaration so that women were explicitly included. Reading the two documents together makes the gap between the revolution's general promises and women's political standing hard to miss.
More about Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen15
War of the First Coalition
From April 1792
The French legislature declared war on the king of Hungary and Bohemia, the Habsburg ruler whose lands included Austria. Fighting across the border intensified the argument in Paris over whether Louis XVI could be trusted to defend the new order.
More about War of the First Coalition16
Insurrection of 10 August 1792
August 10, 1792
Insurgents attacked the Tuileries Palace and the legislature suspended Louis XVI. The constitution had left a place for a king, but the uprising made it impossible for him to continue governing under it.
More about Insurrection of 10 August 179217
September Massacres
September 1792
As enemy forces advanced and rumors of a prison conspiracy circulated, groups in Paris killed people held in the city's prisons. The killings show how the fear of defeat abroad could turn suspicion into violence at home.
More about September Massacres18
Battle of Valmy
September 20, 1792
French forces checked the invading army at Valmy. The timing mattered: the new Convention was convening just as the danger of an immediate defeat receded.
More about Battle of Valmy19
French First Republic
September 21–22, 1792
The National Convention abolished the monarchy and began dating official acts from the first year of the republic. This change gave France a new basis for government while leaving open what kind of republic it would become.
More about French First Republic20
Execution of Louis XVI
January 21, 1793
The former king was put to death after the Convention tried him. The republic could now make its case without a reigning king, but it also had to live with the decision to execute a man European monarchs still regarded as one of their own.
More about Execution of Louis XVI21
War in the Vendée
March 1793
Resistance to military recruitment in western France grew into a civil war. Hostility to the revolution's changes to the Catholic Church helped give the revolt staying power. The republic had to fight for authority inside France while it was already at war across its borders.
More about War in the Vendée
