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France - The Political History

Chronology of Political Events

1774

May 10 - Louis XVI ascends to throne of France
1775
April 27-May - "Flour War"
Rioting follows rise in bread prices.
June 11 - Coronation of Louis XVI.
1787
February 22 - Assembly of Notables convenes.
May 25 - Assembly of Notables dissolved.
Aug. - Parlements of Paris and Bordeaux exiled.
1788
June 7 - Day of Tiles (Grenoble); 4 people killed in rioting.
August 8 - Announcement of convocation of Estates General.
Will formally meet on May 1, 1789.
September - Restoration of Parlements
Oct 5 - Dec 12 - Second Assembly of Notables meets.
Oct 24 - 26 - Necker reappointed Minister of Finance.
1789
January 24 - Summoning of the Estates General.
May 5 - Estates General convene.
June 17 - National Assembly proclaimed.
June 20 - Tennis Court Oath.
July 11 - Necker dismissed.
July 14 - Fall of the Bastille.
July 22 - Foulon and Bertier murdered and decapitated by a mob.
July 20 - 31 - "Great Fear" - Panic grips peasantry throughout France.
August 26 - Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen.
1791
June 20 - Louis XVI tries to flee. Stopped at Varennes.
July 17 - Champ de Mars massacre - 50 people killed when National Guard troops open fire on crowd.
September 14 - Louis XVI accepts constitution.
September 30 - National Assembly dissolved.
1792
April 20 - France declares war on Austria.
August 10 - Tuileries stormed and monarchy overthrown.
September 2 - 6 - September Massacres. An estimated 1,200 to 1,400 prisoners murdered by mobs and tribunals.
September 21 - National Convention meets.
September 22 - Republic proclaimed.
December - Trial of Louis XVI.
1793
January 16 - Louis XVI condemned to death.
January 21 - Execution of Louis XVI.
February 1 - War declared on Dutch Republic and Great Britain.
March 10 - Revolutionary Tribunal created.
April 6 - Committee of Public Safety created.
May 20 - Forced loan on the rich.
May 31 - Anti-Girondin uprising in Paris.
June 24 - Constitution of 1793 accepted.
July 26 - Death penalty for hoarding law passed.
September 4 - Workers in Paris march on the Convention, demanding end to shortages.
September 5 - "Reign of Terror" begins when Convention votes to implement terror.
October 16 - Marie Antoinette beheaded.
Oct. 24-30 - Trial of Girondins.
October 31 - Execution of Girondin.
1794
March - Hebertists arrested and executed.
April 5 - Danton and Desmoulins executed.
July 5 - Wage controls introduced in Paris.
July 27-28 - Robespierre ousted from power and guillotined.
August 1 - Law of 22 Prairial repealed. Terror begins to collapse with governmental reorganization.
August 11 - Committee of Public Safety deprived of major role in government.
1795
April 1-2 - Uprising of Germinal. Crowd (10,000) marches on Convention.
April 10 - Convention authorizes disarming of "terrorists."
May 4 - Former terrorists massacred by mob in Lyons.
May 20-23 - Uprising of Prairial. Mob invades Convention hall.
Convention restores order and executes mob leaders in retaliation.
May 31 - Revolutionary Tribunal abolished.
July 21 - Royalist invasion at Quiberon repulsed.
November 2 - Directory constituted.
December 10 - Forced loan.
1796 March 2 - Napoleon Bonaparte appointed commander in Italy.
1798
July 1 - Napoleon lands in Egypt.
August 1 - Battle of the Nile. Lord Nelson destroys French fleet, stranding Napoleon.
1799
June 18 - Coup of Prairial. Directory purged by Councils.
June 27 - Forced loan.
December 9-10 - Directory overthrown by Napoleon.
1800
December 24 - Bomb explodes in Paris in assassination attempt on Napoleon.
1801
July 16 - Concordat signed, partially restoring Catholic Church.
1802
April 1 - Purge of Tribunate.
April 18 - Concordat promulgated.
1805
October 21 - Franco-Spanish fleet defeated at Trafalgar.
December 2 - Battle of Austerlitz.
1807
February 7-8 - Battle of Eylau. 25,000 French casualties.
1812
Late June - Napoleon crosses Neman river into Russia.
September 7 - Battle of Borodino. 30,000 French casualties.
September 14 - French army enters Moscow.
December 18 - Napoleon reaches Paris.
1813
October 16-19 - Battle of Leipzig.
1814
April 6 - Napoleon abdicates.
1815
March 1 - Napoleon lands at Cannes after escaping Elba.
June 18 - Battle of Waterloo.