BEFORE
|
1756–1763 |
Seven Years War |
|
1770 |
Future Louis XVI marries Marie-Antoinette |
|
1771–4 |
Maupeou remodels parlements |
|
1774 |
Accession of Louis XVI. Dismissal of Maupeou |
|
1776 |
American Declaration of Independence. Necker joins government |
|
1778 |
France enters American War of Independence. Death of Voltaire and Rousseau |
|
1781 |
Necker resigns |
|
1783 |
Peace of Paris; Calonne becomes finance minister |
|
1787 |
Assembly of Notables |
|
1788 |
8 Aug. Estates-General convoked for 1789 |
|
16 Aug. Payments suspended from Treasury |
|
|
Oct.–Dec. Second Assembly of Notables |
|
|
27 Dec. Doubling of third estate |
DURING
|
1789 |
Feb.–June. Elections to Estates-General |
|
Feb. Sieyès, What is the Third Estate? |
|
|
5 May. Estates-General convene |
|
|
17 May. National Assembly proclaims national sovereignty |
|
|
20 May. Tennis Court Oath |
|
|
27 May. Orders finally unite |
|
|
14 July. Bastille falls |
|
|
July. ‘Great Fear’ in countryside |
|
|
4 Aug. Abolition of feudalism, privileges, and venality |
|
|
26 Aug. Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen |
|
|
5–6 October. ‘October Days’: women march to Versailles, king and Assembly move to Paris |
|
|
2 Nov. Church property nationalized |
|
|
12 Dec. Assignats introduced. |
|
|
1790 |
13 Feb. Monastic vows forbidden |
|
22 May. Foreign conquests renounced |
|
|
19 June. Nobility abolished |
|
|
12 July. Civil Constitution of the Clergy |
|
|
16 Aug. Parlements abolished |
|
|
27 Nov. Oath of the clergy |
|
|
Nov. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France |
|
|
1791 |
Mar. Paine, Rights of Man |
|
2 Mar. Guilds dissolved |
|
|
13 Apr. Pope condemns Civil Constitution |
|
|
14 May. Le Chapelier law bans trade unions |
|
|
20–21 June. Flight to Varennes |
|
|
16 July. Louis XVI reinstated |
|
|
17 July. Champ de Mars massacre |
|
|
14 Aug. Slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue |
|
|
27 Aug. Declaration of Pillnitz |
|
|
14 Sept. Louis XVI accepts constitution |
|
|
30 Sept. Constituent Assembly dissolved |
|
|
1 Oct. Legislative Assembly convenes |
|
|
19 Dec. Louis XVI vetoes decrees against émigrés and unsworn priests |
|
|
1792 |
20 April. War declared on Austria |
|
25 April. First use of guillotine |
|
|
13 June. Prussia declares war on France |
|
|
20 June. Sansculottes invade royal palace |
|
|
30 June. Fédérés enter Paris singing the Marseillaise |
|
|
10 August. Overthrow of monarchy |
|
|
2–6 Sept. September massacres |
|
|
20 Sept. First victory of French forces at Valmy |
|
|
21 Sept. Convention meets |
|
|
22 Sept. Republic proclaimed |
|
|
19 Nov. Fraternity and help offered to all peoples ‘seeking to recover their liberty’ |
|
|
3 and 26 Dec. Trial of Louis XVI |
|
|
1793 |
16 Jan. Louis XVI condemned to death |
|
21 Jan. King executed |
|
|
1 Feb. War against British and Dutch |
|
|
11 Mar. Vendée rebellion begins |
|
|
19 Mar. Defeat in Belgium at Neerwinden |
|
|
6 April. Committee of Public Safety created |
|
|
31 May–2 June. Purge of Girondins |
|
|
June. Spread of ‘Federalist Revolt’ |
|
|
13 July. Marat assassinated |
|
|
27 July. Robespierre joins Committee of Public Safety |
|
|
23 Aug. Levée en masse decree |
|
|
27 Aug. Toulon surrenders to the British |
|
|
5 Sept. Sansculottes force Convention to declare terror the order of the day |
|
|
29 Sept. General maximum on prices |
|
|
Oct.–Dec. Dechristianization campaign |
|
|
5 Oct. Revolutionary calendar introduced |
|
|
9 Oct. Fall of Lyon to Convention’s forces |
|
|
16 Oct. Marie-Antoinette executed |
|
|
31 Oct. Girondins executed |
|
|
19 Dec. Fall of Toulon |
|
|
23 Dec. Vendéans defeated at Savenay |
|
|
1794 |
4 Feb. Abolition of slavery |
|
24 Mar. Execution of Hébertists |
|
|
5 Apr. Execution of Dantonists |
|
|
8 June. Festival of the Supreme Being |
|
|
10 June. Law of 22 prairial inaugurates ‘Great Terror’ in Paris |
|
|
27–8 July (9–10 thermidor). Fall of Robespierre; end of terror |
|
|
Aug.–Dec. ‘Thermidorean Reaction’ |
|
|
18 Sept. Republic renouces all religious affiliations |
|
|
12 Nov. Jacobin club closed |
|
|
24 Dec. Invasion of Dutch Republic |
|
|
1795 |
1–2 Apr. Germinal uprising of sansculottes |
|
20–23 May. Prairial uprising of sansculottes |
|
|
8 June. Death of Louis XVII |
|
|
24 June. Declaration of Verona by Louis XVIII |
|
|
27 June–21 July. Emigré landing at Quiberon |
|
|
22 Aug. Constitution of Year III and Two Thirds Law approved |
|
|
1 Oct. Belgium annexed |
|
|
5 Oct. Vendémiaire uprising in Paris: ‘whiff of grapeshot’ |
|
|
2 Nov. Directory inaugurated |
|
|
1796 |
19 Feb. Abolition of assignats |
|
11 April. Bonaparte invades Italy |
|
|
10 May. Arrest of Babeuf and conspirators for equality |
|
|
1797 |
18 April. Bonaparte forces peace preliminaries of Leoben on the Austrians |
|
29 June. Cisalpine Republic created |
|
|
4 September. Councils and Directory purged in coup of fructidor |
|
|
30 Sept. Bankruptcy of Two Thirds |
|
|
18 Oct. Peace of Campo Formio ends war on the continent |
|
|
1798 |
15 Feb. Roman Republic proclaimed |
|
11 May. Electoral results annulled in coup of floréal |
|
|
19 May. Bonaparte sails for Egypt |
|
|
21 May. Irish rebellion |
|
|
1 Aug. Battle of the Nile. Bonaparte marooned in Egypt |
|
|
5 Sept. Jourdan law universalizes conscription |
|
|
1799 |
26 Jan. Parthenopean Republic proclaimed in Naples |
|
12 Mar. Austria declares war: War of the Second Coalition |
|
|
10 Apr. Pope Pius VI brought to France |
|
|
18 June. Directory purged in coup of prairial |
|
|
22 Aug. Bonaparte leaves Egypt |
|
|
29 Aug. Death of Pius VI |
|
|
9 Oct. Bonaparte lands in France |
|
|
9–10 Nov. Bonaparte takes power in coup of 18–19 brumaire |
|
|
25 Dec. Consular constitution promulgated |
|
|
1800 |
14 June. First Consul defeats Austrians at Marengo. Negotiations with new pope, Pius VII, follow |
|
3 Dec. Final defeat of Austrians at Hohenlinden |
|
|
1801 |
16 July. Concordat signed |
|
1802 |
27 Mar. British make peace at Amiens. End of French revolutionary wars |
|
18 Apr. Concordat promulgated |
AFTER
|
1804 |
Promulgation of the Civil Code |
|
1804 |
Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon; end of the First Republic |
|
1806 |
Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire |
|
1808 |
Deposition of Spanish Bourbons |
|
1812 |
Napoleon invades Russia; retreat from Moscow |
|
1814–15 |
First Bourbon restoration |
|
1815 |
20 March–22 June. The ‘Hundred Days’ |
|
18 June. Final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo |
|
|
1815–30 |
Restoration monarchy |
|
1821 |
Death of Napoleon on St. Helena |
|
1830 |
June: Revolution of 1830 |
|
1830–48 |
July Monarchy: reign of Louis-Philippe |
|
1835 |
Büchner, Danton’s Death |
|
1836 |
Carlyle, The French Revolution. A History |
|
1840 |
Return of Napoleon’s remains to France |
|
1848 |
February. Revolution of 1848 |
|
December. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte elected president |
|
|
1848–52 |
Second Republic |
|
1852–70 |
Second Empire: reign of Napoleon III |
|
1856 |
Tocqueville, The Ancien Regime and the French Revolution |
|
1859 |
Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities |
|
1870 |
Franco-Prussian War; abdication of Napoleon III |
|
1871 |
Paris Commune |
|
1873–1940 |
Third Republic |
|
1905 |
Separation of church and state |
|
1917 |
Russian Revolution |
|
1940–4 |
Vichy State |
|
1944–58 |
Fourth Republic |
|
1958 |
Fifth Republic established |
|
1989 |
Bicentenary of the French Revolution |