French Rev Flashcards

Question	Answer
May 5th 1789	The Estates General opens at Versailles. The opening session is addressed by the king, minister for justice Barentin and Necker, who expresses the king’s desire that voting be conducted by order rather than by head.
May 6th 1789	The First Estate (voting 134 to 114) and Second Estate (voting 188 to 46) both endorse voting by order. The Third Estate refuses to meet separately or vote on the issue.
June 17th 1789	The Third Estate, now joined by some members of the First and Second Estates, vote 490 to 90 to declare themselves the National Assembly of France.
June 20th 1789	After being locked out of its meeting hall, the newly formed National Assembly gathers in a nearby tennis court. There they take the famous Tennis Court Oath, pledging to remain until a constitution has been passed.
June 23rd 1789	At the seance royale, the king delivers a conciliatory speech to the Three Estates and calls on them to return to their separate chambers. He also proposes a reform package to share the taxation burden. The king’s demands are ignored by the National Assembly.
June 24th 1789	More clergymen and nobles, including the Duc d’Orleans, elect to cross the floor and join the National Assembly.
June 27th 1789	Louis XVI backs down and orders delegates from the First and Second Estates to join the National Assembly. On advice, he also orders the army to mobilise and gather outside Paris and Versailles.
July 6th 1789	The National Assembly appoints a committee to begin drafting a national constitution.
July 8th 1789	The National Assembly petitions the king to withdraw royal troops from the outskirts of Paris.
July 9th 1789	The National Assembly reorganises and formally changes its name to the National Constituent Assembly.
July 14th 1789	The Bastille, a large fortress, prison and armoury in eastern Paris, is attacked and stormed by revolutionaries. Several officials are murdered, including de Launay, governor of the Bastille, and de Flesselles, mayor of Paris. Possess 20 cannons and 28,000 bayonets
July 16th 1789	Large numbers of royal troops massing outside Paris and Versailles are withdrawn.
July 17th 1789	The first signs of the Great Fear begin to appear in rural France. The National Constituent Assembly begins drafting a constitution.
August 4th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly begins to dismantle seigneurial feudalism, with many noblemen in the assembly voting to surrender their own privileges and feudal dues. These reforms are codified in the August Decrees.
August 26th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly passes the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.
September 10th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly votes 849 to 89 to create a unicameral (single chamber) legislative assembly.
September 11th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly votes 673 to 325 to grant the king a suspensive veto.
September 12th 1789	Jean-Paul Marat’s radical newspaper The Friend of the People is published on the streets of Paris for the first time.
September 15th 1789	The king uses his suspensive veto and refuses to endorse the August Decrees.
October 5th 1789	Hundreds of Parisian citizens, including large numbers of women, march on Versailles, accompanied by the National Guard. During the night a mob invades the royal apartment and threatens the queen.
October 6th 1789	The king agrees to leave Versailles for Paris, accompanied by the mob and the National Guard. The royal family are received in Paris by a cheering crowd, after which they take up residence at the Tuileries.
October 9th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly agrees to move from Versailles to Paris. It also declares Louis XVI to be “king of the French”, rather than “king of France”.
November 2nd 1789	The National Constituent Assembly nationalises church lands, passing the Decree on Church Lands and declaring that all ecclesiastical lands are “at the disposal of the nation”.
November 3rd 1789	The National Constituent Assembly votes to suspend the parlements.
November 9th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly relocates to the Tuileries Palace.
December 14-16th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly reforms provincial government, creating 83 new departements.
December 19th 1789	The National Constituent Assembly begins the sale of church lands and approves a first release of 400 million assignats, a paper bond backed by income from these sales. The assignats become a de facto paper currency.
December 22nd 1789	The National Constituent Assembly begins organising elections for the new legislative assembly.
January 4th 1790	The king attends and addresses the National Constituent Assembly and is greeted with cheering and oaths of affection. The first release of assignats is circulated. The National Constituent Assembly approves further printings.
January 28th 1790	Legal and commercial restrictions on Jews are officially lifted
February 1790	British parliamentarian Edmund Burke gives a speech in the House of Commons, condemning the French Revolution.
March 16th 1790	Lettres de cachet are formally abolished.
March 21st 1790	The gabelle tax on salt is suspended.
May 21st 1790	The local government of Paris is reorganised into 48 sections.
June 19th 1790	The National Constituent Assembly decrees the abolition of all noble ranks and titles.
July 12th 1790	The National Constituent Assembly passes the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
November 27th 1790	A decree of the National Constituent Assembly requires all clergymen to swear an oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
January 30th 1791	Honore Mirabeau is elected president of the National Constituent Assembly.
March 10th 1791	Pope Pius condemns both the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The government later suspends diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
June 20th 1791	The royal family attempts to flee Paris to a loyalist stronghold in Montmedy, before being intercepted and arrested at Varennes.
June 21st 1791	Responding to the flight to Varennes, the National Constituent Assembly suspends the king.
July 16th 1791	The Jacobin club decides to protest against the king at the Champ de Mars. This decision causes a split in the Jacobin ranks, prompting around 250 monarchists to form the Feuillant club.
July 17th 1791	The Champ de Mars massacre. Jacobins and Cordeliers rally on the Champ de Mars, to construct a petition calling for the abolition of the monarchy. The National Guard opens fire on a rowdy group, killing between 20-50 people.
August 27th 1791	The rulers of Prussia and Austria issues the Declaration of Pillnitz, affirming their support for Louis XVI.
August 29th 1791	Elections for the Legislative Assembly are commenced.
September 14th 1791	The king formally ratifies the Constitution of 1791 and swears an oath of allegiance to the new state.
September 30th October 1st	The National Constituent Assembly meets for the last time and votes to dissolve. The Legislative Assembly meets for the first time.
November 9th 1791	The Legislative Assembly orders all emigres to return to France “under pain of death”. Those who do not return will have their lands confiscated by the state. -King vetoes two days later-
April 20th 1792	The king addresses the Legislative Assembly and, under advice from Girondin ministers, asks the assembly to declare war on Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. The assembly votes to declare war, with only 7 dissenters. This marks the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars
June 20th 1792	A crowd invades the Tuileries, demanding that the king withdraw his vetoes. The king is pressured to wear a red liberty cap and publicly humiliated
July 25th 1792	The Duke of Brunswick, commander of a joint Austrian-Prussian military force, issues the Brunswick Manifesto, threatening Paris with destruction if the king is harmed.
August 10th 1792	The Tuileries Palace is invaded by Parisians and republican soldiers. In the coming days the Legislative Assembly suspends the king, quashes his vetoes and establishes a national convention based on universal voting rights.
August 22nd 1792	Royalist riots break out in the Vendee, Brittany and Dauphine.
September 2-6th 1792	The September Massacres in Paris result in around 1,200 deaths. The vast majority killed are imprisoned royalists and clergymen.
September 20th 1792	The Legislative Assembly is dissolved and replaced by the National Convention.
September 21st 1792	Vote is unanimous to abolish the monarchy Republic is declared on the 22nd
December 11th 1792	King's trial begins
January 14th 1793	The National Convention votes on the fate of the king, all 693 deputies finding him guilty. The Convention also votes 424 to 283 that there shall be no appeal.
January 21st 1793	Louis XVI is executed
February 24th 1793	The National Convention orders the conscription of 300,000 men for the army.
March 10th 1793	First revolutionary tribunal
March 10-16th 1793	The beginning of uprisings in the Vendee in western France. The Vendee rebels are angered by conscription, attacks on the clergy and the execution of the king
March 26th	CPS is established
May 4th 1793	The National Convention, under pressure from the sans culottes and Paris sections, passes the first Maximum Price Law, fixing the price of grain.
June 2nd 1793	The sans culottes, now joined by units of the National Guard, march on the National Convention. The Convention orders the expulsion and arrest of 29 Girondin deputies.
June 24th 1793	The National Convention passes the Constitution of Year I, also known as the Constitution of 1793 or the ‘Jacobin Constitution’.
August 23rd 1793	levee on mass
September 17th 1793	Law of suspects passed
September 29th 1793	The Maximum Price Law is extended to all foods.
October 10th 1793	The National Convention declares that emergency war measures will remain in place until there is peace. The implementation of the Constitution of 1793 is suspended.
October 31st 1793	The execution of Girondinist leaders begins, continuing for the next month. Among those guillotined are Brissot, Vergniaud, Fauchet, Madame Roland, Bailly and Barnave.
December 1793	Republican forces gain the upper hand over rebellious peasants in the Vendee.
December 4th 1793	The National Convention passes the Law of 14 Frimaire, or the Law of Revolutionary Government, further increasing the power of the Committee of Public Safety.
March 24th 1794	The execution of Jacques Hebert and several of his followers.
March 30th 1794	Georges Danton is arrested for alleged corruption; his trial in the Revolutionary Tribunal begins three days later.
April 5-6th 1794	The execution of Danton, Desmoulins and their supporters, following a show trial.
May 7th 1794	Robespierre delivers a speech to the National Convention, outlining his proposal for the Cult of the Supreme Being. The Convention endorses his proposal.
June 4th 1794	Robespierre is elected president of the National Convention.
June 10th 1794	The National Convention passes the Law of the 22 Prairial, increasing the power of tribunals, removing the rights of defendants and declaring all penalties to be punishable by death.
July 26th 1794	Robespierre addresses the National Convention and launches an attack on his opponents. He also has several of them expelled from the Jacobin club.
July 27th 1794	After overnight plotting, Robespierre’s opponents orchestrate his deposition and arrest. Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon and others are executed without trial the following day.
August 1st 1794	The Law of 22 Priairial is repealed by the National Convention.
August 1794	'White Terror' purging of the Jacobins

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	Created by Vickey Steed almost 7 years ago