Danton - Timeline of the French Revolution

Solemnel opening of the Estates General , May 5, 1789

II

Timeline of the French Revolution

Events preceding but pertinent to the French Revolution

• The Enlightenment, which led to many European writers criticising the Monarchy and espousing demo­cratic, liberalist, nationalist and socialist ideas.

1740

• The War of Austrian Succession caused the French nmonarchy to fall heavily into debt.

1756

• Start of the Seven Years' War, which compounded the debt situation.

1775

• Start of the American War of Independence (1775-1783).

1778

• France declares war against Great Britain in support of the American colonies. The subsequent war worsens the debt situation further.

• Laki eruption in Iceland and colder climate of the Little Ice Age combined with France's failure to adopt the potato as a staple crop contributes to widespread famine and malnutrition.
• Treaty of Paris ends the war. The success of the American colonists against a European power increases the ambitions of those wishing for reform in France.

Financial crisis and Assembly of Notables

1786

• August 20: Finance minister Calonne informs the King that the royal finances are insolvent.

• December 29: The Assembly of Notables is convoked.

1787

• February 22: First Assembly of Notables meets against a background of state financial instability and general resistance by the nobility to the imposition of taxes and fiscal reforms.

• May 25: The first Assembly of Notables is dissolved.

• July 2: Parlement of Paris overwhelmingly rejects the royal legislation.
• August 6: Legislation passed at a lit de justice. Subsequently the parlement declares the registration was illegal.

1788

• May 8: Judicial reforms partly abolishing the power of parlements to review legislation are forced through the parlements by Lamoignon.

• June: Outcry over the enforced reforms ensues, and courts across France refuse to sit.
• July 5: Brienne begins to consider calling an Estates-General.

• August 8: Informed that the royal treasury is empty, Brienne sets May 1, 1789 as the date for the Estates-General to try to restore confidence with creditors.
• August 16: Repayments on government loans stop, and the French government effectively declares bankruptcy.
• November 6: Necker convenes a second Assembly of Notables to discuss the Estates-General.

1789

• April 27: The Reveillon Riots in Paris, due to low wages and food shortages, led to about 25 deaths by troops.
• May 5: The Estates-General is convoked for the first time since 1614.

Estates-General and Constituent Assembly

• May 5: Meeting of the Estates-General - voting to be by Estate, not by head.
• May 28: The Third Estate (Tiers Etat) begins to meet on its own, calling themselves "communes" (commons).
• June 13: Some priests from the First Estate choose to join the Third Estate.
• June 17: The Third Estate (commons) declares itself to be the National Assembly.
• June 20: Third Estate/National Assembly are locked out of meeting houses; the Third Estate decides upon a declarative vow, (The Tennis Court Oath), not to dis­solve until the constitution has been established.
• June 27: Louis recognises the validity of the National Assembly, and orders the First and Second Estates to join the Third.
• July 9: National Assembly reconstitutes itself as National Constituent Assembly.
• July 11: Necker dismissed by Louis; populace sack the monasteries, ransack aristocrats' homes in search of food and weapons.

• July 13: National Guard formed in Paris, of middle class men.
• July 14: Storming of the Bastille; de Launay, (the gov­ernor) is massacred.
• July 16: Necker recalled, troops pulled out of Paris.
• July 17: The beginning of the Great Fear, the peas­antry revolt against feudalism and a number of urban disturbances and revolts. Many aristocrats flee Paris to become émigrés. Louis XVI accepts the tricolor cockade.
• August 4: Surrender of feudal rights: The August Decrees.
• August 26: The Assembly adopts The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
• September 11: The National Assembly grants suspen­sive veto to Louis XVI; Louis fails to ratify the August acts of the National Assembly.
• October 5-6: Outbreak of the Paris mob; Liberal mo­narchical constitution; Women's March on Versailles.
• October 6: Louis XVI agrees to ratify the August Decrees, Palace of Versailles stormed. Louis and the National Assembly move to Paris.

1790

• January: Former Provinces of France replaced by new administrative Departments.
• February 13: Suppression of monastic vows and reli­gious orders.
• May: 19 Nobility abolished by the National Assembly.
• July 12:The Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Priests to take an oath of loyalty to the state, splitting the clergy between juring (oath-taking) and non-juring priests.

• July: Growing power of the clubs (including: Cordeliers, Jacobin Club).

• July: Reorganization of Paris.
• August 16: The parlements are abolished.
• September: Fall of Necker.

1791

• March 10: The Pope condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

• June 20-25: Royal family's flight to Varennes.
• June 25: Louis XVI forced to return to Paris.
• July 15: National Assembly declares the King to be inviolable and he is reinstated.

• September 13-14: Louis XVI formally accepts the Constitution.
• September 30: Dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly.

Legislative Assembly

• October 1: Legislative Assembly meets — many young, inexperienced, radical deputies.

1792

• January – March: Food riots in Paris.
• April 20: France declares war against Austria.
• April 28: France invades Austrian Netherlands.
• July 5: Legislative Assembly declares that the father­land is in danger (La Patrie en Danger).
• July 25: Brunswick Manifesto — warns that should the royal family be harmed by the popular movement, an "ex­emplary and eternally memorable revenge" will follow.
• July 30: Austria and Prussia begin invasion of France.
• August 1: News of the Brunswick Manifesto reaches Paris — interpreted as proof that Louis XVI is collabo­rating with the foreign Coalition.
• August 9: Revolutionary commune takes possession of the hotel de ville.

• August 10-13: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Swiss Guard massacred. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody, along with his family. Georges Danton becomes Minister of Justice.
• August 16: Paris commune presents petition to the Legislative Assembly demanding the establishment of a rev­olutionary tribunal and election of a National Convention.
• August 19: Lafayette flees to Austria. Invasion of France by Coalition troops led by Duke of Brunswick.
• August 22: Royalist riots in Brittany, Vendee.
• September 3: Fall of Verdun to Brunswick's troops.
• September 3-7: The September Massacres of pris­oners in the Paris prisons.
• September 19: Dissolution of Legislative Assembly.

National Convention

• September 20: First session of National Convention. French Army stops advance of Coalition troops at Valmy.
• September 21: Abolition of royalty and proclamation of the First French Republic.
• September 22: First day of the French Revolutionary Calendar (calendar introduced in 1793).
• December 3: Louis XVI brought to trial, appears be­fore the National Convention. Robespierre argues that "Louis must die, so that the country may live".

1793

• January 21: Citizen Louis Capet (ex. Louis. XVI) guillotined.
• March 7: Outbreak of rebellion against the Revolution: War in the Vendee.
• March 11: Revolutionary Tribunal established in Paris.
• April 6: Committee of Public Safety established.
• May 30: A revolt breaks out in Lyon.

• June 2: Arrest of Girondist deputies to National Convention by Jacobins.
• June 10: Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety.
• June 24: Ratification of new Constitution by National Convention, but not yet proclaimed.
• July 27: Robespierre elected to Committee of Public Safety.

         July 28: Convention proscribes 21 Girondist deputies as enemies of France.
August 23: Levee en masse (conscription) order.

• September 5: Start of Reign of Terror.
• September 9: Establishment of sans-culottes paramili­tary forces — revolutionary armies.
• September 17: Law of Suspects passed.
• September 22: A new calendar is introduced, with September 22, 1792, as the start of year I.
• September 29: Convention passes the general maximum decree, fixing the prices of many goods and services.
• October 10: The Constitution of 1793 is put on hold; decree that the government must be "revolutionary until the peace".
• October 16: The former Queen Marie-Antoinette is guillotined.
• October 31: The 21 Girondist deputies guillotined.
• December 4: Law of 14 Frimaire (Lawof Revolutionary Government) passed; power becomes centralised on the Committee of Public Safety.

1794

• March 30: Danton, Desmoulins and their supporters arrested.
• April 5: Danton and Desmoulins guillotined.
• May 7: National Convention, led by Robespierre, passes decree to establish the Cult of the Supreme Being.

Execution of the King

Execution of Robespierre

• June 8: Festival of the Supreme Being.
• June 26: French forces defeat Austrians at the Battle of Fleurus.
• July 27-28: Night of 9-10 Thermidor — Robespierre arrested, guillotined without trial, along with other members of the Committee of Public Safety. End of the Reign of Terror. Also called The Thermidorian Reaction.

• Latter half of 1794: The White Terror — reaction against remaining Jacobins.

1795

• May 31: Suppression of the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal.
• August 22: 1795 Constitution ratified — bicameral system, executive Directory of five.
• October 26: National Convention dissolved.

The Directory

• November 2: Executive Directory takes on executive power.

1799

• November 9: The Coup d'Etat of 18 Brumaire: end of the Directory
• December 24: Constitution of the Year VIII — lead­ership of Napoleon established under the Consulate. French Revolution may be considered ended.

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