Timeline: French Revolution

Chris Savino

Period 3

4/10/08

Timeline: The French Revolution

o 1789: Many people faced starvation. This is because of the increase of taxes.

o 1789: May 5, the meeting of the Estates General was called at Versailles. This was to approve the new tax. This was the 1st meeting in 175 years.

o 1789: There was a dramatic speech, which was the person, Sieye’s suggested that the 3rd estate delegates should call themselves the National Assembly; to pass laws and reforms in the name of the French people.

o 1789: June 17th, they voted to establish the National Assembly, in effect proclaiming the end of absolute monarchy and the beginning of the representative government. This was the 1st deliberate act of the French Revolution.

o 1789: June 20th, the delegates of the National Assembly found themselves locked out of their meeting room. They then, broke down the door of the local tennis court and pledged to stay there until they had made a new constitution. This became known as the Tennis Court Oath.

o 1789: July 14th, Rumors flew. IN response to these rumors, People began gathering weapons in order to defend the city against the attack. A mob in search of gunpowder, stormed the Bastille, a Paris prison. They seized control of this building. They killed the prison commander and guards. They took their heads and put them on pikes, as they paraded around the public city streets.

o 1789: August 4, noblemen made speeches, declaring their love of liberty and equality. Motivated more by fear than idealism, they joined the other members of the National Assembly in sweeping away the privileges of the 1st and 2nd estate, thus, making commoners equal to the nobles and the clergy. By morning, the old regime was dead.

o 1789: October, the Great Fear rolled around the streets. This was a rumor that the nobles were hiring outlaws to terrorize the peasants. The peasants soon became outlaws themselves. Armed with pitchforks and other farm tools, they broke into the nobles’ houses and destroyed the old legal papers and bound them to pay feudal dues. In some cases, the peasants simply burned down the manor houses.

o 1789: October, A few days later, thousands of Parisian women rioted over the outstanding prices of bread. Brandishing knives, axes, and other weapons, the women marched on Versailles. First, they demanded that the National Assembly take action to provide bread. Then they turned their anger on the king and queen. They

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