1. Major Events of the French Revolution
Chapter 19 Lesson 2 Notes:
Major Events of the French Revolution
from the fleur de lis flag before the revolution
to the tri-color flag during and since the revolution

2. Nat’l Assembly writes a bill of rights called the
After the 3rd Estate declares itself a National Assembly as the first deliberate act of the French Revolution; the Parisians storm the Bastille for weapons to defend the new National Assembly; the Great Fear, orchestrated by peasants, causes terrified French nobles, called émigrés, to flee their homeland, the:
Nat’l Assembly writes a bill of rights called the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of 1791 providing France with a limited constitutional monarchy in the name of Louis XVI

3. 1st Estate lands are confiscated and privileges
are revoked by a new anti-
Catholic law called
the Civil Constitution of the Clergy to pay off the
state’s debts
Nat’l Assembly dissolves itself and a new

4. Legislative Assembly is elected:
1. Conservatives (royalists) sat on right side [of
center] = an absolute monarchy
2. Radicals to the left [of center] = depose king;
establish republic
3. Centrists (moderates) in middle =
limited constitutional monarchy

5. 1. émigrés work as counter-revolutionaries
Problems faced by Leg. Assembly:
1. émigrés work as counter-revolutionaries
2. The Paris Commune, city government
radicals, supported by
sans-culottes, demands a
republic

6. Hapsburgs and Prussian Hohenzollerns declare war on France
3. Austrian
Hapsburgs and Prussian
Hohenzollerns declare war on France
4. royal family
attempts to
escape; is
imprisoned;
since a limited
monarchy is no
longer an option
the 1791
Constitution
must be revoked;

7. The National Convention is elected and radicals, called
Legislative Assembly dissolves itself
The National Convention is elected and
radicals, called
Jacobins, who lead the
Mountain, take control over
the conservatives called
Girondists
The monarchy is abolished;

8. introduction of a new killing machine

9. King Louis XVI is guillotined

10. Introduces universal manhood suffrage (all
France is declared a republic
Introduces universal manhood suffrage (all
adult males given right to vote)
Institutes conscription (the draft of a citizen-
army) to defend against First Coalition, an
alliance of foreign countries determined to
prevent the revolution from spreading outside
of France

11. Reign of Terror begins July 1793: 1. is led by 3 Jacobins:
A radical time period known as the
Reign of Terror begins July 1793:
1. is led by 3 Jacobins:
Robespierre, the
most fanatical radical;
(Robespierre carefully eyeing through groups of French citizens to determine which ones are “enemies” of the new French republic)

12. Charlotte Corday, Marat’s assassin
Danton, editor of a Paris Commune radical
newspaper; and Marat another French
revolutionary leader who will be assassinated
in his bathtub.
Charlotte Corday, Marat’s assassin

13. Committee of Public Safety,
these radical leaders establish a 12-member
court called the
Committee of Public Safety,
that within a year’s time, will execute about
40,000 enemies of the republic, including
Queen Marie Antoinette and Danton
3. Terror ends in July 1794 with the
Thermidorian Reaction when
Robespierre is beheaded
[“show my head to the people – it will be
worth it.”]
The Constitution of
1795 creates a 5-man moderate executive
branch called the
Directory to rule France and the Directory
chooses

14. Napoleon Bonaparte to lead France’s
citizen-army