Its first provision reads "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on considerations of the common good."
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 1789)
On the day the Bastille fell, his only diary entry was 'rien'.
Louis XVI
Seat of the Absolutist Monarchy in 1789, and location of the meeting of the Estates General.
Versailles
Storming of the Bastille
This was not abolished until 1981, and its last use was in 1977
Guillotine
Abolished privilege and 'feudalism' in France
August Decrees (August 1789)
Penned "Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-État?"
Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
This region in north-western France was the site of a major rebellion beginning in 1793
20 June 1789
The Tennis Court Oath
This emblem of the Revolution combines the colors of the King with those of Paris
The French flag
Provided for the election of Bishops, and made clergy into oath-bound salaried state employees
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)
A small, neurotic lawyer from Arras, obsessed with 'virtue'
Robespierre
The French National Anthem is named after this city
Marseilles
10 August 1792
Fall of the Monarchy
Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798-1800 resulted in the discovery of this, which allowed scholars to translate Egyptian Hieroglyphs for the first time
Rosetta Stone
Vastly expanded the definition of treason, and laid the legal groundwork for the Terror
The Law of Suspects (1793)
One of the framers of the Terror, he was beheaded when he called for its end.
Georges Danton
Capital was Cap‑Français
Saint-Domingue
21 January 1793
Execution of Louis XVI
Napoleon's nephew, the first President of France (1848-51), and founder of the Second French Empire (1851-70)
Napoleon III
The Law of the Maximum (September 1793)
Marie Antoinette
Royal palace in Paris, stormed by the crowd in August 1792 when the monarchy was overthrown
Tuileries
July 27-28 1794
Fall of Robespierre and his pals
France has had this many Republics
Five