French Rev + Napoleon timeline

10 May 1774

Louis XVI inherited the throne

1774 - 76

Turgot's financial reforms

1777 - 81

Necker as chief financial advisor

1778 - 83

France fought Britain in the American War of Independence

1783 - 87

Calonne's financial reforms

February 1787

Meeting of the Assembly of Notables

7 June 1788

Day of Tiles at Grenoble

Spring 1789

Cahiers drawn up

May 1789

Estates General met

20 June 1789

Tennis Court Oath

14 July 1789

Storming of the Bastille

Summer 1789

The Great Fear

August 1789

National Assembly declared an end to feudalism. Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

5 - 6 Oct 1789

October Days / Women's march on Versailles

12 July 1790

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

20 June 1791

Flight to Varennes

17 July 1791

Champs de Mars massacre

September 1791

Constitution - new Legislative Assembly

20 April 1792

War declared against Austria

August 1792

Publication of the Brunswick Manifesto

10 August 1792

Overthrow of the Monarchy

September 1792

September Massacres

January 1793

Trial and execution of Louis XVI; revolt in La Vendée begins

April 1793

Committee of Public Safety (CPS) created

31 May - 2 June 1793

Overthrow of Girondins

August 1793

Levée en masse decree issued

5 September 1793

Terror hailed as 'order of the day'

March 1794

Execution of Hébertists and Dantonists

June 1794

The Law of Prairial

July 1794

Thermidor; overthrow of Robespierre

1795

White Terror in Southern France

November 1795

Directory inaugurated

Aug - Nov 1793

Toulon campaign

March 1796

Napoleon appointed Commander of Italian campaign

1 July 1798 - 2 September 1801

Napoleon's Egyptian campaign

November 1798

War of the Second Coalition

November 1799

Coup of Brumaire - Napoleon took power; Napoleon becomes First Consul

14 June 1800

Battle of Marengo

July 1801

Concordat with the Pope

May 1802

Plebiscite confirmed Napoleon as Consul for Life

18 May 1803

Britain declared war on France, start of Napoleonic Wars

May 1804

Civil Code promulgated

December 1804

Napoleon crowned Emperor

April 1805

Third Coalition formed

October 1805 (Ulm - 16-19, Trafalgar - 21)

Naval defeat at Trafalgar ended any hope of invading Britain; victory at Ulm

2 December 1805

Napoleon won the Battle of Austerlitz against Austrians and Russians

14 October 1806

Napoleon defeated Prussians at the Battle of Jena and Auerstädt

June 1807

Russia defeated by Napoleon at Friedland; Treaty of Tilsit

May 1808

Spanish revolts led to French invasion of Spain

April 1809

War of the Fifth Coalition

June 1812

Napoleon invades Russia; Britain and the USA at war

December 1812

France withdrew from Russia after retreat from Moscow

March 1813

Sixth Coalition formed

16-19 October 1813

Napoleon defeated at Battle of Leipzig by an army of Austrians, Prussians and Russians, backed financially by Britain

March 1814

Treaty of Chaumont, formal alliance of the great powers - Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia

April 1814

Paris surrenders, Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba