Top Ten Major Events of the French Revolution

From September 1793 to July 1794, France underwent a very dark period. Maximilien Robespierre and his radical Jacobin Club had taken over the government. They would silence all opposition to their cause, whether that be nobles, religious leaders, people loyal to the King, or even moderates.

If you opposed the government, you were convicted of treason and executed by way of the guillotine, an innovative creation that perfected the art of murder. It was quick and painless. At least 17,000 people were executed, and at least 10,000 died in prison. No one was safe from the government. One out of 50 Frenchmen was executed.

It was a time of terror, and it was the darkest and deadliest point of the Revolution. Censorship was at its highest form. Some of the ideas at the time were very strange. They got rid of the Caesar calendar because it was used by the old France. They got rid of all symbols of old France. People thought Robespierre was like Moses. Just weird times.

The Storming of the Bastille is simply iconic. Americans have the Boston Tea Party. The French have the Storming of the Bastille. A mob of angry Paris citizens attacked the Bastille Prison on July 14th, 1789, in search of ammunition. It resulted in 98 deaths.

The Bastille Storming would show that the French Third Estate was serious about the Revolution. This event would even end up becoming a holiday in France for people seeking liberty and freedom. It is generally seen as the first conflict in the Revolution.

On October 5th, much of the Third Estate oppression happened in Paris. The royal family lived in Versailles. The Third Estate was starving. Thousands of women marched the thirteen-mile walk to Versailles. They sought to bring the King back to Paris and kill the Queen, who lived luxuriously and was out of touch with the people.

The Queen was nearly murdered, but eventually, the Royal Family was escorted back to Paris by the National Guards and thousands of protesters carrying the Versailles guards' heads on pikes. This was the first example of extreme violence in the Revolution, and it foreshadowed the atrocities to come.

On June 20th, 1789, after King Louis XVI had started to lock the new National Assembly out of their meeting buildings, a group of Third Estate citizens and higher Estate citizens sympathetic to the cause knew they needed to change things. They found an empty tennis court and vowed to stay together until a new constitution was drafted by the government.

This would prove vital in the future and showed a commitment to freedom and liberty. Without this, government change would never have happened.

I believe that the murder of Jean-Paul Marat was the spark that lit the Reign of Terror. Marat was a scientist confined to a tub because of a skin condition. He spent all his time writing, and his writings were very, very radical. He called for the murders of French nobles and a coup of the government. He was a lunatic.

If anyone disagreed, they were to be immediately tried and executed. On July 13th, 1793, Charlotte Corday, a Third Estate woman who was upset with what was happening, claimed she had a list of anti-revolutionaries. She was invited to his house, and she murdered him. Unfortunately, Marat was even more powerful dead. He would become a martyr and was glorified as Jesus-like.

Maximilien Robespierre is like the main character of the French Revolution. He was the leader of the Reign of Terror and was considered Moses-like. In the beginning, he was adored, but towards the end, he went utterly mad. He thought everyone was out to get him.

He was the most powerful man in the Revolution. He would write down people that were suspect, and they were tried and most of the time murdered. No one was protected from Robespierre's list, not even Robespierre himself. After his fellow authorities figured out they were going to be executed, they executed Robespierre first on July 24th, 1794. That would end the Reign of Terror.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a very popular general during the French Revolution. He very rarely lost a battle and brought glory to France in dark days. Upon his return from Egypt, he saw Paris in a weak state. Some members of the government also sought stability.

So on November 9th, 1799, Napoleon and his army stormed the Capitol. He basically forced everyone to step down, and they named him consul after tense debate and a few punches thrown. Amazingly, not a single death happened. This coup would make Napoleon the undisputed leader for decades. It would end the French Revolution and lead to peace. Despite what historians tell you, Napoleon was a great leader and a man of the people.

France was in financial distress after centuries of war and the lavish living of the First and Second Estates. As a result, the King called the very rare Estates General. In the Estates General, every estate had one vote. The Third Estate, which encompassed 97 percent of the population, was outvoted on everything. This inequality and lack of representation would lead to the French Revolution.

Tired of being captive to revolutionaries, the Royal Family attempted to escape on the night of June 20th, 1790, from the Palace of Tuileries. They sought to go to Austria, the country of Marie Antoinette, and stage a counter-revolution. They were caught, however, in Varennes and sent back to Paris.

This would anger the revolutionaries. It would further distance the Royal Family from the people and the public trust in nobility. In 1793, King Louis XVI would be executed, and Marie Antoinette as well.