French Revolution Essay Examples

5 May 1789 – 9 November 1799

Kingdom of France

Coup of 18–19 Brumaire, Civil Constitution of the Clergy, French Revolutionary wars, Reign of Terror, Thermidorian Reaction.

Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon I, Maximilien Robespierre.

In May 1789, widespread social distress led to the convocation of the Estates General, which was converted into a National Assembly in June. Continuing unrest culminated in the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July, which led to a series of radical measures by the Assembly, including the abolition of feudalism, the imposition of state control over the Catholic Church in France, and extension of the right to vote.

In some respects, the French Revolution did not succeed. But the ideas of representational democracy and basic property rights took hold, and it sowed the seeds of the later revolutions of 1830 and 1848.