French Revolution
Overview
 
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' (La Grande Révolution), was a period of radical
Political radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...

 social and political upheaval in France
History of France
The history of France goes back to the arrival of the earliest human being in what is now France. Members of the genus Homo entered the area hundreds of thousands years ago, while the first modern Homo sapiens, the Cro-Magnons, arrived around 40,000 years ago...

 and Europe
History of Europe
History of Europe describes the history of humans inhabiting the European continent since it was first populated in prehistoric times to present, with the first human settlement between 45,000 and 25,000 BC.-Overview:...

. The absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...

 that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

, aristocratic and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from radical
Political radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...

 left-wing political groups, masses on the streets
Sans-culottes
In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...

, and peasants in the countryside.
Timeline

987    Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France till the French Revolution in 1792.

1786    French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convened.

1789    French Revolution: citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners.

1789    French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles in the March on Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court moved to Paris.

1789    French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October

1790    French Revolution: the Revolutionary Tribunal is suppressed.

1790    Edmund Burke publishes ''Reflections on the Revolution in France'', in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster.

1790    Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.

1791    Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing as many as 50 people.

1792    French Revolution: French Revolution: French Revolution: [[10 August (French Revolution)|Storming of the Tuileries Palace

 
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