The 18th century’s Enlightment brought thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau to struggle against the principles of the old regime and absolutism. In 1789, the state’s financial crisis brought social turmoil, triggering the Revolution. On July 14th, a Parisian mob revolted and stormed the Bastille prison, symbol of the old regime. A few weeks later, the revolutionaries enacted the Declaration of the Rights of Man which embodied the principles of Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity) and had far reaching consequences for all the other European monarchies.
During the following decade France saw a succession of rivaling regimes which guillotined Louis XVI and scores of moderates as well as radicals at the Place de la Revolution, now known as Place de la Concorde. The Terror regime of Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety brought turmoil, confusion and anarchy in France.
Dateline:
1762
Rousseau’s Social contract
1774
Louis XVI becomes King
1778-83
The Kingdom supports the American Revolution
1789
French Revolution, storming of La Bastille
1792
Louis XVI overthrown
1794
Robespierre overthrown and end of the Terror
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