Difficulty: Introductory | Prerequisites: French Revolution causes (Enlightenment, taxation, American Revolution)
The French Revolution's defining events unfolded between 1789 and 1794. The Storming of the Bastille marked the moment popular anger turned into open revolt, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen laid out the ideological blueprint for a new France, and the Reign of Terror showed how revolutionary ideals could curdle into state violence.
The Bastille
A medieval fortress and state prison in Paris that symbolised royal authority and arbitrary imprisonment. By 1789 it held only a handful of prisoners, but its symbolic importance far outweighed its practical function.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
A foundational document of the French Revolution, adopted on 26 August 1789, asserting that all men are born free and equal in rights and that sovereignty resides in the nation. Think of it as France's equivalent of the American Bill of Rights, but more explicitly universal in its language.
The Reign of Terror (la Terreur)
The period from September 1793 to July 1794 during which the revolutionary government, led by the Committee of Public Safety, used mass executions, surveillance and political purges to eliminate perceived enemies of the Revolution. In simple terms, it was the Revolution eating its own.
Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public)
The executive body that effectively governed France during the Terror, led by Maximilien Robespierre. It held sweeping powers over military, judicial and economic affairs.
Guillotine
The mechanical execution device adopted during the Revolution as a supposedly humane and egalitarian method of capital punishment. It became the most visible instrument of the Terror.
National Assembly
The revolutionary legislature formed in June 1789 when representatives of the Third Estate broke away from the Estates-General. It claimed to represent the French nation and became the vehicle for constitutional reform.
A large Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille fortress, seeking weapons and ammunition amid fears that the king would use the army against the National Assembly.
The Bastille held only seven prisoners at the time; the act was symbolic far more than strategic.
The crowd's success demonstrated that the royal government had lost control of Paris and could not rely on troops to suppress popular unrest.
14 July became France's national day (Bastille Day), marking the moment the Revolution became irreversible.
The fall of the Bastille triggered a wave of similar uprisings across France, as rural and urban populations attacked symbols of feudal and royal authority.
Adopted by the National Assembly, the Declaration set out a series of universal rights: liberty, property, security and resistance to oppression.
It affirmed that sovereignty belongs to the nation, not to the king, and that law must be the expression of the general will.
The Declaration drew heavily on Enlightenment philosophy, particularly Rousseau and Montesquieu, and on the precedent of the American Declaration of Independence.
It did not extend rights to women or enslaved people, a limitation that drew criticism even at the time (notably from Olympe de Gouges, who published a parallel Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791).
The Declaration became the ideological foundation for subsequent constitutions and legal reforms in France and influenced human-rights declarations worldwide.
The Committee of Public Safety, dominated by Robespierre, assumed emergency powers to defend the Revolution against internal and external threats.
An estimated 16,000 to 40,000 people were executed during this period, including former allies of the Revolution, the queen (Marie Antoinette) and eventually Robespierre himself.
The Terror was justified by its leaders as a necessary defence of republican virtue against counter-revolutionary conspiracy, foreign invasion and civil war.
The Law of Suspects (September 1793) broadened the definition of "enemy of the Revolution" so far that almost anyone could be arrested on vague charges.
The Terror ended with the Thermidorian Reaction (July 1794), when Robespierre was arrested and executed, and the Convention pulled back from radical governance.
Students often think the Bastille was full of political prisoners. By 1789 it held only seven inmates, and the real significance of storming it was symbolic: it represented the people's refusal to accept royal authority.
Students sometimes treat the Declaration of the Rights of Man as a constitution. It was a statement of principles, not a governing document. France's first written constitution came later, in 1791.
Students frequently assume the Reign of Terror was irrational mob violence. It was, in fact, a deliberate policy carried out through legal mechanisms (tribunals, laws, committees), which makes it more troubling, not less.
Students often forget that the Terror targeted revolutionaries as well as royalists. Many of those executed had been leading figures of the Revolution itself.
⚠️ The Storming of the Bastille is a staple exam question. Be ready to explain both its practical effects (weapons seized, royal authority challenged) and its symbolic significance (popular sovereignty in action).
⚠️ Know the specific rights listed in the Declaration: liberty, property, security, resistance to oppression. Exams may ask you to compare these with the American Bill of Rights.
⚠️ The Reign of Terror is often tested as a turning point. Be prepared to argue whether the Terror was a betrayal of revolutionary ideals or a logical extension of them.
⚠️ Questions may ask you to place these events in chronological order and explain how each one led to the next. A strong timeline sense is essential.
Fill in the blank: The Bastille was stormed on _______, 1789.
True or False: The Declaration of the Rights of Man extended equal rights to women.
Fill in the blank: The Reign of Terror was led by the _______ of Public Safety.
True or False: Robespierre survived the Terror and died of natural causes.
Fill in the blank: The Terror ended with the _______ Reaction in July 1794.
Answers: 1. 14 July. 2. False (it did not; Olympe de Gouges published a parallel declaration for women in 1791). 3. Committee. 4. False (he was arrested and executed). 5. Thermidorian.
Q: Why was the Storming of the Bastille significant beyond its immediate military impact?
A: The Bastille held only seven prisoners and was lightly defended, so the military gain was minimal. Its significance was symbolic: it demonstrated that ordinary Parisians were willing to use force against royal authority, and it proved the government could not rely on soldiers to suppress the populace. The event galvanised revolutionary movements across France and became the founding moment of the new political order.
Q: What principles did the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen establish, and what were its limitations?
A: The Declaration established that all men are born free and equal in rights, that sovereignty resides in the nation, and that the purpose of government is to protect natural rights (liberty, property, security, resistance to oppression). Its main limitation was its exclusion of women, enslaved people and colonial subjects from these rights, a contradiction that critics like Olympe de Gouges highlighted immediately.
Q: Was the Reign of Terror a betrayal of the Revolution's original ideals, or a defence of them? Argue one side.
A: For a "defence" argument: The Revolution faced genuine existential threats (foreign invasion, civil war in the Vendée, counter-revolutionary plots), and the Committee of Public Safety argued that extraordinary measures were needed to preserve the republic. For a "betrayal" argument: The Terror's mass executions, suppression of dissent and concentration of power in the Committee directly contradicted the rights the Revolution had proclaimed, particularly liberty and due process. A strong exam answer acknowledges both perspectives and takes a clear position.
These events follow directly from the causes covered in the Causes study notes (Enlightenment ideas, tax inequality, the American example). Each event can be read as a specific eruption of those underlying pressures.
The Reign of Terror also connects forward to the effects of the Revolution: the political instability and public exhaustion created by the Terror opened the door for Napoleon's rise, covered in the Effects study notes. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, meanwhile, influenced human-rights thinking globally, from the UN Universal Declaration (1948) to modern constitutional law.
French Revolution events, Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789, Bastille Day, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 26 August 1789, Reign of Terror, la Terreur, Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre, guillotine, Thermidorian Reaction, National Assembly, Olympe de Gouges, Law of Suspects, popular sovereignty, revolutionary tribunals, Marie Antoinette execution