State · 1789–1799
The French Revolution
Site of the Bastille, Paris
Amid financial crisis and widespread distress, the Estates General met in May 1789 for the first time since 1614; the Third Estate broke away to form a National Assembly, and on 14 July crowds in Paris stormed the Bastille fortress. The Assembly abolished feudalism and issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen; the monarchy was replaced by a republic in September 1792, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793, and after the Reign of Terror the Revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte seized power on 9 November 1799.
Why it mattered
Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, and the wars that grew out of it reshaped Europe.
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