The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the French Revolution.

The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789, and ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in November 1799 and the formation of the French Consulate. Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while its values and institutions remain central to modern French political discourse.

Background

Factors which can be seen as leading to the French Revolution:

• Ancien régime
• Ruling Elite
• Age of Enlightenment
• American Revolution
• Anglo-French War (1778–1783)
• Affair of the Diamond Necklace
• Estates General of 1789
• Tennis Court Oath

Important Events

Abolition of the Ancien Régime

• Storming of the Bastille
• Creation of the Paris Commune
• August Decrees
• Abolition of feudalism in France
• National Assembly (French Revolution)
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
• Women's March on Versailles
• Insurrection of 10 August 1792
• Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy

Creation of the First French Republic

French First Republic

• Legislative Assembly
• National Convention
• Execution of Louis XVI
• Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793
• September Massacres
• Creation of the French Republican calendar
• Creation of the Committee of Public Safety
• Commission of Twelve
• French Constitution of 1793

Reign of terror

Reign of Terror

• Law of General Maximum
• Law of Suspects
• Drownings at Nantes
• Anti-Religious Policies
• Law of 22 Prairial
• Cult of the Supreme Being
• Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

Thermidorian Reaction

Thermidorian Reaction

• First White Terror
• Law of 22 Prairial
• Companions of Jehu
• Constitution of the Year III

• Council of Ancients
• Council of Five Hundred
• Hyperinflation of Assignat

The Directory

French Directory

• 13 Vendémiaire
• 1795 French legislative election
• Conspiracy of the Equals
• Coup of 18 Fructidor
• 1798 French legislative election

The Consulate

French Consulate

• 1799 French legislative election
• Coup of 30 Prairial VII
• Coup of 18 Brumaire
• French Consulate
• Constitution of the Year VIII
• Napoleon proclaims himself Emperor of the French

Leading Political Figures

Political Parties and Clubs

• Cordeliers
• Enragés
• Girondins
• Hébertists
• Jacobins
• Sans-culottes
• The Mountain

Political Leaders

• Bertrand Barère
• Billaud-Varenne
• Camille Desmoulins
• Collot d'Herbois
• Georges Couthon
• Georges Danton
• Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles
• Jean-Lambert Tallien
• Jacques Pierre Brissot
• Jean-Paul Marat
• Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
• Joseph Fouché
• Lazare Carnot
• Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
• Maximilien Robespierre
• Paul Barras

French Revolutionary Wars

French Revolutionary Wars

Participants

anti-French coalition

• Catholic and Royal Armies
  • Armée des Émigrés
• Dutch Republic (1793–95)
• Holy Roman Empire
  • Austria (until 1801)
  • Prussia (1792–95)
  • Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg
  • Baden
  • Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel
  • Wurttemberg
  • Brunswick
• Kingdom of Great Britain (Until 1801)
  • Anglo-Corsican Kingdom (until 1796)
• United Kingdom
• Kingdom of Spain (1793–95)
• Kingdom of Sardinia
• Kingdom of Naples
• Old Swiss Confederacy (1798)
• Order of Saint John (1798)
• Malta (1798–1800)
• Ottoman Empire
• Portugal
• Russia (1799)
• Tuscany

France and Allies

• Kingdom of France (until 1792)
• French Republic (from 1792)
  • Batavian Republic (1795–1802)
  • Irish Republic
  • Polish Legions
  • Helvetic Republic (1798, 1802)
• Spain (1796–1802)

War of the First Coalition

• War of the First Coalition
• List of battles of the War of the First Coalition
• Campaigns of 1792 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1793 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1795 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1796 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1797 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1798 in the French Revolutionary Wars

War of the Second Coalition

• War of the Second Coalition
• Campaigns of 1799 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1800 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Campaigns of 1801 in the French Revolutionary Wars
• Treaty of Amiens

Leading Military Figures

France

• André Masséna
• Charles François Dumouriez
• François Kellermann
• Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
• Jean-Charles Pichegru
• Jean Lannes
• Jean Victor Moreau
• Lazare Hoche
• Jean Humbert
• Louis Desaix
• Marquis de Lafayette
• Napoleon Bonaparte

Spain

• Antonio Ricardos
• Ignacio de Álava
• Luis Firmín

Catholic and Royal Armies

• Prince of Condé
• Jacques Cathelineau
• Henri de la Rochejaquelein
• Georges Cadoudal
• Jean Chouan

Holy Roman Empire

• József Alvinczi
• Michael von Melas
• Count of Clerfayt
• Prince Josias
• Sigmund von Wurmser

Prussia

• Frederick William II
• Duke of Brunswick
• Prince of Hohenlohe

Great Britain

• Horatio Nelson
• Ralph Abercromby
• Sidney Smith

See Also

• Glossary of the French Revolution
• List of people associated with the French Revolution
• List of political groups in the French Revolution
• Symbolism in the French Revolution