| 1789 |
|
Storming of the Bastille - start of French Revolution |
| 1792 |
|
French Republic declared |
| 1793 |
|
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette beheaded |
| 1793 |
|
Jean-Paul Marat beheaded after "Reign of Terror" |
| 1794 |
|
Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre beheaded |
| 1796 |
|
Napoleon Bonaparte begins conquests in Italy |
| 1797 |
|
Napoleon compels Austria to make peace |
| 1799 |
|
Napoleon leads coup d'etat in France and sets up Consulate |
| 1803 |
|
Napoleon sells Louisiana possessions to America to finance wars |
| 1804 |
|
Napoleon makes himself Emperor of France |
| 1805 |
|
Napoleon defeated by Lord Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar |
| 1806 |
|
German Empire re-organized by Napoleon - end of Holy Roman Empire |
| 1807 |
|
Napoleon controls most of Europe |
| 1808 |
|
Napoleon takes Spain but loses it again in Peninsula Wars |
| 1812 |
|
Napoleon's Grand Army destroyed and retreats from Moscow |
| 1814 |
|
Congress of Vienna - after Napoleon's defeat, Russia gains Poland and Finland,
Netherlands acquires Belgium, and Prussia obtains Saxony and Ruhr |
| 1814 |
|
Bourbon monarchy restored with Louis XVIII |
| 1815 |
|
Napoleon escapes exile in Elba and re-takes Paris |
| 1815 |
|
Napoleon's final defeat by Duke of Wellington at Waterloo - exiled |
| 1824 |
|
Charles X succedes as King of France |
| 1830 |
|
July Revolution makes Louis-Philippe "Citizen-King" |
| 1837 |
|
Early photography pioneered by Louis Daguerre |
| 1840 |
|
Pierre Joseph Proudhon propounds anarchist view that "property is theft" |
| 1848 |
|
Louis-Philippe abdicates - Second Republic declared |
| 1852 |
|
Louis Napoleon declares himself Emperor Napoleon III |
| 1857 |
|
Death of Auguste Comte (philosopher) |
| 1860 |
|
Death of Honoré de Balzac (writer) |
| 1863 |
|
Death of Eugene Delacroix (artist) |
| 1870 |
|
Death of Alexander Dumas (writer) |
| 1870 |
|
Napoleon III attacks Prussia |
| 1871 |
|
Commune of Paris crushed - Adolphe Thiers made President of French Republic |
| 1871 |
|
Prussia under Otto von Bismark annexes Alsace and Lorraine from France |
| 1874 |
|
First Impressionist exhibition (named after Monet painting) |
| 1880 |
|
Death of Gustave Flaubert (writer) |
| 1883 |
|
Death of Edouard Manet (artist) |
| 1885 |
|
Death of Victor Hugo (writer) |
| 1889 |
|
Eiffel Tower built in Paris (designed by Gustave Alexandre Eiffel) |
| 1890 |
|
Lumière bothers develop motion pictures |
| 1891 |
|
Death of Arthur Rimbaud (Symbolist poet) |
| 1894 |
|
Alfred Dreyfus convicted of treason |
| 1895 |
|
Death of Louis Pasteur (chemist) |
| 1902 |
|
Death of Emile Zola (writer) |
| 1906 |
|
Death of Paul Cézanne (artist) |
