Slide 1 · States & Institutions of Power
A Financial Crisis Sparks Revolution
Decades of deficit spending and an unequal tax system left the French monarchy near bankruptcy. Louis XVI's convening of the Estates-General in 1789 — and the Third Estate's defiant Tennis Court Oath — turned a fiscal crisis into a constitutional confrontation.
Slide 2 · States & Institutions of Power
The Bastille Falls
On July 14, 1789, Parisian crowds stormed the Bastille fortress, a symbol of royal tyranny. The event marked the point of no return and is still commemorated today as the start of the French Revolution.
Slide 3 · States & Institutions of Power
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed that all men are born free and equal in rights, replacing divine-right monarchy with popular sovereignty as the new basis of legitimate government.
Slide 4 · Social Organization & Development
The Revolution Turns Radical
The monarchy was abolished and Louis XVI executed in 1793. Fear of foreign invasion and counter-revolution drove the Committee of Public Safety, led by Robespierre, to launch the Reign of Terror, executing tens of thousands.
Slide 5 · Social Organization & Development
De-Christianization & Robespierre's Fall
Radicals pursued de-Christianization, closing churches and promoting a secular "Cult of Reason." Robespierre's own intensifying use of terror eventually turned against him — he was arrested and executed in 1794, ending the Terror.
Slide 6 · States & Institutions of Power
Napoleon Rises & Codifies the Revolution
Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in the Coup of 18 Brumaire (1799) and crowned himself emperor in 1804. His Napoleonic Code preserved legal equality and ended feudal privilege — while restricting women's rights and reinforcing patriarchal authority.
Slide 7 · States & Institutions of Power
Napoleon's Empire Collapses
The Continental System failed to cripple Britain economically, and Napoleon's disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia destroyed his Grand Army. After a brief return to power, his final defeat at Waterloo in 1815 ended his rule.
Slide 8 · National & European Identity
The Congress of Vienna & Rising Nationalism
Metternich led the Congress of Vienna in restoring conservative monarchies and a balance of power through the Concert of Europe. Yet the Revolution and Napoleon's conquests had already sparked nationalism, while Edmund Burke's conservative critique shaped a new intellectual reaction against revolutionary change.