Tag: French Revolution

• Podcast

26th August 1789: Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man in France

• 26th August 2022
• Tagged as: France, French Revolution, National Constituent Assembly, Rights of Man

The National Constituent Assembly of France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

• Podcast

10th August 1793: The Louvre museum in Paris opens to the public for the first time

• 10th August 2022
• Tagged as: Art, Culture, France, French Revolution, Louvre, Museum, Paris

The Louvre museum in Paris opened to the public in the former palace of the French royal family.

• Podcast

30th July 1792: La Marseillaise, the future French national anthem, first sung in Paris by a group of volunteer soldiers from the city of Marseille

• 30th July 2022
• Tagged as: Culture, France, French Revolution, French Revolutionary Wars, Louis XVIII, Marseille, Music, National Anthem, Nationalism, Paris

La Marseillaise was composed by a French army officer and was originally called the ‘War Song for the Army of the Rhine’ with the aim of rallying soldiers fighting in Strasbourg during the French Revolutionary Wars.

• Podcast

14th July 1789: Storming of the Bastille in Paris

• 14th July 2022
• Tagged as: France, French Revolution, Louis XVI, Revolution, Versailles

The morning of the 14^th July 1789 saw the beginning of the French Revolution when Parisian revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, a large fortress, prison and ammunition store that symbolised everything that was wrong with the monarchy.

• Podcast

20th June 1789: Tennis Court Oath sworn by the French National Assembly in which they vowed not to separate until a written constitution had been established

• 20th June 2022
• Tagged as: Democracy, Estates General, France, French Revolution, Louis XVI, Monarchy, National Assembly, Nobility, Revolution, Tennis Court Oath, Third Estate

The Deputies of the French Third Estate swore not to separate until a written constitution had been established for the country.

• Podcast

18th June 1815: Battle of Waterloo heralds the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte

• 18th June 2022
• Tagged as: Army, Belgium, Britain, France, French Revolution, Military, Napoleon, Napoleonic Wars, Prussia, War, Waterloo, Wellington

Combined British and Prussian military forces defeated the French, but Wellington himself said that the battle was ‘the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life’.

• Podcast

7th May 1794: Cult of the Supreme Being formally announced by Robespierre in a meeting of the National Convention

• 7th May 2022
• Tagged as: Cult of the Supreme Being, France, French Revolution, Religion, Robespierre

The Cult of the Supreme Being recognised that God had created the universe, but that He did not interfere or intervene in its operation. Therefore it taught that humans were responsible for their own actions and destinies.

• Podcast

21st January 1793: Former French King Louis XVI executed by guillotine at the Place de la Revolution in Paris

• 21st January 2022
• Tagged as: Execution, France, French Revolution, Guillotine, Louis XVI, Politics, Regicide, Revolution

The blade fell at 10.22am, after which it is reported that a number of members of the public rushed forward to dip their handkerchiefs in Louis’ blood.

• Podcast

9th January 1799: Modern income tax introduced to pay for the French Revolutionary Wars

• 9th January 2022
• Tagged as: Britain, Economics, Economy, England, Finance, France, French Revolution, French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleon, Pitt the Younger, Tax, Taxation, United Kingdom, War of the First Coalition

Although the income tax was abolished in 1802, it was reinstated and repealed another two times before being made permanent.

• Podcast

10th December 1799: France adopts the metric system for weights and measures

• 10th December 2021
• Tagged as: Equator, France, French Revolution, Metric, Napoleon, Science, Standardisation, Technology

It is estimated that up to a quarter of a million different units of measurement were in use throughout France at eve of the Revolution in 1789, and that these differed not only from trade to trade but also from town to town.