Timeline
- Location
- Texas
1789: Suffering from economic crisis at home and war abroad, the government of King Louis XIV dissolves, ceding the absolute monarchy to the popularly-elected National Convention. The Bastille is stormed by rioting soldiers on July 14th, marking the official commencement of the French Revolution. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is published, guaranteeing democratic rights to every French citizen, and feudalism is abolished in France.
1791-1794: The King is arrested at Varennes while attempting to flee the country, deposed, and executed by guillotine as Citizen Louis Capet. The First Republic is declared, and the wars of the First Coalition begin as the monarchies of Europe take arms against the Revolution, with aid from royalist forces inside France itself. Maximilien Robespierre and the Girondin faction of the Jacobin party rise to power in the National Convention, forming the Committee of National Safety to preserve the Revolution. Over the next several years, they execute tens of thousands of royalists, radicals, revolutionary Catholics, separatists, and other 'enemies of liberty'. This is the Reign of Terror.
1793: A young officer from the island of Corsica is appointed commander of the artillery at the siege of Toulon. It is his first significant command.
1794: Royalist forces in France are largely defeated. Slavery is abolished and many freedoms expanded to the people. However, by mid-year the Constitution is suspended, Marie Antoinette is executed, and the Reign of Terror reaches a fever pitch. Robespierre attempts to institute the Cult of the Supreme Being, and many of his enemies within the Jacobin Party are executed or disappeared. On 28 July, Robespierre himself and many of his allies are executed, and the right wing of the National Convention seizes control -- beginning the Thermidorian Reaction. Napoleon Bonaparte is charged to the Army of Italy as a brigadier general. He is only 24, but achieves several noteworthy victories.
1795: The White Terror. The Jacobins are purged by the thousand, and Protestants, atheists, and accused friends of Robespierre are executed en masse. Prussia and Spain are forced to make peace with the French,ending the War of the First Coalition, and the Dutch provinces are reorganized into the Batavian Republic. A new constitution is promulgated, many electoral and democratic rights are suspended, and executive power is given to a five-man Directory with absolute veto power. Empowered by the Directory, by the end of the year the royalists of Paris rise up against the National Convention. The Directory charges General Bonaparte to protect the delegates. Using cannons seized by his cavalry officer Joachim Murat, he clears the streets with a 'whiff of grapeshot', saving the Revolution.
1796-1797: Now famous, Napoleon is charged with full command of the Army of Italy, rapidly overwhelming and defeating the Austrians and their Italian allies in an unbroken string of 67 successful actions, sieges, and pitched battles. By the middle of 1797, he is only 60 miles march from Vienna, and the Austrians are compelled to surrender. Sister Republics are carved out of Italy, and Napoleon rapidly becomes the most famous man in France. Alarmed by successful royalist elections in Paris, he initiates, alongside foreign minister Talleyrand, the Coup of 18 Fructidor, where the royalists are expelled from the legislature and the Directory assumes total power -- backed by Napoleon.
1798-1799: The War of the Second Coalition begins. Now in total control of the Directory, Napoleon induces them to begin an invasion of Egypt. He wishes to use it as a base to march on India, and take the subcontinent from the British. He defeats the ruling Mamelukes in the Battle of the Pyramids in late July, but the French fleet supporting his army is destroyed in August by the British Navy. Facing starvation, disease, and mounting local resistance to French rule, he abandons Egypt. Returning to Paris, he and his brother Lucien initiate the bloodless coup of 18 Brumaire. The Directors are forced to resign, and Napoleon becomes First Consul of France, assuming leadership of the French nation.
1800: The Austrians defeat Jourdan at the Battle of Ostrach, and though General Massena is victorious in Switzerland, the French armies falter on all fronts. Napoleon returns from Egypt and turns the tide, crossing the still-snowed Alps to surprise the Austrians at the battle of Marengo. The Austrian position collapses within the month, and Italy is conquered. The War of the Second Coalition is ended by 1801.
1801-1804: The short peace. Napoleon consolidates power. Reinstating slavery, he attempts to bolster the French war economy by retaking the newly independent island of Haiti, an effort which fails. He instead sells all French North American possessions to the United States. Many royalists and republicans alike are arrested or otherwise silenced, and several assassination plots against Napoleon are discovered and foiled. In 1802, Napoleon is elected Consul for life, and in 1804 he is elected Emperor of the French. The Republic is reformed into the French Empire, with the Bonaparte dynasty at its head. A peerage of imperial nobility is established, raised from Napoleon's officers and followers.
1804-1805: Napoleon assembles a great army to invade Britain. After Britain, Austria, Sweden, and Russia again declare war, beginning the war of the Third Coalition, he turns this army towards the Rhine in early September. In a month-long campaign around Ulm, he completely encircles and destroys the main body of the Austrian army of the north. Vienna falls by September, and in December, the majority of the Russian and Austrian armies are utterly defeated by Napoleon in the Battle of Austerlitz -- a total victory for the French, and the greatest victory of the Emperor's career.
1806-1807: The War of the Third Coalition is ended. The Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of 28 German states, is formed, and the thousand-year old Holy Roman Empire is dissolved. To keep control over Germany, the Prussians declare the War of the Fourth Coalition in late September. At the double Battles of Jena and Auerstadt, the French defeat the main body of the Prussian Army. Over the next few months the Emperor engages the Russians in a bloody campaign in Eastern Europe which eventually ends with a peace at Tilsit. The French and Russian Emperors meet and agree to an anti-British alliance. Napoleon establishes the Continental System, forbidding all trade with Britain by any mainland nation. Prussia is carved in half and the Kingdom of Westphalia is established for his brother Jerome.
1808: Under Napoleon's orders, Marshal Murat leads an army into Spain to 'restore order' and support the war effort against Britain's ally, Portugal. His brother Joseph is forcibly appointed King of Spain. This sparks fierce resistance and galvanizes Britain's enemies. The Emperor enters Spain personally to lead a lightning campaign which pushes the British out of Iberia, but resistance continues. Over the next few years, more and more of France's manpower is sucked into maintaining the occupation.
1809-1811: The War of the Fifth Coalition is started by a resurgent Austria. Napoleon is defeated in battle for the first time at Essling, but in the following Battle of Wagram, destroys the Austrian army with the highest casualties of any battle thus far for any side. Austria loses vast amounts of territory, but marries the Austrian princess Marie Louise to Napoleon, giving him imperial legitimacy in order to save the Habsburg dynasty. Their son, Napoleon II, is born the next year.
1812: The faltering Continental System and the increasingly strained relationship between Napoleon and Emperor Alexander leads the Emperor to consider war with Russia to bind it as he has bound Austria. Advice from Caulaincourt, Talleyrand, and others lead him to uncharacteristically delay. The Emperor refuses Alexander's double request to revoke the rights granted to the Jewish population of French Europe in the Constitution of 1811 and to cede most of the Duchy of Warsaw.
1813: On January 12, 1813, the Russian Empire marches troops into Poland, and Napoleon marches in it's defense, beginning The Second Polish War. In a truly brutal campaign, the French armies suffer more casualties than any other war thus far, and much of Poland is ravaged by the conflict. Sensing weakness, the British and Prussians ally with Russia, beginning the War of the Sixth Coalition. In the Battle of Kalisz, the allied forces are soundly defeated, and in the succeeding treaty, the Duchy of Warsaw is expanded to the Kingdom of Poland, while the Duchy of Lithuania is created to buffer Russia. The Kingdom of Prussia is dissolved, with its constituent parts split between the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Kingdom of Poland. The Hohenzhollern monarchs flee into exile.
1814-1815: France, teetering on the edge of collapse after ten unbroken years of war, licks her wounds and rebuilds. The Emperor, facing growing unrest at home and in the occupied dominions, embarks on a wide-reaching project of liberalization and reform, recriminalizing the slave trade and establishing an Imperial Parliament with constitutional protections. Late in the year, British forces land in Portugal and begin pushing across the peninsula, defeating the forces of Marshal Massena in detail. Simultaneously, the Russians, Swedes, and Austrians declare war to contain Napoleon, while the exiled Hohenzollern princes land in Holland with a British army at their backs. In the 'Rhenish Vespers', nine of the most powerful German states side with the British, betraying Napoleon. In the north, Swedish forces under Bernadotte sweep across Denmark.
1816: France's darkest hour — the War of the Seventh Coalition. Massena's crumbling army is nearly driven from Spain, but the VI Corps under Jourdan is able to pull victory from the jaws of defeat and reverse the losses of the last months. Simultaneously, Napoleon encircles and destroys an Anglo-Prussian army in the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean. Rejecting initial offers of a treaty, the Emperor pushes across Germany in a bloody and punitive campaign, dividing his Marshals to all fronts. Marshals Soult and Davout take Vienna. Either by accident or under direct orders from the emperor, the city is fired. Pushed to his logistical limit, the Emperor nonetheless meets the combined Austro-Russian Army once more at Eichstätt, in Bavaria. In a victory reminiscent of Cannae or Austerlitz, the majority of the enemy army is killed or captured, including the Emperor Alexander. In the final moments of the battle, Napoleon is struck by a stray cannonball, crushing his legs, and dies forty-nine minutes later. His final words are "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine".
The Austrians and Russians offer their unconditional surrender one hour later.
1791-1794: The King is arrested at Varennes while attempting to flee the country, deposed, and executed by guillotine as Citizen Louis Capet. The First Republic is declared, and the wars of the First Coalition begin as the monarchies of Europe take arms against the Revolution, with aid from royalist forces inside France itself. Maximilien Robespierre and the Girondin faction of the Jacobin party rise to power in the National Convention, forming the Committee of National Safety to preserve the Revolution. Over the next several years, they execute tens of thousands of royalists, radicals, revolutionary Catholics, separatists, and other 'enemies of liberty'. This is the Reign of Terror.
1793: A young officer from the island of Corsica is appointed commander of the artillery at the siege of Toulon. It is his first significant command.
1794: Royalist forces in France are largely defeated. Slavery is abolished and many freedoms expanded to the people. However, by mid-year the Constitution is suspended, Marie Antoinette is executed, and the Reign of Terror reaches a fever pitch. Robespierre attempts to institute the Cult of the Supreme Being, and many of his enemies within the Jacobin Party are executed or disappeared. On 28 July, Robespierre himself and many of his allies are executed, and the right wing of the National Convention seizes control -- beginning the Thermidorian Reaction. Napoleon Bonaparte is charged to the Army of Italy as a brigadier general. He is only 24, but achieves several noteworthy victories.
1795: The White Terror. The Jacobins are purged by the thousand, and Protestants, atheists, and accused friends of Robespierre are executed en masse. Prussia and Spain are forced to make peace with the French,ending the War of the First Coalition, and the Dutch provinces are reorganized into the Batavian Republic. A new constitution is promulgated, many electoral and democratic rights are suspended, and executive power is given to a five-man Directory with absolute veto power. Empowered by the Directory, by the end of the year the royalists of Paris rise up against the National Convention. The Directory charges General Bonaparte to protect the delegates. Using cannons seized by his cavalry officer Joachim Murat, he clears the streets with a 'whiff of grapeshot', saving the Revolution.
1796-1797: Now famous, Napoleon is charged with full command of the Army of Italy, rapidly overwhelming and defeating the Austrians and their Italian allies in an unbroken string of 67 successful actions, sieges, and pitched battles. By the middle of 1797, he is only 60 miles march from Vienna, and the Austrians are compelled to surrender. Sister Republics are carved out of Italy, and Napoleon rapidly becomes the most famous man in France. Alarmed by successful royalist elections in Paris, he initiates, alongside foreign minister Talleyrand, the Coup of 18 Fructidor, where the royalists are expelled from the legislature and the Directory assumes total power -- backed by Napoleon.
1798-1799: The War of the Second Coalition begins. Now in total control of the Directory, Napoleon induces them to begin an invasion of Egypt. He wishes to use it as a base to march on India, and take the subcontinent from the British. He defeats the ruling Mamelukes in the Battle of the Pyramids in late July, but the French fleet supporting his army is destroyed in August by the British Navy. Facing starvation, disease, and mounting local resistance to French rule, he abandons Egypt. Returning to Paris, he and his brother Lucien initiate the bloodless coup of 18 Brumaire. The Directors are forced to resign, and Napoleon becomes First Consul of France, assuming leadership of the French nation.
1800: The Austrians defeat Jourdan at the Battle of Ostrach, and though General Massena is victorious in Switzerland, the French armies falter on all fronts. Napoleon returns from Egypt and turns the tide, crossing the still-snowed Alps to surprise the Austrians at the battle of Marengo. The Austrian position collapses within the month, and Italy is conquered. The War of the Second Coalition is ended by 1801.
1801-1804: The short peace. Napoleon consolidates power. Reinstating slavery, he attempts to bolster the French war economy by retaking the newly independent island of Haiti, an effort which fails. He instead sells all French North American possessions to the United States. Many royalists and republicans alike are arrested or otherwise silenced, and several assassination plots against Napoleon are discovered and foiled. In 1802, Napoleon is elected Consul for life, and in 1804 he is elected Emperor of the French. The Republic is reformed into the French Empire, with the Bonaparte dynasty at its head. A peerage of imperial nobility is established, raised from Napoleon's officers and followers.
1804-1805: Napoleon assembles a great army to invade Britain. After Britain, Austria, Sweden, and Russia again declare war, beginning the war of the Third Coalition, he turns this army towards the Rhine in early September. In a month-long campaign around Ulm, he completely encircles and destroys the main body of the Austrian army of the north. Vienna falls by September, and in December, the majority of the Russian and Austrian armies are utterly defeated by Napoleon in the Battle of Austerlitz -- a total victory for the French, and the greatest victory of the Emperor's career.
1806-1807: The War of the Third Coalition is ended. The Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of 28 German states, is formed, and the thousand-year old Holy Roman Empire is dissolved. To keep control over Germany, the Prussians declare the War of the Fourth Coalition in late September. At the double Battles of Jena and Auerstadt, the French defeat the main body of the Prussian Army. Over the next few months the Emperor engages the Russians in a bloody campaign in Eastern Europe which eventually ends with a peace at Tilsit. The French and Russian Emperors meet and agree to an anti-British alliance. Napoleon establishes the Continental System, forbidding all trade with Britain by any mainland nation. Prussia is carved in half and the Kingdom of Westphalia is established for his brother Jerome.
1808: Under Napoleon's orders, Marshal Murat leads an army into Spain to 'restore order' and support the war effort against Britain's ally, Portugal. His brother Joseph is forcibly appointed King of Spain. This sparks fierce resistance and galvanizes Britain's enemies. The Emperor enters Spain personally to lead a lightning campaign which pushes the British out of Iberia, but resistance continues. Over the next few years, more and more of France's manpower is sucked into maintaining the occupation.
1809-1811: The War of the Fifth Coalition is started by a resurgent Austria. Napoleon is defeated in battle for the first time at Essling, but in the following Battle of Wagram, destroys the Austrian army with the highest casualties of any battle thus far for any side. Austria loses vast amounts of territory, but marries the Austrian princess Marie Louise to Napoleon, giving him imperial legitimacy in order to save the Habsburg dynasty. Their son, Napoleon II, is born the next year.
1812: The faltering Continental System and the increasingly strained relationship between Napoleon and Emperor Alexander leads the Emperor to consider war with Russia to bind it as he has bound Austria. Advice from Caulaincourt, Talleyrand, and others lead him to uncharacteristically delay. The Emperor refuses Alexander's double request to revoke the rights granted to the Jewish population of French Europe in the Constitution of 1811 and to cede most of the Duchy of Warsaw.
1813: On January 12, 1813, the Russian Empire marches troops into Poland, and Napoleon marches in it's defense, beginning The Second Polish War. In a truly brutal campaign, the French armies suffer more casualties than any other war thus far, and much of Poland is ravaged by the conflict. Sensing weakness, the British and Prussians ally with Russia, beginning the War of the Sixth Coalition. In the Battle of Kalisz, the allied forces are soundly defeated, and in the succeeding treaty, the Duchy of Warsaw is expanded to the Kingdom of Poland, while the Duchy of Lithuania is created to buffer Russia. The Kingdom of Prussia is dissolved, with its constituent parts split between the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the Kingdom of Poland. The Hohenzhollern monarchs flee into exile.
1814-1815: France, teetering on the edge of collapse after ten unbroken years of war, licks her wounds and rebuilds. The Emperor, facing growing unrest at home and in the occupied dominions, embarks on a wide-reaching project of liberalization and reform, recriminalizing the slave trade and establishing an Imperial Parliament with constitutional protections. Late in the year, British forces land in Portugal and begin pushing across the peninsula, defeating the forces of Marshal Massena in detail. Simultaneously, the Russians, Swedes, and Austrians declare war to contain Napoleon, while the exiled Hohenzollern princes land in Holland with a British army at their backs. In the 'Rhenish Vespers', nine of the most powerful German states side with the British, betraying Napoleon. In the north, Swedish forces under Bernadotte sweep across Denmark.
1816: France's darkest hour — the War of the Seventh Coalition. Massena's crumbling army is nearly driven from Spain, but the VI Corps under Jourdan is able to pull victory from the jaws of defeat and reverse the losses of the last months. Simultaneously, Napoleon encircles and destroys an Anglo-Prussian army in the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean. Rejecting initial offers of a treaty, the Emperor pushes across Germany in a bloody and punitive campaign, dividing his Marshals to all fronts. Marshals Soult and Davout take Vienna. Either by accident or under direct orders from the emperor, the city is fired. Pushed to his logistical limit, the Emperor nonetheless meets the combined Austro-Russian Army once more at Eichstätt, in Bavaria. In a victory reminiscent of Cannae or Austerlitz, the majority of the enemy army is killed or captured, including the Emperor Alexander. In the final moments of the battle, Napoleon is struck by a stray cannonball, crushing his legs, and dies forty-nine minutes later. His final words are "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine".
The Austrians and Russians offer their unconditional surrender one hour later.
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