French Revolution and Napoleon timeline (1789–1848)
The French Revolution, begun with the storming of the Bastille in 1789, rushed on to the proclamation of the Republic in 1792 and the execution of Louis XVI and the Terror in 1793, and went to war with the European monarchies trying to stop it. Meanwhile Poland–Lithuania disappeared in the third partition of 1795.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who seized power in 1799, became emperor in 1804 and conquered most of Europe, but fell after the failed Russian campaign of 1812 and defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Even after the Congress of Vienna redrew the borders, waves of liberalism and nationalism continued, as in the Greek War of Independence of 1821 and the July Revolution and Belgian independence of 1830.
The French Revolution (1789–1799)
The ten years from the summoning of the Estates-General to Napoleon's coup, in which the old regime collapsed.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 1789 | Storming of the Bastille; French Revolution begins In May the Estates-General met, in June the National Assembly was formed, and on 14 July the people of Paris stormed the Bastille. In August came the Declaration of the Rights of Man. | France |
| Play this scene Scenario The Table at the Café de Foy · Person Camille Desmoulins | ||
| 1791 | Flight to Varennes; Polish Constitution of 3 May Louis XVI and his family were caught fleeing the country. In Poland one of Europe's first written constitutions was adopted. | France · Poland |
| 1792 | French Republic proclaimed War with Austria began in April, and in September, just after the Battle of Valmy, the monarchy was abolished. | France |
| 1793 | Execution of Louis XVI and the Terror; Second Partition of Poland In January the king went to the guillotine, and Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety imposed the Terror. Russia and Prussia divided Poland again. | France · Poland |
| 1794 | Thermidor; Battle of Fleurus; Kościuszko Uprising The French won at Fleurus and took the Austrian Netherlands, and in July Robespierre was executed. In Poland the Kościuszko Uprising was crushed. | France · Poland |
| Play this scene What if…? What if the Coalition had crushed the French Revolution? | ||
| 1795 | Third Partition of Poland Poland–Lithuania disappeared from the map. | Poland |
| Play this scene What if…? What if Poland had survived the Third Partition? | ||
| 1796 | Napoleon's Italian campaign The young General Bonaparte defeated the Austrians again and again. | Italy |
| Play this scene Scenario The Horseman in the Plumed Hat · Person Joachim Murat | ||
| 1797 | Treaty of Campo Formio; end of the Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice, which had lasted more than a thousand years, disappeared and its lands passed to Austria. | Italy |
| 1798 | Egyptian campaign The fleet was lost to Nelson at the Battle of the Nile. Scholars accompanied the expedition, and the Rosetta Stone was found (1799). | Egypt |
| 1799 | Coup of 18 Brumaire Napoleon became First Consul. | France |
The Napoleonic era (1804–1815)
From Emperor Napoleon's conquest of Europe to his fall.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 1804 | Napoleon crowned emperor On 2 December at Notre-Dame he crowned himself. The Napoleonic Code was promulgated the same year. | France |
| Play this scene Scenario The Table at the Café de Foy · Person Camille Desmoulins · What if…? What if the Coalition had crushed the French Revolution? · What if…? What if Poland had survived the Third Partition? · Scenario The Horseman in the Plumed Hat · Person Joachim Murat | ||
| 1805 | Battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz Nelson destroyed the Franco-Spanish fleet, but Napoleon defeated the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. | Off Spain · Moravia |
| 1806 | Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire The Confederation of the Rhine was formed and Francis II laid down the imperial title, ending an empire of nearly a thousand years. The Continental System was decreed the same year. | Germany |
| 1812 | Russian campaign An army of 600,000 reached Moscow but lost most of its men in the winter retreat. | Russia |
| Play this scene What if…? What if Napoleon had won in Russia in 1812? | ||
| 1813 | Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations) The allies won a great victory over Napoleon. | Saxony |
| 1814 | Napoleon abdicates; Congress of Vienna opens Napoleon was exiled to Elba and the Bourbon monarchy returned. | France · Austria |
| 1815 | Battle of Waterloo Napoleon, who had escaped Elba and begun the “Hundred Days”, was defeated by Wellington and Blücher on 18 June. The Final Act of the Congress of Vienna redrew the borders of Europe. | Belgium |
| Play this scene What if…? What if Napoleon had won at Waterloo? | ||
The Vienna system and its cracks (1821–1848)
The period in which, under the conservative monarchies of the “Vienna system”, liberal and national movements and industrialisation spread.
| Year | Event | Region |
|---|---|---|
| 1821 | Greek War of Independence begins The rising against the Ottomans began. In 1827 at the Battle of Navarino the British, French and Russian fleets destroyed the Ottoman–Egyptian fleet. | Greece |
| Play this scene Scenario The Table at the Café de Foy · Person Camille Desmoulins · What if…? What if the Coalition had crushed the French Revolution? · What if…? What if Poland had survived the Third Partition? · Scenario The Horseman in the Plumed Hat · Person Joachim Murat · What if…? What if Napoleon had won in Russia in 1812? · What if…? What if Napoleon had won at Waterloo? | ||
| 1825 | Stockton and Darlington Railway opens The first public railway worked by steam locomotives. Railways then drove industrialisation. | Britain |
| 1830 | July Revolution; Belgian Revolution; Greek independence recognised In Paris Charles X was driven out and Louis-Philippe became king. Belgium broke away from the Netherlands, and the London Protocol recognised Greek independence. | France · Belgium · Greece |
| 1830 | November Uprising A Polish rising against Russian rule broke out and was crushed in 1831. | Poland |
| 1837 | Accession of Queen Victoria She came to the throne at 18 and reigned until 1901. | Britain |
| 1848 | Revolutions of 1848 (Springtime of Nations) The revolution that began in Paris in February spread to Vienna, Berlin, Milan and Budapest. | Throughout Europe |
| Play this scene What if…? What if the revolutions of 1848 had succeeded? | ||
This era in the game
The “Age of Revolution” in Crown & Plough begins just before 1789, when Enlightenment ideas fill the salons and the price of bread rises in Paris. Born as a craftsman of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a silk merchant of Lyon, a sharecropper of Poitou or a provincial noble of Normandy, you live through the revolution and wars of this timeline.
The revolutionary wars, the partitions of Poland, Russia in 1812, Waterloo and the revolutions of 1848 are turning points whose outcomes can differ from reality, and their results carry over onto the map of the next era, the Victorian Era.
Be born in the Age of Revolution → Age of Revolution guide
Frequently asked questions
When did the French Revolution begin and end?
It is usually dated from the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 to Napoleon's coup of Brumaire in 1799.
When were the Napoleonic Wars?
In the narrow sense from the renewal of war with Britain in 1803 to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815; in the broad sense they include everything from the Italian campaign of 1796.
What did the Congress of Vienna decide?
In 1814–1815, led by Austria's Metternich, it re-established the borders and monarchies of post-Napoleonic Europe. Russia gained most of Poland, Prussia the Rhineland and Austria northern Italy, and the German Confederation was created.
← Baroque and Enlightenment timeline19th-century Europe timeline →