Explain The Reasons For The Adoption Of A New Calendar In Revolutionary France And A: Fill & Download for Free

What a great question!Yes - our planet is, for some reason, about 40,000 km in circumference, not 40 Mm.I was telling my daughter last night that the first Mac computer had 128KB of memory. She asked was that like a gigabyte. I finally had to explain that it was 1/8 of 1/1000 of 1 GB. She knows what a GB is, but doesn’t really have a feel for what a MB or KB might be.The short answer is, certain unit sizes fill a particular need for humans, and others don’t. (We use mm, cm, m, and km, but rarely dm, Dm, and hm.) Similar to acronyms that become nouns, our preferred prefixed units also become common nouns. They are no longer a prefixed part of the metric system, they are a PARTICULAR size.One can observe that humans want fixed nouns for common sizes. (They will even make up words to fit sizes they need, which do not already have a convenient name, or will keep old names that should be superseded - e.g., fermi, ångström, light-year & parsec, tonne, litre, hectare.) They get accustomed to these nouns. They can picture a length or area or volume or weight corresponding to these nouns.It is easier to imagine 40,000 units the size of a kilometer (as most people have actually SEEN a kilometre) than it is to imagine 40 of the huge units called Megametres, which no one but astronauts have seen, and few have visualized.Before the metric system, people uses measurement systems that had a different word for every size unit. You can still see that in the US Customary System, USCS: inch, foot, yard, rod, chain, furlong, mile. Or, teaspoon, tablespoon, ounce, gill, cup, pint, quart, gallon, bushel, barrel, hogshead. Britain’s Imperial system was similar.The first attempts at decimalization of units did not use prefixes but, just like previous systems of measure (mesures usuelle) also had separate words for units at every scale. (e.g., point, line, inch, foot, decade, rood, furlong, mile in the American decimal proposal * ). The first list of proposed units came from Gabriel Mouton in 1670 - starting from one minute of arc along a meridian (one “milliare”), he divided that into 10 centuria, 100 decuria, 1000 virga, 10,000 virgula, 100,000 decima, 1,000,000 centesima, and 10,000,000 millesima.In 1792, the French commission proposed to the Assembly the names metre and litre, and multipliers centi, kilo, etc., changing from precedence and having only one name for all sizes of units, distinguished by adding a prefix to the name.Since the metric system was finally released into use in 1795, we have had unit words made of the metric prefixes and associated base unit words. The law, from 7 April 1795 (or, in the revolutionary decimal calendar, 18 Germinal, Year III), defined the metre, litre, gramme, franc, and are (for area) and stère (for volume of firewood). It also defined the prefixes milli-, centi-, deci-, deka-, hecta-, kilo-, and myria-.However, these compound words (prefix + unit) have themselves become integrated nouns to us. A kilometre is not thought of as 1000 metres (though it is), it is imagined as a particular distance that most users can see for themselves.We have come full circle — and now use nouns that meet our needs, regardless of the ”proper” word. We use the compound (prefix + base-unit) words we are familiar with, even if some different words are more in the spirit of the theoretical metric system.History of the metric system* American Decimal System of MeasuresAmerican Thomas Jefferson had a scientific background and a diplomatic connection with the French. He spent time in Paris observing French discussions about the possibilities of developing a new system of measures. Jefferson made the first decimal system of units ever introduced to a governing body, in his July 13, 1790 ”Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States”.Though he initially favored the latitude of 38° (which ran through his Monticello plantation, and 62 miles south of Washington, D.C.), Jefferson adopted Talleyrand’s proposal that the standard of length be the Seconds Pendulum at a latitude of 45° (which ran through France south of Paris, but also was the midpoint between equator and pole). This “yard” had been known for over a century, and was proposed as the French metre. It would be about 0.994 m. (It lost out, of course, to the French meridional metre.) Jefferson favored defining a foot set to either 1/3 or 0.3 of the yard/metre from this Seconds Pendulum.So, following up on the 1785 decimal dollar (with its mill, cent, dime, dollar, and eagle), Jefferson proposed:* point = 1/10 line* line = 1/10 inch* inch = 1/10 foot* foot = either 1/3 or 3/10 of the Seconds Pendulum length* decad = 10 feet* rood = 10 decad = 100 feet* furlong = 10 rood* mile = 10 furlong = 10,000 feet (nearly double the current mile)All other units also derive from this foot:* bushel = 1 cubic foot* double ton or last = 100 bushels* pottle at 1/10 bushel* demi-pint = 1/10 pottle* metre = 1/10 demi-pint—-* kental = the weight of 1 bushel of water* stone = 1/10 kental* pound = 1/10 stone (about 0.6 current pounds)* ounce = 1/10 pound* double-scruple = 1/10 ounce* carat = 1/10 double-scruple* minim = 1/10 carat* mite = 1/10 minimSo, you can see, every unit is decimal, but every size has its own word. Also, there are no concepts of thousands; every multiple of 10 gets a word.Of course, Jefferson did not name words for the size of the universe or the width of an atom.While the US Senate considered, from 1791–1796, Jefferson’s proposals (both a traditional system *or* the new decimal system), based on Jefferson’s adoption of the French Seconds Pendulum — the French themselves abandoned their own Seconds Pendulum in favor of the Meridional Metre. Jean-Charles de Borda, who chaired the French commission, favored replacing the second with a dicimal time division of the day (10 hours, 1000 minutes, 100,000 seconds per day). The Meridional metre did not depend on the second, and thus left them free to change the definition of time later. The French started measuring their survey of the length of France, and Jefferson retired as Secretary of State.The end of the Northwest Indian War in 1795 made the surveying of the Northwest Territory (now Ohio to Wisconsin) critical, to support land deeds for its new settlers. May 18, 1796, Congress passed the act to sell land in the Northwest Territory, and defined the basis of the land survey for that sale to be a mile based on Gunter's chain (1 chain = 22 yards; 10 chains = 1 furlong; 8 furlongs = 1 English mile; 1 chain X 10 chains = 1 English acre). This ended the US’s experiment in decimal measures, excepting only its currency.

This is not an “answer” but an analysis of the range of answers given. “Hate” is an exaggeration as the factors forwarded are merely annoyances or unexpected differences; readers from less developed nations would label the laments as “Rich Country Concerns” (i.e. petty for most people). My answer is based on decades of life and travel in Western Europe - not Eastern Europe.The major gripes are that things are not as “convenient”, dimensions are small, people are “unfriendly” and the customer is not “always right” in Europe. Let’s see if those “complaints” are worth writing home about or if they are merely misinterpretations, natural counterparts to lifestyle or just plain different.I. Lack of Creature Comforts typically found in the US, taken for granted.A. Relative lack of air-conditioning in Europe1. Year round indoor temperature control is near universal in the US. The US has wider weather extremes and, apart from California, Hawaii, highland Rockies and the coastal Pacific Northwest, weather extremes between summer and winter in the northern US are much greater than much of Western Europe, so many new residences are equipped with year-round (heating & cooling) electrical HVAC systems.2. In southern US States, air-conditioning is an essential public health requirement for most of the year. In most of the rest of the US, air-conditioning has been needed only in the summer daytime i.e. for a month or two. Apart from the desert climates (Southwest USA) or the Mediterranean climate (coastal California), the summers are humid in the US, rendering fans and evaporative cooling mostly ineffective in making interiors more comfortable. So, air-conditioning and/or dessicant systems are the only means for dealing with humid summers. (The drier climates in the southwest could be addressed with evaporative coolant systems but they would require an ample water supply that is not available in the parched southwest, so a/c’s are also used in that zone).3. Most homes in the South USA can afford air-conditioning since electricity and equipment are inexpensive compared to Europe.Most dwellings, rich or modest, in the southern USA have air-conditioning used almost year round for at least part of a day.Equipment is highly affordable, for example, at as little as $125 for a room unit in the US, whereas, in France, the cheapest portable a/c is around €250 (window a/c is not common in France), and the more ubiquitous mini-split systems cost at least €1,500 installed.Electricity costs a mean of some 50% less in the US than in Europe where the most expensive rates, in Denmark, are nearly 2.5 times higher. In southern USA, air-conditioning accounts for over 25% of total energy usage in a residence annually.4. Until recently, W. European summers were too short to justify the costs of installation, especially since summers are when Europeans head to the coast, mountains or overseas. Hot, humid summers in W. Europe used to be short, a week to a month, coinciding with annual summer holidays when the French or others Europeans travel to the coast, mountains or another continent i.e. summer is when the homes are mostly unoccupied. Suddenly hotter and longer summers in Europe only since the 1980s, trending to longer duration and greater intensity; new residences are more likely to include air-conditioners; for older dwellings with their thick stone exterior wally are not easy to install HVACsa. Until the 1980’s, there was little practical or economic justification for air-conditioning in much of Western Europe. Before then, there was usually only about two weeks a year when air-conditioning would have been nice. However, most Frenchmen and Italians (possibly other Europeans) take long summer vacations to the seaside or overseas, so installing HVAC systems for 2 weeks per year when homes were empty, made no sense. Older houses with walls of stone that were several feet thick provided insulation in the day when shutters were closed.b. In older parts of European cities, retrofitting older (pre-War) construction is prohibitively expensive for most with solid brick or stone walls at least a meter thick and no dropped ceiling to hide ductwork. In addition, traditional floor-to-ceiling doors are very expensive to exchange for costly thermally insulative versions. For that reason, split mini HVAC systems that only require small holes penetrating the exterior walls are the most common form.B. Rental Automatic Cars only at certain airports or in luxury cars. Within many European cities, public transit is dense, inexpensive and quicker than personal surface transport; parking space is at a premium and taxes on fuel make it nearly 3 times more costly than in the US. For that reason, manual gearboxes are the norm since they tend to be more efficient. Automatics are viewed as “luxury” or “wasteful of fuel”. That may be changing with all electronic transmission/propulsion systems today - but, at the moment, plan only on renting at larger airports or cities if you can’t drive a stick shift.C. Lack of drive-up vending or services. Pharmacies, dry cleaners and banks are neighborhood businesses in much of Europe i.e. people walk to them from home or get to them by public transit. Even shopping for groceries, bread, meat, fruit etc. is often a neighborhood affair with mom-and-pop merchants with whom one has a daily social contact. On many levels, the idea of getting “fast food” while sitting in a car is so un-European - where meals are social events, not refueling sessions; “fast food” is only when one has little money or time; chain retailers are the antithesis of neighborhood merchants. This is changing. For example, in France, suburbanites who have a car-dependent lifestyle now can order groceries online and simply have them loaded into their cars at the end of the day e.g. “Auchan Drive” for Auchan, a Walmart-type mass retailer, - almost pronounced like “Ocean Drive”.II. “Confusing Metric System”Really? A decimal based measurement system versus an unintuitive system dating back before the Middle Ages? The Metric is logical, already adopted by scientists, non-US manufacturers and even US sports (The 10K run is for 10 km).This “annoyance” is the fault of previous US Administrations that did not implement, as every other government did, the SI system as it had agreed to do in writing!III. No tap water in restaurants? No ice in drinks?This is certainly available in most of the West European countries in which I lived. In France, you simply ask for a “carafe d’eau”. You don’t have to buy bottled water; however, in some countries where the quality of water can be in question, it just makes sense to drink only bottled water. (PS. Also in Flint, Michigan.). Many US restaurants fill water glasses with ice (a uniquely N. American penchant) produced in machines that are not systematically sterilized or handled without hand washing.IV. “Inconvenient hours”.The reason why you can’t get 24/24, 7/7 retail or even 2-day Amazon deliveries is simply that the Quality of Life of employees is a priority.Ever wonder why American stores are open on “holidays” (aka. opportunities for retailers to make money)? (The ONLY exception is Thanksgiving.)Once, I took a long time to get a cab in Paris (pre Uber), and I asked the driver why, when there was high demand as people were heading for dinner, were there not more taxis to meet demand. His reply, “Well, we have to have dinner as well. Not so?”What life is like in one of the “fulfillment centers” of Amazon on the 2 am shift, on a Saturday? It’s awful, kept away from family at home and American retail staff may begin to hate “holidays” due to stressful hoards of mad shoppers who would trample over others to get the latest do-dad.In Europe, barring after hours entertainment (nightclubs, concerts, restaurants…) the only reasons for abnormal hours is for essential or crucial services (hospitals, air traffic controllers, public utility technicians, police…); being able to buy a widget or beer at 3 am is NOT essential. Workers during such shifts usually are paid a “hardship premium” (like overtime) and explains why much is self-service (tickets, fuel, food dispensers…) over there versus some lowly-paid worker in the US would be on the “skeleton shift”.V. Paying Toilets(“Dame pipi” above). Unlike access to healthcare, access to a private firm’s toilet is not regarded as a right in Europe but as a convenience reserved for clients. With space at a premium (restaurants are often small) in many European cities, allowing the general public to freely use toilets is hard to justify, especially in hotspots where they could overwhelm a small resto’s toilets.That said, I’ve never been refused access if I simply asked before I used them! Perhaps the real issue is not knowing how to ask i.e. making the effort to learn a few phrases of a local language to ask to use the bathroom. With smartphones, there is no longer any real barrier to common courtesy.As for paying, if it helps pay for an attendant, the place is kept clean and supplied and avoids it being used for illicit practices. Have you seen what free access public toilets in the US look like? (Bus stations, beach facilities…)VI. Anti-American discrimination.Unwarranted flack for Mr. Trump’s words and actions. It reminds me of Indian Sikhs and Middle Eastern Christians in the US being poorly treated by prejudiced ignoramuses as being “Islamic terrorists”, since neither label was applicable.I suspect that it’s not just visitors to Europe but to everywhere outside the US that may face anti-American tirades. Mr. Trump has stepped on almost everyone’s toes except those of the political leaders of Saudi Arabia, Israel and N. Korea. Unfortunately, his presidency is a consequence of a political and election system that allows someone to be president without a numerical majority of votes, and a bipartisan political landscape (two-party vs multi-party spectrum) where the majority party prefers to keep the gig going instead of doing their job. However, don’t let it bother you.There’s little risk of significant adversity except in conflict zones.It’s unfair, especially as Americans overseas (travelers but also especially the 6–8 million US expatriates) tend to be those who are also displeased by Mr. Trump (euphemism for a persistent lesion on the national character). I can only suggest that you avoid the issue with either “I don’t talk about politics” or “I’m Canadian”; you can even say, “I fully agree with you; that’s why I’m exploring other countries as an escape.”If one think that is unfair, it pales in comparison to the flack that some minorities face everyday in their home country. The pain of constantly being labelled and pre-judged (pre-judice) without cause by strangers is a fact of their daily challenge. One could take it as a positive experience if you are not normally subject to daily discrimination in that you learn some empathy for people facing unwarranted negative prejudice.It will pass and can be seen as a temporary state of affairs, similar to the treatment of Nippo- and German Americans during WWII. From public harassment to internment, it was, thank goodness, temporary and now regarded as grossly unfair.VII. Strikes of Public Transport and other industrial action disruptions.Unfortunately, according to country, industrial action is part and parcel of many societies. Some countries, like Italy, are subject to wildcat (unannounced) strikes in the face of a perennially weak government. Others, like France, only allow strikes approved by local authorities so that they can be properly policed and roads blocked off; most occur in the late spring (May-July); there is even a nationwide calendar you can access at Liste des grèves en cours et à venir en France – Cestlagreve (“Strike’s On!”).France also has a “Revolutionary” streak in its societal DNA. At least once a decade, the combination of pent up frustration by various groups, springtime weather and a street party appeal leads to nationwide protests. The most recent event of this type is the “Yellow Jacket” protests, drawing on disaffected citizens far and wide beyond the initial protest against sky-high gas taxes; even then, the demonstrations are scheduled on Saturdays in cordoned off parts of various towns - it is not a chaotic, disruptive, unplanned event and the police are there to prevent hooligans who wish to provoke trouble within the mostly peaceful crowds.Whatever your views of the right to strike and/or organize into labor associations, the strength of collective employee lobby groups (i.e. unions) is probably why living wages are the norm in Western Europe. (I don’t know Eastern Europe.)VIII. Human interaction - Inappropriately smiling Americans vs Cold Europeans.A European’s stereotypical view of Americans’ demeanor.An American’s stereotypical view of Europeans’ demeanor.Until very recent history (mid-late 20th Century), Europeans mostly stayed within their own borders and were not exposed daily to many strangers in some way. They often didn’t even move very far in search of a job. As such, they may lack the veneer of a salesman’s “sunny disposition” that seems to be ingrained into Americans from a young age; in the US, one moves thousands of miles for work, and then repeats it in a few years, so instant communicativeness and courteous interactions are a necessity - but they are a means to an end more than reflection of an inherently “nicer nature”. The formulaic “Have a nice day.” was first introduced by retailers’ marketing management as studies showed that even robotic expressions of greetings translated into more sales; today, it has spread beyond shops but is said without conviction or thought. Europeans don’t usually smile in public unless there is a specific reason or situation - and Americans misinterpret that outward appearance as “coldness”. Watch how they interact with one another and you may observe that you are not being treated very differently (I’ve found the opposite; people often go out of their way to be helpful to visitors, especially those who make the effort to learn the locals’ language a bit.)IX. Small & narrow dimensions.This is a natural consequence of cities that have grown organically over centuries, before coaches and cars. I am amazed at how well cars can get through the maze of narrow streets in historic centers. However, cities are generally compact and accessible on foot or via public transit as a result. The benefit is a sense of place, culture and history, and continuance of a neighborhood unit. If you want wide roads, you can simply live in the modern suburbs in splendid social isolation.X. Most Annoying Single Impracticality - US Credit Cards not compatible with automated tellers and vendors in Europe.The first gripe that I have seen facing Americans is just after landing at CDG and attempting to buy a ticket to Paris or beyond from the airport train station. There are few human tellers as interactive kiosks are how most tickets are sold in France (?other EU). Although the systems may be a bit old (some dating back to the 1980’s), slow and not too intuitive, they all require compatibility with up-to-date electronic payment protocols.Therein lies the problem. European “smart” debit and credit cards are EMV-compliant with PIN Priority verification. From parking meters to some hotel chains, one uses a smartcard combined with a PIN. Most American cards are Signature Priority (although they may be PIN-capable) that can only be processed in Europe with a human vendor printing out a slip for signature.The situation is more than annoying if you are returning a rental car on the weekend and all the gas stations are unmanned. Short of begging a local to pay with his/her card with you paying him/her in cash, you would have to return the car as is. Some of the smaller train stations in France are only manned on a limited schedule, with interactive kiosks for ticketing; many just rely on Smartphone SNCF (national railways) apps.This “annoyance” is not due to exceptional European standards but due to the tardiness of US card issuers to upgrade their financial systems to be compliant with an international standard! It’s much the same that all major nations signed on to adopt SI units (kg, km etc.) BUT the US reneged on the transition from Imperial to Metric (even as the UK and Canada implemented Metric systems)! It was due to the lobbies of US manufacturers combined with institutional inertia that we now have a confusing mix of Imperial and Metric in today’s world.Solutions?As individual travelers, there are several possible solutions that must be planned a few weeks in advance if you don’t want your week long tour of Europe to be an exercise in transactional frustration.Contact your card issuers and ask specifically if they can make your cards “PIN Priority”. The front-line Cust. Serv. may not even know what that means so you may have to insist on finding someone who knows. If you can’t, it means you should seek out another solution.Identify US-based card issuers that produce PIN Priority EMV-compliant cards. There are a few Credit Unions or store cards that do this and I believe that Wells Fargo’s Propel Amex card can be programmed to be PIN Priority.The final solution is to activate contactless payment systems via the smartphone or even the RFID-containing smart card. Check out which systems would be used (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Android Pay…) in the country of destination.

French Revolution Chronology1774 Accession of Louis XVI1776 July 4 American Declaration of IndependenceThomas Paine publishes Common Sense1778 France declares war on Great Britain. The war debt brings the French Monarchy to its knees1780 June Gordon Riots, England. An anti-Catholic demonstration led by Lord George Gordon that was followed by several days of rioting1783 Peace signed between Britain and France1788 Centenary celebrations in England of the ‘GloriousRevolution of 1688’ that shifted power from the Monarchy to Parliament and allowed the people of England considerable freedom to debate public issuesLouis XVI calls a meeting of the Estates General, and lifts censorship to help prepare its work1789 May 5 Meeting of Estates General in ParisJune 17 National AssemblyJune 20 Oath of the Tennis CourtJuly 14 Fall of the BastilleAugust 4-5 The National Assembly ‘abolishes Feudalism’August 26 National Assembly adopts Declaration of the Rights ofMan and Citizen, inspired by the American Declaration of IndependenceSeptember 12 Jean-Paul Marat’s L’Ami du people (The Friend of the People), a radical publication, appearsOctober 5-6 Women of Paris march to VersaillesOctober 10 Dr. Guillotin proposes scientific device for execution1790 June 19 Formal abolition of nobility and hereditary titlesJuly 14 “Fête de la Fédération” – the first anniversary of the Revolution (the Fall of the Bastille) is celebrated on the fields of the Champs-de-MarsDecember Publication of Edmund Burke’sReflections on the Revolution in France1791 February Publication of Thomas Paine’sRights of Man, part I1791 June 20-21 Royal Family’s flight and capture at VarennesJuly 17 Massacre at the Champ-de-MarsAugust 27 The Declaration of Pillnitz by the rulers of Austria and Prussia, affirming their intention to return the King of France to powerSeptember 3 The Constitution of 1791 is proclaimedSeptember 14 Louis XVI accepts the Constitution and is restored to power1792 January Foundation of the London Corresponding Society (LSC), a society that campaigned throughout England for Parliamentary reformMary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of WomanJanuary-March Serious inflation begins – food riots in ParisFebruary Publication of Thomas Paine’sRights of Man, part IIApril Foundation of the Association of the Friends of the PeopleApril 28 War between France and AustriaMay 21 George III issues Royal proclamation against ‘tumultuous meetings and seditious writings’June 20 Anniversary of King Louis XVI’s flight – Invasion of theTuileriesJuly 11 Proclamation by the Assembly of ‘la patrie en danger’July 28 Brunswick Manifesto published, which threatened the people of Paris with punishment if they do not submit to the King, instigating the panic that caused the September MassacresJuly 29 Maximilien Robespierre calls for the removal of the KingAugust 10 Second invasion of the Tuileries, the monarchy is overthrownAugust 13 Royal Family imprisoned in the TempleSeptember 2 September Massacres, the first major atrocities of theRevolution where priests and aristocrats were murderedSeptember 20 Battle of Valmy, French victory over the PrussiansSeptember 21 Formal abolition of the French monarchy, France declared a RepublicNovember 6 Foundation of the Association for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers by John ReevesDecember 20 Trial of the King opensDecember 22 British Whigs form “Friends of the Liberty of the Press” to defend free speech against the attack of Loyalist associations1793 January 17 King Louis XVI condemned to deathJanuary 21 Execution of Louis XVIFebruary 1 France declares war on England and HollandFebruary 11 England declares war on FranceMarch 10 Revolutionary Tribunal established in FranceApril 6 Committee of Public Safety establishedJune 2 Journée in which the Convention is forced to expel 29 Girondin deputies, Montagnards in powerJuly 13 Jean-Paul Marat is assassinated by Charlotte CordayJuly 17 Execution of Charlotte CordayAugust 2 Marie Antoinette transferred from the Temple prison to the prison of ConciergerieAugust 10 Fête révolutionnaire on the site of the Bastille to commemorate journée of August 10 1792September 17 Beginning of the Terror, in which there was widespreadsurveillance and powers of denunciation, with thosesuspected of treason guillotinedSeptember 22 Introduction of the Revolutionary calendar starting with Year IIOctober 16 Execution of Marie AntoinetteOctober 31 Execution of Girondin deputiesNovember 7 Execution of Philippe Egalité, cousin of King Louis XVIand Duke of OrleansNovember 10 Fête de la Raison in deconsecrated Notre Dame Cathedral1794 March 24 Opponents of Robespierre executedApril 5 Execution of Georges Jacques Danton (organiser of the uprising in 1792 that overthrew the monarchy and leader of the Committee of Public Safety)May 10 Execution of Madame Elizabeth, the King’s sisterJune 1 ‘Glorious 1stof June’: British naval victory over FranceJune 8 Fête de l’Etre Suprême , last great fête révolutionnaire under RobespierreJuly 27-28 Arrest and execution of Maximilien RobespierreAugust 5 Release of suspects imprisoned under the TerrorOctober-November Treason trialsDecember 16 Execution of Jean Baptiste Carrier, one of the most brutal of the Terrorists1795 May 7 Execution of Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor during the TerrorMay 20 Invasion of Convention by sans-culottes and assassination of Deputy FeraudJune 8 Death of the Dauphin, the eldest son and heir of the French king, who in royalist eyes was King Louis XVII since the execution of his father. Louis XVI’s brother, the Comte de Provence, becomes Louis XVIIIOctober 31 Election of new Directory and end of ConventionNovember-December Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices Act passed in Great BritainDecember 18 Release of Louis XVI’s daughter Marie-Therese Charlotte1796 March 9 Marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josèphine de Beauharnais (the future Empress Josephine)April 10 Bonaparte’s Italian campaign beginsDecember 15-17 Beginning of French attempt to invade Ireland under Hoche1797 September 4 Coup d’Etat in ParisSeptember 19 Death of Lazare Hoche1798 January 12 Napoleon plans invasion of England, presents plans toDirectoryApril 12 Napoleon appointed to command Army of the OrientMay 23 Revolts in Ireland in expectation of help from NapoleonJuly 14 British army crushes Irish rebellionAugust 1 Decisive victory by Nelson over the French fleet in theBattle of the Nile1799 July 25 Battle of AboukirNovember 9-10 Bonaparte’s coup d’etat removes Directory, and Council of five hundred and establishes a consulate with himself as First Consul1800 January 1 Consulate establishes the Bank of FranceFebruary 19 Napoleon takes up residence at the Tuilieries PalaceJune 14 Battle of MarengoDecember 3 Battle of Hohenlinden1801 April 2 Battle of CopenhagenApril 15 Concordat with Pope Pius VII, an attempt to appease disgruntled Catholics unhappy with the Revolution’s split with the church. The concordat led to compensation for seized church lands but limited the power of Rome to appoint bishops1802 March 25 Peace of Amiens between France and EnglandMay 19 Creation of legion d’honneurAugust 2 France annexes ElbaOctober 15 France invades Switzerland1803 May 3 France sells Louisiana to the United StatesMay 16 Britain declares war on FranceOctober 9 Franco-Spanish alliance signed1804 March 21 Kidnap and execution of Duc d’EnghienMarch 28 Civil Code introducedMay 18 Napoleon proclaimed EmperorMay 19 Creation of the MarshalateDecember 2 Napoleon’s coronation at Notre Dame, ParisDecember 14 Spain declares war on Britain1805 April 11 Alliance between Russia and BritainMay 26 Napoleon is crowned King of ItalyJune 4 France annexes GenoaOctober 21 Battle of Trafalgar: British navy under Horatio Nelson defeats the French navy. Due to censorship of the press, the French people are not told of this loss for many monthsDecember 2 Anniversary of Napoleon’s coronationNapoleon defeats Austria and Russia at Austerlitz1806 January 23 British Prime Minister William Pitt diesApril 1 Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s older brother, becomes King of NaplesMay 16 Britain blockades French portsJune 20 Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, becomes King of HollandJuly 4 Battle of MaidaJuly 12 Confederation of the Rhine created, when 16 Germanminor states allied themselves with Napoleon andFranceJuly 20 Franco-Prussian peace treaty signedAugust 6 Holy Roman Empire dissolvedOctober 6 Fourth Coalition against FranceOctober 7 France invades SaxonyOctober 10 Battle of SaalfieldOctober 14 Battles of Jena and AuerstadtNovember 7 Last Prussian forces surrender to France1807 February 7-8 Battle of EylauApril 26 Franco-Russian Convention of BartensteinMay 27 Fall of DanzigJuly 7-9 Peace Treaty of Tilsit, between France and RussiaAugust 16 British forces land at CopenhagenSeptember 7 Britain captures Danish FleetOctober 13 Decree of FontainebleauOctober 27 Secret treaty with SpainNovember 23 First Milan Decree, declaring that ships complying withBritish rules are to be considered pirate ships and may be seizedNovember 30 General Jean-Andoche Junot occupies LisbonDecember 17 Second Milan Decree issued by Napoleon, stating that no European country was to trade with the United Kingdom1808 February 20 Murat appointed Napoleon’s deputy in SpainBarcelona captured by the FrenchJune 6 Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of SpainJune 8 France captures CordobaJune 14 First siege of SaragossaJune 16 Battle of Medina del Rio SecoJune 25 Massacre of EvoraAugust 1-8 British forces, led by Arthur Wellesley, land at MondegoBayAugust 14 Raising of siege of SaragossaAugust 17 Battle of RolicaAugust 21 Battle of VimieroOctober 27 British General, Sir John Moore, leaves Lisbon for SpainNovember 5 Napoleon takes command of Spain’s armyNovember 23 Battle of TudeiaNovember 30 Battle of SomosierraDecember 4 Napoleon occupies MadridDecember 20 Second siege of SaragossaDecember 21 Battle of SahagunDecember 24 British General Sir John Moore begins retreat to CorunnaDecember 26 Battle of Benavente1809 January 16 Battle of Corunna, Sir John Moore killedApril 9 Austria attacks BavariaCreation of Fifth CoalitionApril 20 Battle of AbensbergApril 26 Arthur Wellesley lands at LisbonMay 13 Napoleon enters ViennaMay 21-22 Battle of Aspern-EsslingJune 14 Battle of RaabJuly 5-6 Battle of WagramJuly 28 Battle of TalaveraJuly 29 British forces land at WalcherenAugust 16 Battle of FlushingOctober 19 Treaty of ViennaNovember 19 Battle of OcanaDecember 15 Napoleon and Josephine divorce1810 February 5 Siege of Cadiz beginsMarch 11 Marriage by proxy of Napoleon to Archduchess MarieLouise of Austria, in hopes of producing an heirMarch 23 Napoleon’s Rambouillet Decree, orders American ships to be seized and sold. Made in retaliation for the embargo of France by US President Thomas JeffersonJuly 9 Napoleon annexes HollandAugust 16 Start of siege of AlmeidaAugust 28 Fall of AlmeidaSeptember 27 Battle of BussacoOctober 18 The Fontainebleau Decrees, orders the seizure and burning of any British goods in Europe1811 January 26 First siege of BadajozMarch 5 Battle of BarrossaMarch 11 Fall of BadajozMarch 20 Marie Louis Bonaparte gives birth to Napoleon’s sonDecember 31 Tsar Alexander limits French trade1812 January 10 France occupies Swedish PomeraniaFebruary 26 Alliance between France and PrussiaMarch 10 Alliance between France and AustriaJune 18 War begins between US and BritainJune 20 Sixth coalition against France formedJune 24 French army enters PolandAugust 13 Duke of Wellington enters MadridSeptember 7 Battle of Borodino, between France and RussiaSeptember 14 Napoleon enters MoscowDecember 30 Prussia abandons its treaty with France and enters truce with Russia1813 January 25 Napoleon and Pope Pius VII sign second ConcordatMarch 16 Prussia declares war on FranceJune 12 France withdraws from MadridAugust 12 Austria declares war on FranceOctober 3 Treaty Alliance of Teplitz between Britain and AustriaOctober 16-19 Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, Napoleon retreatsOctober 18 Bavaria and Saxony join war against FranceDecember 4 Allies issue Declaration of Frankfurt1814 January 11 Marshal Murat signs peace with AlliesJanuary 29 Battle of BrienneFebruary 1 Battle of La RothiereFebruary 10 Battle of ChampaubertFebruary 11 Battle of Montmirail February 14 Battle of VauchampsFebruary 22 Treaty of TroyesMarch 9 Treaty of ChaumontMarch 31 The Allies enter ParisApril 6 Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to ElbaApril 26 Louis XVIII leaves England to return to FranceMay 3 Louis XVIII enters ParisMay 4 Napoleon arrives on ElbaMay 29 Death of JosephineMay 30 Treaty of ParisNovember 1 Congress of Vienna begins, with Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia attempting to bring stability to Europe after the fall of NapoleonDecember 24 Treaty of Ghent1815 January 8 Battle of New OrleansFebruary 26 Napoleon escapes from ElbaMarch 1 Napoleon enters Southern FranceMarch 13 Allied powers declare Napoleon an enemy of humanityMarch 19 Louis XVIII flees to BelgiumMarch 20 Napoleon enters ParisMarch 25 Seventh Coalition against France formed between Britain, Austria, Prussia and RussiaApril 8 Napoleon orders general mobilisation in FranceJune 12-18 Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon defeatedJune 22 Second abdication of NapoleonWhen Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, he was nineteen years old. He had an enormous responsibility, as the government was deeply in debt, and resentment of "despotic" monarchy was on the rise. He felt himself woefully unqualified to resolve the situation.As king, Louis XVI focused primarily on religious freedom and foreign policy. While none doubted his intellectual ability to rule France, it was quite clear that, although raised as the Dauphin since 1765, he lacked firmness and decisiveness. His desire to be loved by his people is evident in the prefaces of many of his edicts that would often explain the nature and good intention of his actions as benefiting the people, such as reinstating the parlements. When questioned about his decision, he said, "It may be considered politically unwise, but it seems to me to be the general wish and I want to be loved."[20]In spite of his indecisiveness, Louis XVI was determined to be a good king, stating that he "must always consult public opinion; it is never wrong."[21]He therefore appointed an experienced advisor, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas who, until his death in 1781, would take charge of many important ministerial functions."Le Couronnement de Louis XVI", by Benjamin Duvivier, honoring the 11 June 1775 coronation of Louis XVIAmong the major events of Louis XVI's reign was his signing of the Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance, on 7 November 1787, which was registered in theparlement on 29 January 1788. Granting non-Roman Catholics – Huguenots and Lutherans, as well as Jews – civil and legal status in France and the legal right to practice their faiths, this edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau that had been law for 102 years. The Edict of Versailles did not legally proclaim freedom of religion in France – this took two more years, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 – however, it was an important step in eliminating religious tensions and it officially ended religious persecution within his realm.[22]Radical financial reforms by Turgot andMalesherbes angered the nobles and were blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So, in 1776, Turgot was dismissed and Malesherbes resigned, to be replaced byJacques Necker. Necker supported theAmerican Revolution, and he carried out a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. He attempted to gain public favor in 1781 when he had published the first ever statement of the French Crown's expenses and accounts, the Compte rendu au roi. This allowed the people of France to view the king's accounts in modest surplus.[23]When this policy failed miserably, Louis dismissed him, and then replaced him in 1783 with Charles Alexandre de Calonne, who increased public spending to "buy" the country's way out of debt. Again this failed, so Louis convoked the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne. When the nobles were informed of the extent of the debt, they were shocked into rejecting the plan. After this, Louis XVI tried, along with his new Controller-General des finances, Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne, to force theParlement de Paris to register the new laws and fiscal reforms. Upon the denial of the members of the Parlement, Louis XVI tried to use his absolute power to subjugate them by every means: enforcing in many occasions the registration of his reforms (6 August 1787, 19 November 1787, and 8 May 1788), exiling all Parlement magistrates to Troyes as a punishment on 15 August 1787, prohibiting six members from attending parliamentary sessions on 19 November, arresting two very important members of the Parlement, who opposed his reforms, on 6 May 1788, and even dissolving and depriving of all power theParlement, replacing it with a Plenary Court, on 8 May 1788. All of these measures and shows of royal power failed mainly for three reasons. First: the majority of the population stood in favor of the Parlement against the king, and thus continuously rebelled against him. Second: the monarchy was literally running out of money, in which case it would be incapable of sustaining its own imposed reforms. And third: although the king had as much absolute power as its predecessors, he lacked one crucial thing for absolutism to work properly: authority. Having become unpopular to both the commoners and the aristocracy, Louis XVI was therefore able to impose his decisions and reforms only for a very short periods of time, ranging from 2 to 4 months, before revoking them.As authority drifted from him and reforms were becoming necessary, there were increasingly loud calls for him to convoke theEstates-General, which had not met since 1614, at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIII. As a last-ditch attempt to get new monetary reforms approved, Louis XVI convoked the Estates-General on 8 August 1788, setting the date of their opening at 1 May 1789. With the convocation of the Estates-General, as in many other instances during his reign, Louis XVI placed his reputation and public image in the hands of those who were perhaps not as sensitive to the desires of the French population as he was. Because it had been so long since the Estates-General had been convened, there was some debate as to which procedures should be followed. Ultimately, the Parlement de Paris agreed that "all traditional observances should be carefully maintained to avoid the impression that the Estates-General could make things up as it went along." Under this decision, the king agreed to retain many of the divisive customs which had been the norm in 1614 and before, but which were intolerable to a Third Estate buoyed by the recent proclamations of equality. For example, the First and Second Estates proceeded into the assembly wearing their finest garments, while the Third Estate was required to wear plain, oppressively somber black, an act of alienation that Louis XVI would likely have not condoned. He seemed to regard the deputies of the Estates-General with at least respect: in a wave of self-important patriotism, members of the Estates refused to remove their hats in the King's presence, so Louis removed his to them.[24]This convocation was one of the events that transformed the general economic and political malaise of the country into the French Revolution. In June 1789, the Third Estateunilaterally declared itself the National Assembly. Louis XVI's attempts to control it resulted in the Tennis Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume), on 20 June, the declaration of the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July, and eventually led to the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, which started the French Revolution.(Louis' "diary" entry for 14 July, the single word rien (nothing) has been used to show how out of touch with reality he was, but the document was a hunting log not a personal journal. When he did not go hunting, he wrote "rien", which did not mean that nothing important had happened that day).[25]Within three short months, the majority of the king's executive authority had been transferred to the elected representatives of the Nation.