In what year did the French Revolution begin?

The French Revolution began in 1789. The crisis opened when King Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General, which met at Versailles on May 5 to address France's severe financial and political problems.

Representatives of the Third Estate soon declared themselves a National Assembly, claiming to represent the French people. The Tennis Court Oath in June and the Storming of the Bastille on July 14 turned political conflict into a mass revolution. The movement challenged absolute monarchy, aristocratic privilege, and the existing social order.

The revolution did not immediately create a republic. France first moved toward constitutional monarchy, before the monarchy was abolished in 1792 and Louis XVI was executed in 1793. The period continued through the Reign of Terror and ended politically with Napoleon Bonaparte's coup in 1799.

A common mix-up is treating 1789 as the date of every revolutionary change. Major developments, including the First French Republic, occurred later, but 1789 is the accepted starting year.