In 1789 most Parisians were still living in squalor and poverty, as they had since the Middle Ages. Rising inflation and opposition to Louis XVI culminated in the storming of the Bastille, the King's prison; the Republic was founded three years later. However, the Terror soon followed, when those suspected of betraying the Revolution were executed without trial: more than 60,000 people lost their lives. The bloody  excesses of Robespierre, the zealous revolutionary, led to his overthrow and a new government, the Directory, was set up in 1795.

- Storming of the Bastille: the Bastille was overrun on 14 July 1789 and seven prisoniers hald there released. The defenders (32 Swiss guards, 82 wounded soldiers and the governor) were massacred.

- Republican Calendar: The revoltionaries believed that the world was starting again, so they abolished the existing church calendar and took 22 September 1792, the day the Republic was declared, as the first day of the new era. The Republican Calendar had 12 equal months, each subdivided into three ten-day periods, with the remaining five days of each year set aside for public holidays. All the months of the year were given poetic names which linked them to nature and the seasons, such as fog, snow, seed-time, flowers and harvest.

- Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen: The Enlightenment ideals of equality and human dignity were enshrined in the Declaration, which stands as the preface of the 1791 Constitution.

- La Marseillaise: The revolutionaries' marching song is now the national anthem.

- The Sans-Culottes: By 1792, the wearing of trousers instead of breeches (culottes) was a political symbol of Paris's artisans and shopkeepers.

- Guillotine: This was used for the first time in France, in April 1792. 

Napoleon and Paris