In this photo you can see the 'Place de la Republique'. This is a good place to revise what we learnt at school about the French revolution. All began in the 18th century with the Enlightenment. Thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau criticized the principles of the old regime and absolutism. When in 1789 the state finances underwent a crisis, the people of Paris had the perfect excuse to start the Revolution. A few weeks later, the revolutionaries enacted the Declaration of the Rights of Man which embodied the principles of 'Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité' (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity). For a few years confusion and anarchy ruled in France, "la Terreur" (The terror). In 1794 Robespierre was overthrown and the Terror regime came to an end.
In 1799 General Bonaparte enters Paris to restore calm and unity. Five years later Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor Napoleon I. A decade of Naopleonic wars to expand his Empire followed. The Empire dream ended in 1815, when Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo.