Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The National Constituent Assembly adopted a declaration of natural human rights: personal liberty, freedom of speech and belief, equality before the law and the right to resist oppression.

Date

26 August 1789exact date

Place

Versailles (National Constituent Assembly)today: Versailles, France · Western and Central Europe

Participants

Kingdom of France, Marquis de Lafayette

Threads

French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

The first drafts were prepared by the Marquis de Lafayette, who consulted Thomas Jefferson; the final text owed much to the Abbé Sieyès and the Comte de Mirabeau. The Declaration proclaimed that men are born free and equal in rights and that sovereignty resides in the nation.

It still forms the basis of French constitutional law, and in 2003 UNESCO added it to the Memory of the World Register.

Connections

Related events

Storming of the Bastille14 July 1789 · Western and Central EuropeThe revolutionary summer of 1789

Napoleonic Code (French Civil Code)21 March 1804 · Western and Central EuropeEnshrining the equality of citizens before the law

Same place

Viking siege of Parisbetween 24 November and 25 November 885 – October 886 · Western and Central Europe

Execution of Louis XVI21 January 1793 · Western and Central Europe

Coup of 18 Brumaire9–10 November 1799 · Western and Central Europe

Coronation of Napoleon2 December 1804 · Western and Central Europe

Battle of Paris18 (30) March 1814 – 19 (31) March 1814 · Western and Central Europe

Hundred Days20 March – 8 July 1815 · Western and Central Europe

Holy Alliance14 (26) September 1815 · Western and Central Europe

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within 5 years of this event

Eastern Europe

Siege of Izmail11 (22) December 1790
Second Partition of Poland12 (23) January 1793

Balkans and Anatolia

Treaty of Jassy29 December 1791 (9 January 1792)

Central and Northern Asia

Billings–Sarychev expedition25 October (5 November) 1785 – March 1794
Syrym Datuly’s uprising1783–1797

East Asia

Adam Laxman’s embassy to Japan13 (24) September 1792 – 8 (19) September 1793
Macartney Embassy to China14 September 1793
White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Mutiny on the Bounty28 April 1789

North America

First inauguration of George Washington30 April 1789

Latin America

Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804