A dictatorship was imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution in 1593.
The American Revolutionary War ( 17751783 ) , also known as the American War of Independence , was a global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and thirteen of its North American colonies , which declared independence as the United States of America . French Revolution . The first year of the Revolution saw members of the Third Estate taking control , the assault on the Bastille in July , the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August , and a women 's march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October . The dictatorship imposed by the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror , from 1793 until 1794 , established price controls on food and other items , abolished slavery in French colonies abroad , dechristianised society through the creation of a new calendar and the expulsion of religious figures , and secured the borders of the new republic from its enemies . The Storming of the Bastille ( Prise de la Bastille [ pʁiz də la bastij ] ) occurred in Paris , France , on the afternoon of 14 July 1789 .