In what year did the French Revolution occur?

The French Revolution began in earnest in 1789, when representatives of the Third Estate, barred from the Estates-General (a meeting summoned by King Louis XVI to Versailles), formed a National Assembly that began to enact revolutionary reforms. These reformers had the support of Parisians, who stormed the Bastille, a royal prison, in support. It coincided with a wave of agrarian uprisings known as the Great Fear that swept the countryside, terrorizing the nobility. These events are typically regarded as the first of the Revolution. Its ending is less clear. Many historians regard the end of the Revolution as the year 1795, when the relatively reactionary Directory assumed control of the nation. Others regard it as 1799, when Napoleon staged a coup d'etat that led to the establishment of the First Consulate (essentially a dictatorship). Still others argue that the Revolution continued to 1815, when Napoleon was finally defeated and permanently driven from power.