| July 1789-Sept. 1791 | National (also known as, Constituent) Assembly; Louis XVI still king |
| Sept. 1791-Aug. 1792 | Louis XVI (as a constitutional monarch) rules with Legislative Assembly |
| Aug. 10, 1792-Sept. 21, 1792 | no clear government |
| Sept. 1792-August 1794 | First Republic--government by National Convention |
| August 1794-Sept. 1795 | Thermidorean Convention (purged of most radical Jacobins) |
| 1795-1799 | Directory (5-man executive; 2-house legislative) |
| 1799-1804 | Consulate |
| 1804-1815 | First Empire (1814, First Restoration of Louis XVIII; followed by Napoleon's Hundred Days and eventual defeat at Waterloo) |
| 1815-1830 | Restoration (Louis XVIII; Charles X) |
| 1830-1848 | July Monarchy (Louis Philippe becomes king after July Revolution) |
| 1848-1851 | February 1848 Revolution prompts Louis Philippe to abdicate; Provisional Government gives way to Second Republic; Louis Napoleon elected President in Dec. 1848 |
| 1851-1870 | Second Empire |
| 1870-1875 | Provisional government (Paris commune, spring 1871) |
| 1875-1940 | Third Republic |
| 1940-1942 | north of France occupied by Germany; south, "the French state" based at Vichy |
| 1942-1944 | all of France under German military rule with collaboration of Vichy government (Pétain and Laval) |
| 1944-1947 | provisional government under the CNR (National Council of the Resistance) charter |
| 1947-1959 | Fourth Republic |
| 1959-present | Fifth Republic |