French+Revolution+-+Storming+of+the+Bastille

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The seizure of the Bastille, today marked by a national holiday in France, triggered the first of the great emigrations from France as the king's brothers, failing to convince the king to punish the rioters and supress the Assembly, fled. It also marked the beginning of violence that would become endemic in the Revolution. The disaffection of the officers and the rifts between the officers and the enlisted also helped to bring down the ancient regime because the army would play a crucial role in the unrest of the summer of 1789. The government had mustered more than 20,000 men in the Paris area by July 1789, but it did not dare use them. The government's perception that the army could not be trusted ensured that the government could not inforce its will. When the crisis came, the king'sministers assumed that the army could not be counted upon to enforce order. The commander's advice not to employ the troops only reinforced the king's indecision. Whether discipline would have helld is open to question, because some units remained loyal; but the officers did not believe that the men would obey and were unwilling to test soldiers' loyalty. athe government's lack of faith in its troops most likely quickened the desertion rate because most of the desertions occured after the fall of the Bastille as the traditional lines of authority collapsed. The perception that the men were unreliable became a self-fueling prophecy. The breakdown of discipline within the ranks, the mingling of the soldiers with and their sympathy for the people in Paris, and their disaffection from their officers led the government to withdraw the regular troops from Paris.

Frey, Linda S., and Marsha L. Frey. //The French Revolution//. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004. 4, 60. Print.

Louis's actions led to the storming of the Bastille prison by the Paris mob on July 14, 1789. On the same day the price of bread in Paris had reached its highest ever level. The Bastille was the symbol of the repressive power of the monarchy. It was also believed to hold ammunition that would allow the Parisians to defend themselves against the king's soldiers. The storming of the Bastille was followed by the formation of a revolutionary city government in Paris, known as the Paris Commune, and a number of peasant uprisings outside Paris.

__French Revolution__. Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia. Helicon Publishing. 2005. __eLibrary__. ProQuest LLC. MOUNT ST JOSEPH HIGH SCHOOL. 11 Nov 2009. [].

As rioting over Necker's dismissal took place on July 12th and 13th, Parisians, now a mob, began a non-systematic and often hysterical search for arms and supplies. Shops were looted, grain stores sacked, and even churches and monasteries were searched for hidden stores. On the morning of July 14, a crowd of some 7,000-8,000 people took some 30,000 guns from the Hôtel des Invalides. Spurred on by their stunning success, the crowd next looked to the Bastille, known to be equipped with gunpowder and arms recently sent there from the arsenal. To secure those weapons and gunpowder was the real goal of the siege of the Bastille. Thuriot returned to say that the governor refused to surrender, although he would agree not to fire unless attacked. Half an hour later, some of the crowd forced down a small undefended drawbridge that led into the inner, or Governor's, court. The crowd, which now numbered many hundreds of people, immediately swarmed through this entrance. It was at this point that de Launay panicked and ordered his troops to fire, even though they were protected by the prison's thick walls. At least ninety-eight of the crowd were killed and seventy-three wounded. Even two delegates carrying white flags were fired on. Word of the carnage reached troops stationed at the Hôtel de Ville under the command of former National Guard noncommissioned officer Hulin and a lieutenant named Élie who quickly came to the defense, bringing with them two detachments of the National Guard along with five cannon removed from the Invalides that morning. Joined at the Bastille by several hundred armed civilians, this new force fought its way to the inner courtyard of the fortress and aimed the cannon at the main gate. De Launay offered terms at this point. The mob released the seven prisoners remaining in the Bastille; ironically, none of them was in any way a political prisoner. One was an insane young man kept in the Bastille by his family, two others were also mentally disturbed, and four were disreputable characters being prosecuted for forgery. According to a census in 1790 of those who participated in the storming of the Bastille, people from all classes of society were involved, although most were artisans from the surrounding neighborhood. The most reliable records show that the vaingueurs de la Bastille, as they were called, numbered between 800 and 900 people, and names, addresses, and occupations were established for 662 of the survivors. The storming of the Bastille, although a fairly minor incident in and of itself, particularly militarily, was a potent political symbol: it came to be regarded as the beginning of the French Revolution. And, despite many setbacks to come, in a real sense it was. The king had lost control of Paris and did not have the resources to take the city back by force. The people had been energized; for them, there was no turning back. The monarchy was eventually overthrown and a republic established. July 14 became a French national holiday - Bastille Day - that is celebrated today in much the same manner that Americans celebrate the Fourth of July, their Independence Day.

"Paris (France): Place de la Bastille." __International Dictionary of Historical Places Volume 2 Northern Europe.__ Chicago: Fitzory Dearborn, 1995. __History Study Center__. ProQuest LLC. 11 Nov. 2009 .

The storming of the Bastille and the subsequent Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was the third event of this opening stage of the revolution. The first had been the revolt of the nobility, refusing to aid King Louis XVI through the payment of taxes.[1] The second had been the formation of the National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath. The middle class had formed the National Guard, sporting //tricolor// cockades (rosettes) of blue, white and red, formed by combining the red-and-blue cockade of the Paris commune and the white cockade of the king. These cockades, and soon simply their color scheme, became the symbol of the revolution and, later, of France itself. Paris, close to insurrection, and, in François Mignet's words, "intoxicated with liberty and enthusiasm," showed wide support for the Assembly. The press published the Assembly's debates; political debate spread beyond the Assembly itself into the public squares and halls of the capital. The Palais-Royal and its grounds became the site of an endless meeting. The crowd, on the authority of the meeting at the Palais-Royal, broke open the prisons of the //Abbaye// to release some grenadiers of the French guards, reportedly imprisoned for refusing to fire on the people. The Assembly recommended the imprisoned n as the Fête de la Fédération (//Federation Holiday//). It is usually called Bastille Day in English. During the reign of Louis XVI, France faced a major economic crisis, initiated by the cost of intervening in the American War of Independence (and guardsmen to the clemency of the king; they returned to prison, and received pardon. The rank and file of the regiment, previously considered reliable, now leaned toward the popular cause.
 * The Storming of the Bastille** occurred in Paris on 14 July, 1789. The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. While the prison only contained seven prisoners at the time of its storming, its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution, and it subsequently became an icon of the French Republic. In France, //Le quatorze juillet// (14 July) is a public holiday, formally knowparticularly never-consummated efforts to invade Great Britain), and exacerbated by an unequal system of taxation. On 5 May, 1789, the Estates-General of 1789 convened to deal with this issue, but were held back by archaic protocols and the conservatism of the Second Estate, consisting of the nobility and comprising 2% of France's population at the time. On 17 June, 1789, the Third Estate, with its representatives drawn from the middle class, or //bourgeoisie//, reconstituted themselves as the National Assembly, a body whose purpose was the creation of a French constitution. The king initially opposed this development, but was forced to acknowledge the authority of the assembly, which subsequently renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July.

(n.d.). Storming of the Bastille. //Wikipedia//. Retrieved (2009, November 12) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille
 * //T//**he time was half past three, on the famous date of July 14, 1789. A huge, bloodthirsty mob marched to the Bastille, searching for gun powder and prisoners that had been taken by the unpopular and detested King, Louis XVI. Even elements of the newly formed National Guard were present at the assault. The flying rumors of attacks from the government and the biting truth of starvation were just too much for the angry crowds. The Bastille had been prepared for over a week, anticipating about a hundred angry subjects and along the thick rock walls of the gargantuan fortress and between the towers were twelve more guns that were capable of launching 24-ounce case shots at any who dared to attack. However, the enraged Paris Commune was too defiant and too livid to submit to the starvation and seeming injustice of their government.  But nothing could have prepared the defenders for what they met that now famous day.

    //**T**//he Bastille was governed by a man named Marquis de Launay. On July 7th, thirty-two Swiss soldiers led by Lieutenant Deflue, came to aid de Launay, helping him to prepare for a small mob. Rumors were flying everywhere. The Marquis was expecting a mob attack, but certainly not a siege! The entire workforce of the Bastille had stealthily and furiously been repairing the Bastille and reinforcing it, all to prepare for a minor attack from a hundred or so angry citizens. At three o'clock that afternoon, however, a huge group of French guards and angry citizens tried to break into the fortress. There were over three hundred people ready to give their lives to put an end to their overtaxing and overbearing government. However the Bastille was threatened by more than the numerous crowds: three hundred guards had left their posts earlier that day, out of fear and from the rumors. The besiegers easily broke into the arsenal and into the first courtyard, cut the drawbridge down, and then quickly got through the wooden door behind it. They boldly demanded that the bridges be lowered, but they were refused. The Marquis de Launay said he would surrender if his troops were allowed to leave peacefully, but he was simply rebuked. They wanted de Launay on a noose or with his head in a basket.
 * //    T//**he vicious crowds shouted for him to lower the bridges. De Launay sent a note to a mob leader named Hulin, claiming that he had 20,000 pounds of gunpowder and if the besiegers did not accept his offer, he would annihilate the entire fortress, the garrison, and everyone in it! Yet, they still refused. The bridges were finally lowered on de Launay's command, and he and his soldiers were captured by the crowds and dragged through the filthy streets of Paris.
 * //    T//**he mob paraded through the streets, showing off their captives, and crudely cutting off many heads. The National Guard tried to stop the crowds from looting, but it was useless. They continued marching on, maKing their way to the Hotel de Ville. Upon learning that the Bastille had been taken, King Louis XVI, who was residing at Versailles, was reported to have asked an informer: "Is this a revolt?" and La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt said, "No, Sire, it is a revolution." Little did Louis know that the mob's next plan was to march to Versailles, and take him away with them as well.

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**Bastille, Fall of the** (14 July 1789)
When the ESTATES GENERAL met in May 1789 there was conflict between the Crown and the privileged Estates (clergy and nobles) on the one hand and the Third Estate on the other, particularly when the latter claimed the right to manage the affairs of the nation and called itself the National Assembly in June. LOUIS XVI increased the number of troops round Paris with the apparent intention of using them to dissolve the Assembly. This was prevented by the revolt of the people of Paris. They began seizing arms but were short of gunpowder and cartridges, so they marched on the fortress of the Bastille. The government would have used its troops to crush the rising but they proved unreliable and some French Guards deserted to join the Parisians besieging the Bastille. When the crowds entered the inner courtyard the Governor, de Launay, ordered his troops to fire. Ninety-eight of those laying siege were killed before the French Guards, using cannon, broke in: de Launay, forced to surrender, was decapitated. Those who attacked the Bastille were not the wealthy middle class but //SANS-CULOTTES// - master craftsmen and journeymen of the working-class districts. At the height of the rebellion about a quarter of a million Parisians were under arms. The fall of the Bastille had far-reaching results. The King had lost control of Paris, so the Assembly could now draw up a constitution safe from the threat of being dissolved by the King. Real power had passed from the King to the elected representatives of the people. When news of the Bastille's fall spread throughout France, the authority of the King collapsed in most French towns, as it had done in Paris, whilst in the countryside the peasant revolution, which had already begun, was extended and intensified. The revolt of Paris also began the emigration of some nobles, led by the King's brother, the Comte d'Artois (the future King CHARLES X): 20,000 fled abroad in two months. Gouverneur Morris, later US ambassador to France, wrote to George Washington, 'You may consider the revolution to be over, since the authority of the King and the nobles has been utterly destroyed.'

(c) Duncan Townson 1994, 1995, 2001. Text copyright (c) Donald Bates, David Englander, John Gillingham, Joanna Innes, Diarmaid McCulloch, John Stevenson, 1995, 2000. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd
 * Publication:** The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern History 1789-1945
 * Publisher:** Penguin
 * Published:** 2001
 * Place of Publication:** London

**The French Revolution- Storming of the Bastille**
King Louis XVI, in 1788 decided to call together the States General in order to raise taxes. By doing this, Louis XVI was admitting that the French monarchy was bankrupt and in a desperate position and they were forced to find new solutions to thier problems.