65—THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, www.dailytelegraph.com.au Monday, July 14, 2008—65

HISTORY

On this day1881 William H. Bonney,

known as ‘‘Billy theKid’’ and the reputed killer of 27men, is shot dead at 21 by sheriffPat Garrett in New Mexico.

1906 Bookmaker DonaldMcLeod is kicked to

death by punters at FlemingtonRacecourse in Melbourne afterbeing unable to pay winning bets.

1958King Faisal II ofIraq (right) andhis servantsand prime min-ister are killedas nationalistsdeclare thecountry a republic. Abdul KarimKassem becomes the new leader.

1971 Joh Bjelke-Petersen’sQueensland

government declares a state ofemergency to protect Springbokrugby games in Brisbane fromanti-apartheid demonstrators.

1977 Governor-general JohnKerr says he will resign

in December. He was underpressure since sacking the Whit-lam Labor government in 1975.

1992 About 200 rescuers andnavy helicopters save

most of about 50 beached whalesin a huge operation at Seal Rockson the NSW North Coast.

1997 Four Australian athletesdie and more than 70

people are injured when a bridgecollapses at the opening of theMaccabiah Games in Israel.

2001English touristPeter Falconiodisappears ona remotestretch of theStuart Highwayin the NorthernTerritory but his girlfriend, JoanneLees (above), manages to escapekiller Bradley John Murdoch.

BirthdaysEMMELINEPANKHURSTBorn Emmeline Goulden inManchester, England, in 1858,she fought for women’s suffrage,often being jailed. She led asometimes violent 40-yearcampaign, which succeededjust before she died in 1928.

MARLENE MATHEWSSprinter born inBurwood, Syd-ney, in 1934.She won twobronze medalsat the 1956Olympics inMelbourne,beaten in bothraces by Betty Cuthbert. Shewent on to set four individualworld records.

JOHN WOODBorn in Melbourne in 1946,he acted before taking upscriptwriting. His lead TV role inRafferty’s Rules won him twoLogies. He is now playing a roguesports agent for a coming ABCseries, The Cut.

ANNA BLIGHBorn in War-wick in 1960.After beingQueensland’sdeputy premierand treasurer,she becamePremier inSeptember —the first woman to hold the job.She is a descendant of CaptainWilliam Bligh of mutiny fame.

The might and calmbefore the storming

Royal glow . . . the Hall of Mirrors, photographed in December 2005 after restoration, at the Palace of Versailles.Below: King Louis XVI and his consort Marie Antoinette were both executed using a guillotine. Main picture: REUTERS

The French Revolutionended an era of greatness,KEITH SUTER writes

On July 14, 1789, Frenchcitizens stormed theBastille prison in Paris,igniting the revolutionthat eventually forced

France into the modern era. Theglory of the period of time that wasending is now often forgotten.

France in the early 1780s was aworld superpower with King LouisXVIat itshead.Francealsohadtheworld’s most powerful militarymachine and her grand imperialambitions rivalled those of Spain,Holland and Great Britain —her main rival.

But the British had just beenbeaten, in 1783, by George Wash-ington and the American colonistsin their War of Independence.France had assisted the Americanrebels and so earned the title (notalways honoured) of the UnitedStates’ longest running ally.

Many assumed — wrongly — thatBritain’s rush for world power hadended and that it would begin toslide down the international leaguetable, while the French still hadgreat influence around the world.

French was the language of aris-tocrats across Europe and the abil-ity to speak French (no matter inwhich European country a personlived) was the sign of a civilised andeducated person. As late as the19th century, Russian diplomatsused to write all internal memos inFrench because it was the sophisti-cated language of diplomacy andRussian the language of peasants.

France was also the centre offashion. Its arts, courtly manners,clothing and elegant speech werethe benchmark for the rest ofEurope. Americans from the fledg-ling United States looked forwardto visiting France. When Ameri-cans thought of European tasteand style, they thought of France.

With its fertile soil, France wasthewealthiest countryon theglobe.It was self-sufficient but it had alsodeveloped an international net-work of trading arrangements.

Its empire had included NewFrance, much of what is now Cana-da. By 1763 this colony, except fortwo tiny islands off Newfoundland,had come under British rule withFrance’s defeat at the hands of theBritish in the Seven Years’ War.Much of it remained in Britishhands after the War of Indepen-dence. But in 1789 France still hadparts of India and Africa. Frenchsettlers were also in theGreat Lakesand Mississippi Valley regions ofwhat is now the US (to the west ofthe original 13 British colonies).

Economically, France spannedthe continent in much the sameway as the US interests now spanthe world. About 50 per cent of allthe gold pieces circulating on thecontinent were French.

France was also the world’s intel-lectual centre. Its writers andthinkers led the world in suchdiverse areas as literature, plays,painting, mathematics and science.

France was the hub of European,if not world, affairs — and thecentre of that hub was the Ver-sailles palace, justwest ofParis, thehome of the king.

The palace had been finished in1682. It required 36,000 men to buildit, using 6000 horses to drag timberandblocks of stone to the site. In itsday, it was one of the continent’slargest ever building projects,resulting in one of the world’slargest buildings, with 226 apart-ments, as well as 500 narrow atticrooms. It was the envy of thecontinent’s monarchs, some ofwhom tried to build their owngrand residences after having beeninspired by Versailles.

The palace was stunning. Atnight, the tall windows blazed withthe light of thousands of candles.A gallery had a wall of mirrors —probably the biggest in the world— where daylight from the outside

gardens was reflected, giving thatlongroomaspecial senseofairiness(which continues to stun touriststo this day).

Below the palace, the gardenswere equally impressive. Millions offlowers, bushes and roses had beenplanted inwhathadbeenwoodland.

Thousands of orange trees, forexample, had been transportedfrom the colonies in the Americas.On warm evenings, the aristocracywould parade through the grounds,taking in the sights. It seemed thatnothing would ever change in thekingdom of France. The peopleaccepted the monarchy — manyeven loved it—and itwas seenasanenlightened system of rule. It was asource of comfort and stability.

The royal family felt secure in thehearts of their people. Versailleswas a palace without a set of highwalls, moats or other fortifications.The royals hadminimal defences —and the palace gatewas usually leftunlocked. Four thousand courtiersattended to the royal family. Theking’s kitchen alone had 13 chefs,fiveassistantsof theGrandPantry,20 royal cup bearers, and fourcarriers of the royal wine.

Outside France, the country wasa source of amazement. For otherEuropeans and the Americans, if aperson were to travel overseas, the

most important country to visitwasFrance. Pariswas the global city. In1788, for example, Parisians wereinterested to see threevisitingMus-lim envoys of India in their colour-ful clothes with their entourages.

Butwith all thewealth of France,there was also great poverty andsqualor. Maintaining militarypowerwas expensive and the king’sgovernment was sliding towardsbankruptcy. The 1788 winter wasthe harshest for 80 years. Peopleand animals froze to death.

Then a hailstorm ripped throughcentral France, wiping out fruittrees and olive groves. Then therewas a severe drought. France mayhave had fertile soil in good yearsbut it had never had an efficientfood distribution system. Therewas unemployment, crushing debtand hunger. The government washindered because the CatholicChurchand the aristocracy refusedto pay any taxes.

Theking tried to findnewwaysofraising money. He still had no ideajust how close he was to disaster.

There were ugly scenes of unrestacross the country as poor, hungrypeople started to rebel. They wereoriginally concerned about foodrather than a sweeping politicalagenda. But one step led to another.

The Bastille was a massive medi-

eval stronghold, built in 1370. It wasoriginally a fort and later it becomea prison to hold the country’s mostnotorious convicts.

However, only seven prisonersremained by 1789 because the king,as a symbol of an enlightened ruler,had gradually been emptying it,setting prisoners free or at leasttransferring them elsewhere.

The Bastille also held a store ofguns and gunpowder. The people inParis who were beginning to rebelattacked the Bastille to get theweapons.Thecrowdwasunrulyandsome shots were fired.

The prison governor, Marquis deLaunay, tried toavert furtherblood-shed by allowing the mob into theprison to take thegunsandgunpow-der. The crowd got carried awaywith its own success and turned onthe governor, slowly cutting offde Launay’s head with a penknife.

Word of the storming of theBastille reached Versailles. Theking muttered: ‘‘But this is arevolt’’. His aide replied: ‘‘No sire.It is a revolution’’.

The king was eventually exe-cuted, on January 21, 1793.

❏ Acknowledgments to The GreatUpheaval: The Birth Of The ModernWorld 1788-1800 by Jay Winik,Simon & Schuster, 2007.