THE FALL OF BASTILLE

-RICHIT BID

ROLL NO-1

IX-D

BASTILLE DAY-JULY 14TH, 1789

The political crisis lead to a revolt The storming of the Bastille was the climax of the

Paris Revolution of July, 1789, the act of the mob which sought to defend the French Revolution against the alleged threat of a royalist reaction. Rumors had been circulating in Paris during the early part of July that King Louis XVI was planning a military coup d'état to dissolve the National Assembly, which had been meeting since June at Versailles. Composed of the original three estates which the King had summoned in May, 1789, to deal with the government's financial problems, the National Assembly represented the hopes and aspirations of most Frenchmen for extensive political and socio-economic reform.

Hence, the people of Paris became alarmed when they learned that the King was moving Swiss and German mercenary troops from the provinces to positions around Versailles and the capital, ostensibly to protect the National Assembly against possible disorders, a number of which had in fact already broken out.

To most Parisians and delegates of the National Assembly, however, Louis' action posed a threat to the revolutionary movement in general and the National Assembly in particular. Louis, therefore, could not have committed a bigger blunder when on July 11, he suddenly dismissed Jacques Necker, Minister of Finance, who in the public mind personified reform and who for this reason had been growing progressively unpopular at court. The news of Necker's dismissal reached Paris on July 12, where upon the city rose in revolt.

IMPORTANT PERSONALITIESPeople influencing the Mob riot symbolizing the collapse of the Old Regime.

PRINCIPAL PERSONAGES

Louis, XVI, King of France 1774-1792, who was suspected of plotting a counterrevolution against the National Assembly

Jacques Necker, popular Minister of Finance whose dismissal started the crisis which culminated in the storming of the Bastille

Bernard-René de Launay, military governor of the Bastille

Jean-Sylvain Bailly, president of the National Assembly, chosen to be mayor of Paris after the storming of the Bastille

Marquis de Lafayette, who was made commander of the National Guard after the storming of the Bastille

Jacques de Flesselles, head of the municipal government of Paris, who was assassinated by the mob in the storming of the Bastille

Bernard René Jourdan marquis de Launay was the French governor of the Bastille, and commander of its garrison when it was stormed on 14 July 1789.

(1740–1789)

THE EVENT…..The symbol of absolute monarchy, social inequality and injustice was turned to a symbol of liberty…

SUMMARY OF THE EVENT The mob decided to march on the Bastille, the old

fortress-prison in the center of Paris, to seize arms and powder, which the King's men had recently placed there for safekeeping. The mob did not march on the Bastille with the intention of releasing the prisoners incarcerated there (actually five criminals and two lunatics) or even of attacking it. Spokesmen for the mob and the new committee governing the city simply demanded of the Bastille's military governor, Bernard-René de Launay, that he withdraw his cannons from their menacing position along the citadel's walls and turn over the stores of arms and powder to the people. De Launay complied with the first demand. But during negotiations on the second, the people managed to push their way from the outer court into the inner court of the fortress, whereupon De Launay panicked and opened fire on them.

The fighting raged with the people suffering most of the losses. At 3 P.M., the French Guard brought up cannon. De Launay now reluctantly decided to surrender. Shortly after his capture, he was murdered along with Jacques de Flesselles, whom the people accused of misdirecting them in their search for arms. The mob then turned its wrath upon the Bastille itself and proceeded to demolish it stone by stone. The Paris insurrection for all practical purposes was now over. Royal troops had been driven from the capital. The National Guard eventually succeeded in disarming those rioters who still roamed the streets.

The Paris Revolution, highlighted by the storming of the Bastille, had important results of an immediate and long-range nature.

On the morning of July 14th, 1789, a group formed of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to the Invalides to steal some weapons. The mob stole 28,000 riffles there, however no powder was to be found. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it.

At the time of the storming, the Bastille was only guarded by a few soldiers. There were 80 "invalides", veteran soldiers wounded in the field and around 30 grenadiers from the Swiss mercenary regiments. Marquis Bernard-Rene de Launay was at the time governor of the "Invalides".

The Storming of the Bastille and the Arrestation of Governor de Launay.

EFFECT OF THE FALL…The events that followed the fall of the bastille…

THE EFFECT OF THE FALL More significant were the long-range effects of the

fall of the Bastille. The event resulted in the first emigration of the reactionary nobles, who encouraged their host states to intervene militarily against the Revolution. Politically, it completed the transfer of the King's remaining authority to the National Assembly. Also, some of the larger cities throughout France, such as Lyons, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, imitated the example of Paris by establishing new city governments, appointing citizens' guards, and capturing local bastilles. Socially, the fall of the Bastille encouraged the spread of peasant unrest, the so-called Great Fear, thereby paving the way for the formal abolition of feudalism in an all-night session of the National Assembly on August 4-5. Thus, the storming of the Bastille, which had been undertaken with the purpose of protecting the political revolution of May and June, gave rise to an extensive social revolution by early August, 1789.

THE ACT OF THE KING On July 15, the King went before the National

Assembly to announce the dismissal of his troops and the recall of Necker. The National Assembly then dispatched a delegation to Paris, including its president, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, and the Marquis de Lafayette. The governing committee of the city named Bailly mayor of the Paris commune, officially organized as such on July 15, and appointed Lafayette to be commander of the National Guard.