THE STORMING OF THE BASTILLE.....14 JULY 1789

The French Revolution took place from 1789 up to 1794. From the second half of the 700’s France fall in a big economic problem. The population on France was divided in three social classes: The king and the aristocrats, the Noble families, and finally by the workers, farmers; the poor population.
In 1789 the king wanted that the population forgot about the Revolution and supported the king Louis XVII, but still the people kept on doing revolutionary campaigns and revolts. Louis XVII decided to scare his people making them stop by making the kings soldiers surround Paris. The citizens got even more angry by this action and finally decided that the they would have destroyed the Ancien Regime.
On 14 July 1789 a crowd of 60,000 people attacked the King’s fortress prison of the Bastille in Paris, they entered the fortress with arms and managed to free the prisoners who mainly were politics that defended the revolution. They captured the governor and executed him. This was the beginning of a revolution!





For more information on the storming of the bastille read the following pages of the Blog:
· Charles Dickens, point of view
· Historians, point of view
· What people do people think of it today?

Website written by:
Bombelli Federica, Casanova Clara, Imoda Lodovica, Jesus Maria
Pubblished in 2007

CHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens was born in England The 7th February 1812. His mother was Elizabeth and his father John Dickens. From 1842, Charles and his family began to travel throughout the world. Initially visiting Canada and the United States. He later traveled to Italy, Switzerland and France. One of his most famous works was “A tale of two cities”. This is a story about the Revolution from Charles Dickens' point of view.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

This is an abstract from the novel: “The tale of two cities”
All morning, since nine, there has been a cry everywhere: To the Bastille! Repeated “deputations of citizens” have been here, passionate for arms; whom De Launay [Marquis de Launay, governor of the Bastille] has got dismissed by soft speeches through port-holes. Towards noon, Elector Thuriot de la Rosière gains admittance; finds De Launay indisposed for surrender; nay disposed for blowing up the place rather. Thuriot mounts with him to the battlements; heaps of paving-stones, old iron and missiles lie piled; cannon all duly leveled; in every embrasure a cannon, – only drawn back a little! But outwards, behold, O Thuriot, how the multitude flows on, welling through every street; tocsin furiously pealing, all drums beating the générale: the Suburb Saint-Antoine rolling hitherward wholly as one man!…

HOW DID DICKENS WORK HELP HISTORIANS OF TODAY???

Many people in history told us about how the people of Paris got over the bastille! Anyway Dickens was one of the most famous and important ones. He contributed to history in an important way. To start with he brought the news about the french revolution even in England. The historians of today use Dikens exaple when they write about the french revolution! Anyway there are some differences. Historians of today describe the conquering of the bastille as a small thing with just a few prisoners freed and that it was not a very difficult thing to do! Instead for a man like Dikens that was actually living during those times and was right there to see it. So he had a different view of the events in France. Dikens work gave historians an idea about the storming bastille and by re-araingeing the events the historians made up their own version of the event.

THE MOB

The mob is a large crowd of rioting people, here, in the “Storming of the Bastille” referred to common people in Paris.

Along time, many historical questions have been risen about the “mob” such as:

Who were the people in the mob?
How did it form?
How many people were there?
What did they want?
What was its reason or purpose?
What did they do?
What did they achieve?

THE REAL STORY

The 14th of July of 1789, a crowd of people, called the mob, attacked the Bastille.

The Bastille was a prison of the king who kept about 10 people, and not in bad conditions.
The mob attacked because bread prices were going up, more than what they could afford and because no one knew why the king was bringing lots of soldiers to Paris, so they were afraid.

First, the mob went to Les Invalides and took weapons. Then, the mob went to the Bastille for gunpowder. The mob didn’t go to the Bastille to free the prisoners, in fact, they just freed 7. The idea of this was to protect everyone in Paris from the troops of soldiers.
The mob didn’t expect to attack the Bastille, but it happened because some went inside to ask for gunpowder, the mob got impatient and the Storming of the Bastille began…
The mob started firing and defending themselves, the soldiers didn’t stop them while the governor tried to avoid the fight and trouble. The mob responded by murdering him, cutting off his head.

HOW IS THE BASTILLE DAY REMEMBERED TODAY???

The 14 July 1789 (storming of bastille) is a holiday in France. Why? Because it is a symbol of liberty and a celebration of the end of the monarchy and the beggining of the new republic. The French remember what happened that day as was mentioned in the section before.

What do people now think about the bastille?
Now people think of the bastille as a horrible place were the poor prisoners were mistreated and tortured. They think that the prisoners were trapped in there were poor and innocent. Infatct in 1790 they found bones that they say to be those of the prisoners. They think that the bastille was a horrible place.

To remember this day the french do military parades in order to remember that day with glory.
This is how the french remember this day, the 14th July. An important date and beggining of the french revolution. They remember the people that had the courage to fight and storm the bastille and free all the prisoners that the king had inside.

This day has to be remembered by all of us.
When was this day declared as a national holiday? The bastille day was declared as a proper national holiday on 6th July 1880. Since then all the french celebrate it.