STORMING OF THE BASTILLE: CAUSES, DEVELOPMENT, CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2025

The storming of the Bastille, a prison famous for harboring well-known adversaries of the monarchy, was the event that marked the beginning of the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, a large group of Parisian citizens took control of it, after a few days of frenzied political activity.

Although, in itself, the Bastille was not an important objective, it did have an important symbolic component. Thus, for many French it represented the king and absolutism, the assault showed discontent towards a political system that only favored the aristocracy, the nobility and the clergy.

Storming of the Bastille - Source: Jean-Pierre Houël

Before the assault on the prison, the Third Estate, made up of the bourgeoisie and the common people, had begun to take the necessary steps to increase its power. To do this, they had created a National Constituent Assembly, without the participation of the upper classes of society.

The fear that the king would send the army to repress the people, who had taken to the streets to protest, led to several outbreaks of violence, including the storming of the Bastille. The most immediate consequence was that King Louis XVI was forced to accept a constitutional government.

Background

The financial crisis that afflicted France during the reign of Louis XVI was exacerbated by the country's participation in various warlike conflicts. To this must be added the waste of the Royal Court, years of poor harvests and a tax system that only taxed the Third Estate and not the nobility.

Popular discontent was growing and the king, advised by his finance minister Necker, decided to convene the Estates General in May 1789. It was a body similar to a Parliament, with representatives from each estate. The monarch, to calm the situation, seemed willing to increase the presence of the Third Estate.

Discussion lock

However, the nobility and clergy did not accept the monarch's plan and blocked the debates. The reaction of the Third Estate, supported by a part of the lower clergy, was to abandon the Estates General and form a National Assembly on June 17, 1789.

Louis XVI had to end up recognizing the authority of said Assembly. This, on June 9, was proclaimed the National Constituent Assembly and began to work to draft a constitution.

The same National Assembly had shown its intentions when it made the so-called Ball Game Oath and approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen: to end absolutism and the privileges of the aristocracy.

Popular militia

The members of the National Assembly did not trust the monarch. For this reason, they created a popular militia consisting of 48,000 men to be able to defend themselves in case the authorities sent the army.

At that time, the situation in Paris was very tense. The population supported the Assembly and its decisions were discussed and debated in the street. Even part of the army began to show sympathy for the popular cause.

Necker's removal

The king, for his part, decided to follow the advice of the nobles and began to concentrate troops in the vicinity of the city. In addition, Jacques Necker, the finance minister who had tried to reform the tax system so as not to penalize the Third Estate, was fired.

This news reached the streets of the French capital on July 12. For most Parisians, the removal of Necker was the herald of a future coup by the most conservative sectors.

The inhabitants of the city took to the streets, gathering almost 10,000 people in the vicinity of the Palais Royal. There, Camille Desmoulins, called on citizens to take up arms to defend the Assembly.

July 13, 1789

During the night of the 13th, the violence spread through Paris. In addition to the removal of Necker and the threat to the Assembly, the rebels demanded that the price of bread and wheat be lowered, staples that had become considerably more expensive.

Hours later, a crowd gathered around the city hall, as looting and attacks took place in various areas.

The National Guard, the name given to the citizen militia, tried to stop the looting, but did not have the weapons to do so. To get them, they raided several buildings in which weapons were stored. One of those places was Les Invalides, but the governor refused to hand over the weapons found there.

Already at that time, many of the insurgents began to launch slogans to storm the Bastille, where there was a warehouse full of gunpowder.

Causes

The causes that led to the storming of the Bastille were, in general terms, the same as those that led to the French Revolution.

Among them is the bad economic situation that the country was experiencing. The majority of the population, those who were not part of the nobility, the clergy or the royal family, blamed the waste of the Court for the rise in the price of basic necessities. In addition, poor harvests led to famine episodes.

To this must be added the absolutist and estate system that ruled the country. At the top was the king, with almost absolute power and, behind him, two privileged sectors, the aristocracy and the clergy. The rest of the population had almost no political rights and, in addition, they were the ones who had to pay taxes.

The growing economic importance of the bourgeoisie had no correspondence with their null political power, which was one of the causes of their taking the lead of the Revolution.

The Bastille as a symbol of the monarchy

The Bastille was a fortress turned prison in the time of King Louis XIV. In this way, it had become the destiny of all opponents of the monarchy, becoming a symbol of absolutism.

The ideologue behind the conversion of the fortress into a state prison had been Cardinal Richelieu. He had decided to lock up those accused of political crimes, an order from the king was enough to convict them.

The building had a rectangular shape and was protected by a wall that was 30 meters long. With eight circular towers on its perimeter, the fortress was surrounded by a moat and only had one gate. This made it a really difficult target for revolutionaries.

These, in principle, came to the Bastille to stock up on arms and ammunition. However, when those responsible for the prison refused to hand them over, they decided to take it by force.

Development and characteristics

One of the most important characteristics of the storming of the Bastille, and of the entire French Revolution, was that it was a popular uprising. The leaders were, for the most part, bourgeois, accompanied in the streets by the rest of the so-called Third Estate.

Before the assault on the prison, an event may have changed history. A few meters from Les Invalides there was a military detachment, ready to go into action against the protesting crowd.

When Baron De Besenval, in command of these troops, asked the leaders of each corps if the soldiers would be willing to shoot at the assembled, the unanimous answer was no.

Siege of the Bastille

The Bastille only had 30 guards and a small group of veterans for its defense. At the time, there were only seven prisoners, none of them of particular importance.

For their part, the attackers numbered almost a thousand. At mid-morning on July 14, they were congregating outside. Their requests were that the defenders surrender the prison and have access to the weapons and gunpowder that was stored inside.

The Assembly of Electors in Paris sent a delegation to negotiate their surrender with the defenders. After the first contact, a second delegation resumed the talks. In this case, the envoys were Jacques Alexis Hamard Thuriot and Louis Ethis de Corny, who also did not achieve their objectives.

The refusal caused the spirits of the congregation to get excited. The first attempted assault, quite disorganized, began around 1:30 p.m., when part of those present entered the outer courtyard.

To favor the taking of the building, they proceeded to lower the drawbridge, breaking the chains that held it. They were responded with shots, which caused many victims.

Half an hour later, a new delegation tried again to end the siege without using violence. Again, to no avail.

Assault

The fourth attempt at negotiation took place around 3:00 p.m., with another refusal by the guards. It was then that the real assault began. It is not known 100% who started shooting, but a real battle soon broke out. The structure of the prison made his shot very complicated and the fight became more intense.

After 30 minutes, the attackers received reinforcements, joined by 61 guards who had deserted from the regular troops. Leading these guards was Pierre-Augustin Hulin, who had held the position of sergeant within the Swiss Guard.

To their military training, these guards added weapons that they had taken in Les Invalides, in addition to between 2 and 5 cannons.

Capitulation

The assault had caused almost 100 victims among the assailants until, around 5:00 p.m., the defenders of the Bastille ordered that shooting should be stopped. Despite their strategic advantage, they were aware that they could not hold out for much longer, so they sent the raiders a letter with the terms of their surrender.

Among the conditions for handing over the Bastille, they demanded that there be no reprisals against the defenders. Despite the demands being rejected, the besieged finally surrendered the fortress. Around 5:30 p.m., the Parisians entered and took control.

The garrison that had defended the prison was transferred to the City Hall. Although the National Guard tried to avoid incidents, during the transfer the crowd lynched four officers.

Unaware of what happened, Louis XVI ordered his army to evacuate the capital. The mandate arrived at the City Council at dawn.

Consequences

The storming of the Bastille marked the beginning of the French Revolution. All over the country there were uprisings against the authorities, who used the foreign troops present to try to regain control.

The revolution begins

The day after the Bastille was stormed, around 8 in the morning, King Louis XVI was informed of what had happened by the Duke of Duke of Liancourt. The monarch showed surprise and, according to the chroniclers, he could only say to his interlocutor, "but, Liancourt, this is a riot." The answer was very simple and accurate: "No, Sire," he said, "it's a Revolution."

In Paris, meanwhile, the citizens barricaded themselves, awaiting the response of the royal troops. In Versailles, with the Assembly meeting, a coup d'état by the pro-monarchists was about to take place, without finally happening.

Regime change

The fears of the rebels about a military response were not confirmed. On the morning of the 15th, the king understood his defeat and ordered the troops to retreat.

The Marquis de La Fayette was appointed head of the National Guard in Paris, while the leader of the Third Estate, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, was elected mayor of the capital.

The monarch, as a gesture of goodwill, announced that Necker would be restored to his post, in addition to his return from Versailles to Paris. On July 27, already in the capital, the monarch agreed to wear the symbol of the revolution: a tricolor cockade.

The revolutionaries soon began to implement their political measures. The monarchy, for its part, had no choice but to accept them in order to maintain the throne.

Elimination of estate privileges

The most important social consequence of the events that followed the storming of the Bastille was the elimination of the privileges of the aristocracy and the clergy. In this way, the Assembly destroyed the foundations of the feudal system.

Among other measures, citizen representatives decreed a fair price for the lands and eliminated unions and corporations.

Revolutionary outbreaks also occurred in rural areas. Peasants stormed castles and residences of the nobility, as well as tax collection offices.

For a time, a constitutional monarchy was maintained, although the king remained a prisoner in the Tuileries after being discovered trying to leave France. In 1792, evidence appeared that he was trying to conspire against the Assembly and the people stormed the prison.

The functions of the monarch were abolished, and on September 20, France became a republic.

Main characters involved

Many were the characters who participated in the storming of the Bastille, both among the defenders and among the assailants.

Bernard-René Jordan de Launay

Launay was the last governor of the Bastille, a post to which he was assigned, practically, from his birth. His father held the same position and Bernard-René was born in the fortress itself, converted into a prison.

During the assault, Launay did not receive any kind of orders from his superiors, so he had to take the initiative. First, he refused to open the doors and hand over the gunpowder and weapons stored there, but after the ensuing battle, he had no choice but to give in.

The governor was arrested and transferred to City Hall. However, he never reached his destination, as he was lynched by the crowd on the way.

Jean-Sylvain Bailly, Jacques Alexis Hamard Thuriot and Louis Ethis de Corny

They were part of the various delegations that entered the Bastille to try to make the defenders surrender. Of the three, the one who achieved the greatest recognition was Bailly, since he was mayor of Paris and was the one who gave King Louis XIV the tricolor cockade, symbol of the revolution.

Like many other revolutionaries, he ended up being tried and condemned by his own comrades. He was guillotined on November 12, 1791.

Pierre-Augustin Hulin

A member of the Swiss Guard, a body in which he reached the rank of sergeant, he was one of the leaders of the storming of the Bastille. He thus became commander of the Bastille Volunteers, although, later, he ended up in prison for being a member of the more moderate faction.

Historians claim that he was the one who ordered to fire on the fortress during the assault, which triggered the response of the defenders.

Camille Desmoulins

Camille Desmoulins was one of the ideologues of the storming of the Bastille. From the beginning, he was in favor of establishing a republic as the best method to end the French absolutist system.

Days before the storming of the Bastille, Desmoulin summoned the Parisians to demonstrate in front of the Royal Palace, which is considered the immediate precedent of the taking of the prison.

Already during the period called the Terror, Desmoulins ended up at odds with Maximilien de Robespierre. Finally, he was arrested and executed on April 5, 1794.

References

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