Celie Intering
By tradition this day is regarded as the end of the Former Regime and the beginning of the French Revolution.La Bastille was a jail, which was containing lots of innocents, and not a lot of guilty people. Although at the time of the storming, there were not a lot of people there. In fact, prisoners had been transfered in an other jail. Victims of the monarchy, they were imprisoned without judgment. La Bastille was the symbol of tyranny, and now, it is in a way, freedom’s symbol. Indeed, it is standing out the beginning of a fight, the fight for freedom.
On Sunday 12 of July 1789, Camille Desmoulins, a journalist encouraged people to revolt.
On Monday 13, the Parisian crowd was manifesting and asking for the decrease of bread and grain prices. They burnt fifty entries for Paris. Later, they ransacked the Saint Lazarre convent. Indeed, grains were stocked there.
Next, a reunion took place to create an army of 48000 people. They ransacked the ‘Garde Meuble’ to find weapons. After that, they went to the Invalides to claim war Weapons. The government refused, and the crowd took them by force. The French people still needed gunpowder. They learnt that there was some at La Bastille.
Suffering several refusals, they fired on the building. At 5pm, the soldiers who were defending the jail, abandoned it. The mass invaded La Bastille, released prisoners and imprisoned the Bastille’s governor: Marquis De Launay. Later, De Launay’s head was cut off and paraded around Paris. Other statesmen's heads joined the cortege.
It was only the day after that, that King Louis XVI heard about the storming of the Bastille. He asked his informer:
- Is it a revolt?
- No sir, it isn’t a revolt, it is a revolution!
Louis XVI was guillotined on the 21 January 1793 at ‘La Concorde’, called Revolution Place before.
The French Revolution was a major event in history. It changed the conception of the social power, which, until that moment, had been concentrated on the monarchy. When answering to the comment you wrote in my article, I said that wars never help to make a better world, but if we consider the French Revolution as a war (which is not exactly a war) I would have to retract my statement and say that, on this case, this "violent" event helped to change society in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in European history. No matter when I learn about European history, I never fail to be surprised at European people power which could change history. For me, it is a precious oppotunity to share ideas or opinions with European students. I'm fortunate to know several european students now. Thanks, Celie!!
ReplyDelete