What was symbolic of the storming of the bastille

During the reign of Louis XVI, France faced a major economic crisis, partially initiated by the cost of intervening in the American Revolution and exacerbated by a regressive system of taxation. On May 5, , the Estates-General convened to deal with this issue, but were held back by archaic protocols that disadvantaged the Third Estate the commoners.

On June 17, , the Third Estate reconstituted themselves as the National Assembly, a body whose purpose was the creation of a French constitution.

The king initially opposed this development, but was forced to acknowledge the authority of the assembly, which subsequently renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on July 9. Paris, close to insurrection, showed wide support for the Assembly.

The Palais-Royal and its grounds became the site of an ongoing meeting. The crowd, on the authority of the meeting at the Palais-Royal, broke open the prisons of the Abbaye to release some grenadiers of the French guards, reportedly imprisoned for refusing to fire on the people. The Assembly recommended the imprisoned guardsmen to the clemency of the king, They returned to prison and received pardon.

The rank and file of the regiment now leaned toward the popular cause. On July 11, , with troops distributed across the Paris area, Louis XVI, acting under the influence of the conservative nobles of his privy council, dismissed and banished his finance minister, Jacques Necker, who had been sympathetic to the Third Estate. The Parisians generally presumed that the dismissal marked the start of a coup by conservative elements. Liberal Parisians were further enraged by the fear that royal troops would attempt to shut down the National Constituent Assembly, which was meeting in Versailles.

Crowds gathered throughout Paris, including more than ten thousand at the Palais-Royal. Among the troops under the royal authority were foreign mercenaries, most notably Swiss and German regiments, that were seen as less likely to be sympathetic to the popular cause than ordinary French soldiers. There were even plans to close down the prison because it was so costly to maintain, for such a small purpose. To him it was as unimportant as an insignificant village. A small group of protesters climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and managed to break the chains of the castle drawbridge, accidentally crushing one of their number in the process.

The rest of the crowd then began cautiously entering the fortress but, on hearing gunfire, believed they were being attacked and grew enraged. In the ensuing battle, 98 protesters were killed for only one defender, a disparity that shows how easily the revolution could have been ended if Louis had only kept the support of his soldiers.

Despite his surrender, Governor de Launay and his three permanent officers were dragged out by the crowd and butchered.

After stabbing the commander to death, the protesters displayed his head on a pike. These were revolutionary times indeed. Outwardly at least, Louis appeared to get into the spirit of things and even adopted the Revolutionary cockade in front of cheering crowds.

They rightly feared that the uneasy peace between king and people would not last, now that the power of the latter had truly been shown. TV A new online only channel for history lovers. Relations between the Soviet Union and China reach the breaking point as the two governments engage in an angry ideological debate about the future of communism.

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