What was the fall of the Bastille?
THE Bastille fall it was the popular assault on the Bastille, a former prison symbol of the oppression of the French Ancien Régime. The seizure of this prison was a consequence of popular tension caused by the economic and political crisis that France was facing at the end of the 18th century.
The taking of the Bastille was organized by the population of Paris on July 14, 1789 and aimed to gain access to the gunpowder stock that was stored there. This fact took place shortly after the attack on the Hotel dos Invalides, where the Parisian population had obtained weapons.
The fall of the Bastille was considered a major milestone at the time, as it symbolized the beginning of the fall of the Ancien Régime and contributed to spread the revolutionary feeling – at that time concentrated in Paris – for all of France, both in the smaller towns and in the rural clusters.
This event was considered by historians as the beginning of the French Revolution, a period in French history marked by great social and political turmoil. Furthermore, this episode was established as a reference by historians to determine the chronological beginning of the period known as
Contemporary age.18th-Century France and the Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction
The taking of the Bastille symbolized the manifestation of popular dissatisfaction against the French Ancien Régime. At the end of the 18th century, France had a regime based on the principle of absolutist monarchy, in which a king concentrated all the power of the state. During this period, France was ruled by King Louis XVI.
The French Ancien Regime was characterized by social division into imaginary classes named as states. According to that order, French society was composed of:
Firststate: corresponded to clergy French.
Secondstate: corresponded to nobility French.
Thirdstate: corresponded to people (the bourgeoisie belonged to this group).
This social division existing in France guaranteed a series of privileges to the First and Second States, such as land donation by the king, exemption from certain taxes and maintenance of an extremely luxurious. The people, in turn, supported the full weight of the French aristocracy's lifestyle with ever-increasing taxes.
The French economy had been facing a serious crisis since the 1770s as a result of its involvement in the war of United States independence. The participation of the French in this conflict led the country to bankruptcy (bankruptcy). With the economy in crisis, the French aristocracy expanded its exploitation of the population, charging more taxes from those who worked on their land.
The Third Estate represented about 95% of France's population at the end of the 18th century. This group, composed mainly of peasants, suffered the most from the economic crisis of that period. On the Third Estate, historian Eric Hobsbawm states that:
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[…] the vast majority did not have land or had an insufficient amount, a deficiency increased by the dominant technical backwardness; and the general famine of the land was intensified by the increase in population. Feudal taxes, tithes, and taxes took away a large and ever-increasing proportion of the peasant's income, and inflation reduced the value of the rest.|1|.
The growing pressure on the Third Estate was magnified when famine spread through France, mainly in the period 1788-1789. The hunger existing in the lower strata of the population was aggravated by a period of poor harvests and harsh winters. Eric Hobsbawm attributed to these facts the cause of the great popular mobilization that would take place in 1789|2|.
States General and the National Constituent Assembly
The crisis that had set in in France led King Louis XVI to convene a council known as States General. This council consisted of bringing together representatives of the three social classes in France to discuss solutions to face the crisis. During this meeting, the Third Estate, represented by the bourgeoisie, proposed a reform that did not please the French aristocracy.
The decisions of the States General took place in a vote in which each group was entitled to one vote. This form was the guarantee that the First and Second Estates would not have their privileges undermined, as they always joined together to vote against the Third Estate. The proposal of the Third Estate, then, was to suggest individual voting, that is, by a representative of each state.
These changes would allow the bourgeoisie to unite with the liberal nobility and lower clergy and thus pass reforms against the high aristocracy of France. However, these proposals of the French bourgeoisie were blocked by the king. From then on, the Third Estate broke with the States General and proclaimed the creation of National Constituent Assembly and the creation of a new constitution for the country.
The mobilization of the bourgeoisie created a militia with the aim of guaranteeing the functioning of the National Constituent Assembly, the National Guard. This movement was followed by popular mobilization and the formation of militias led by Parisian citizens themselves. Encouraged by the actions of the French bourgeoisie and dissatisfied with the oppression of the Old Regime, the Parisian population took up arms and carried out attacks against government buildings.
The attack on the Bastille was the major milestone of this mobilization in 1789 and contributed to spreading sentiment revolution throughout France and inaugurate a ten-year period marked by great unrest that remained known as French Revolution.
|1| HOBSBAWM, Eric. The Age of Revolutions 1789-1848. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 2014, p. 104.
|2| Idem, p. 109.
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
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SILVA, Daniel Neves. "What was the fall of the Bastille?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/historia/o-que-foi-queda-bastilha.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
