storming of the bastille

influences on the Parisians:

  • general:

    • paris was 20km from Versailles

    • thriving printing industry

    • many skilled artisans lived in Faubourg Saint-Antoine, around royal Bastille prison

    • parisians were reliant on regular employment for survival

    • high literacy rate among parisian (around 50 percent among man n 25 percent among women)

    • paris was large: arond 600k lived in close proximity, wealthy had moved out, 39% had no property on marriage

    • all food supplies subject to octrois (entry taxes) @custom posts around the city

    • rumour spread easily, rioting fairly common

  • specific influences:

    • bad harvest of 1788 pushed up bread prices

    • 1789: influx of migrants to paris in search of work

    • rumours that corn-dealers n speculators were hoarding grain to push prices up

    • fears of wage reductions n growing unemployment (eg riots @ Reveillon’s works in April)

    • compilation of the cahiers in the early months of 1789, aroused political passions
      pamphlets n newspapers proliferated n were widely available in cafes

    • the palais-royal offered an opportunity to hear the latest revolutionary thinking

    • troops surrounding paris bred fear

economic situation in paris:

  • by 1789, Parisians were spending 88% of their wages on bread

    • this was usually 50%

the popular movement:

  • Late June: Journalists and politicians set up permanent HQ in Palais-Royal, Paris

  • Nightly gatherings of thousands to hear revolutionary speakers

  • July 11: Necker dismissed, causing fear of Louis' forceful power restoration

  • Calls to arms, ordinary people arming themselves

  • Army desertions and street barricades emerging

  • 12-13 July: Breakdown of law and order in Paris, rumors spread, mobs arm themselves

  • Crowds destroy 40/54 barriers (customs posts), royal troops fail to intervene

  • Paris electors meet at Hotel de Ville, establish committee (the Commune) to control the city

  • Create National Guard to police, protect property, and defend Parisians from the king

  • Lafayette appointed as commander

storming of the bastille:

  • Demonstrators seize 28,000 muskets and 20 cannon from Les Invalides

  • March to Bastille for ammunition

  • Bastille symbolises power of the Ancien regime

  • De Launay denies entry and gunpowder, leading to clashes

  • Inner courtyard breached, troops open fire, resulting in 98 deaths

  • Cannon employed to overcome resistance

  • De Launay surrenders and is subsequently decapitated

  • Louis travels to Paris on 17 July

  • Acknowledges the Commune and National Guard

  • Wears revolutionary cockade with red and blue for Paris, white for the Bourbons

significance of the storming:

  • King loses control of Paris

  • National Assembly (now National Constituent Assembly) drafts new constitution without King's interference

  • Army loyalty uncertain for Louis

  • News reaches countryside, prompting about 20,000 nobles to flee in the following months

  • first big display of violence, moves revolution step further