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The French National Day is celebrated on July 14 each year, on the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789. Here is a brief history of what led to the storming of the Bastille, and why it became a defining moment in the French Revolution.
The ancien régime, or the ‘old regime’, is the retrospective label given to the socio-political system in France that preceded the French Revolution. By the mid-18th century, this regime, headed by a decrepit monarchy, was in crisis. Notably, France faced budgetary troubles with revenues not keeping up with expenditure, primarily on the military, and the tax burden falling majorly on the already impoverished peasantry.
A series of crop failures and famines in the 1770s and 1780s pushed the peasantry to the brink — by 1788, even bread had become unaffordable for a vast majority of people. Yet the monarchy and the aristocracy continued in their lavish ways, with King Louis XVI and and Queen Marie Antoinette seen as symbols of the injustice of the ancien régime.
These material conditions, along with Enlightenment ideas about democracy and equality made the situation rife for a revolution.
To introduce new taxes, Louis XVI, in 1788, summoned the Estates-General, a nominally representative body that had last met in 1614. This body, which could be summoned, heard, or ignored at the King’s will, comprised the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate).
While in numbers, the Estates-General was dominated by commoners, they had little say in its decision-making. The clergy and nobility represented less than 5 per cent of the body, but together they could outvote the commoners.
By the autumn of 1788, a spirited campaign to increase the say of the Third Estate was in full swing. But after this paid little dividends, the Third Estate effectively broke away, to establish the National Assembly on June 17, 1789. On June 20, this body took oath at the royal tennis court in Versailles, and swore to not disperse until they could agree on a new, more just Constitution for France.
Sensing a challenge to his authority Louis XVI started moving more troops into Paris, and dismissed Jacques Necker, his popular and only non-high-born minister, on July 12. Paris, which was already simmering, saw armed revolution break out.
On July 14, a huge, armed mob began marching towards the Bastille, a 14th century fortress-prison in Paris that had become one of the most reviled symbols of the monarchy. Since the time of Louis XIV, the Bastille had been used to incarcerate French political prisoners at the behest of the monarch, without a trial or a stated cause. Philosopher Voltaire, who spent some time in the Bastille, as the “palace of revenge”.
After failing to negotiate with the mob, Bernard-René de Launay, the governor of the Bastille, opened fire. After some serious fighting, which saw the working class mob being reinforced by mutinious French soldiers, the Bastille fell. De Launay was lynched to death by the angry public. The Revolution had begun, and the ‘public’ drew its first blood.
Among the revolutionaries, the Bastille came to symbolise the ancien régime, and its falling, the promise of the Revolution. Over the next few months, the fortress was effectively destroyed.
An excerpt from an article The Guardian, published 100 years after the storming, provides some perspective: “When the populace armed itself and rushed in its thousands to take and demolish the grim old stronghold of tyranny, the people for the first time revealed the immensity of their power, and feudalism was smitten hip and thigh by a mob acting almost instinctively.”
The French monarchy was abolished only in 1792, and Louis XVI guillotined a year later. The Revolution, however, did not actualise its driving principles of “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”. Political violence and instability continued till Napoleon seized power in 1799, bringing an end to the revolutionary period.
During the revolutionary period, the storming of the Bastille had been celebrated annually since 1790, often in grand events which included the burning of Bastille replicas. But under Napoleon, and after the subsequent return of the monarchy in 1815, these ceremonies became more muted.
It was finally in 1879, that July 14 was chosen as France’s National Day, by Republican President Jules Grévy. At the time, however, there was some consternation regarding the violent history of July 14. To those who had issues, the Republicans — those who opposed the institution of monarchy — pointed to July 14, 1790, the day in which the inaugural Fête de la Fédération (or the “Festival of the Federation”) was held across France, celebrating not just the Revolution, but also national unity.
“Do not forget that behind this 14 July, where victory of the new era over the Ancien Régime was bought by fighting, do not forget that after the day of 14 July 1789, there was the day of 14 July 1790… If some of you might have scruples against the first 14 July, they certainly hold none against the second,” Senator Henri Martin said in Parliament.
