Every year on July 14, the French celebrate Bastille Day. The holiday is very peculiar and quite unexpected. And to understand what it is connected with, a small excursion into history is necessary.
A powerful fortress, with high walls and eight towers, the Bastille was built over 10 years, 1370-1381. And almost from the very beginning the fortress served as a prison. At first, it contained the most dangerous criminals; over time, it became a political prison. And in the same XVIII century, many famous people visited her prisoners, including Voltaire, the great philosopher of that time, as well as Count Cagliostro, Countess de Lamotte, Marquis de Sade, Nicolas Fouquet, and the whole time she was imprisoned. The list goes on, but this is not the purpose of the article.
They were imprisoned in this prison by the personal order of the king, without trial or investigation, so to speak. And the order in the Bastille was much stricter than in any other prison. It is only natural that this fortress was associated among Parisians, and even among some French, with despotism and political arbitrariness. And this, together with the fact that ammunition was stored in the basement of the fortress, made the capture of the Bastille practically inevitable.
The revolutionary spirit in the people in 1789 was growing rapidly. By mid-July of that year, the feudal estate estates General, convened in May of that year, spontaneously transformed into a nonsensical institution, which positioned itself as a bearer of the people's will and on this basis claimed the supreme power. Following this, the National Assembly, created by the deputies of the "third estate", declared itself the National Constituent Assembly.
In order to stop the beginning of the revolution, troops were drawn up to Paris, consisting of more than 20,000 foreign mercenaries. Then one of the popular ministers, namely Jacques Neckar, was dismissed. Baron Breteuil took his place. This news alarmed the inhabitants of Paris, who were afraid of the defeat of the National Assembly, because such hopes were entrusted to it. Each of these events gradually increased popular anger and thereby brought closer the capture of the Bastille.
The revolutionaries began to call the people to revolt, the most famous of the agitators was Camille Demoulin. As a result of this, riots begin in Paris on July 13, in particular, the monastery of Saint-Lazare was looted. To be precise, its granary. The Parisian master Jacques de Flessell sought to stop the riots and created the city police, which included about 48 thousand people. However, they did not begin to arm the police.
And then there was the capture of the Bastille. On July 14, an armed crowd of Parisians, numbering about 50,000 people, looted the arms depots at the House of the Disabled (this word was used to call veterans who had already retired in France). Thus, in the hands of the rebels was about 40,000 guns. The next item on their route was the Bastille, because in its basements, as mentioned earlier, gunpowder and bullets were stored.
A delegation was sent to the Marquis de Lonet by the rebels with a request to issue ammunition in order to arm the city police. De Lonet received the delegation in an extremely friendly manner, but refused to give out ammunition. One after another, delegations left with nothing.
Meanwhile, the people all stayed on the square. At the same time, the Bastille garrison consisted of only 114 people, 32 of them were Swiss guards, and the remaining 82 were disabled. In addition, 13 guns were installed on the walls of the fortress. In the middle of the day, namely at half past one, of these guns fire was opened on the crowd gathered near the fortress. The result of this action was the death of 89 people, and 73 were injured. After that, several more delegations were sent to the marquis, and then, the cannons captured in the House of the Disabled were brought to the drawbridge.
Seeing such a demonstration of strength and intentions, de Lonet no longer hoped for reinforcements from Versailles and therefore decided to blow up the fortress. To do this, he went down to the basement, where gunpowder with a lit wick was stored. However, he was not allowed to complete his plan. The Bastille garrison convened a military council, at which they almost unanimously voted for surrender.
In exchange for a promise to save the lives of the defenders of the fortress, they surrendered to the Bastille by 17 o’clock. Thus ended the assault on the Bastille. Almost all the defenders of the fortress, as well as Magister de Flessell, were killed by an indignant crowd. This event was the first victory of the people's revolution. Despite the fact that the capture of the Bastille was not a big victory, it still played an important role in the history of France. Over time, this event became a symbol of the inevitable victory over despotism.
Beginning in 1880, Bastille Day is celebrated as a national holiday.