David Geudelekian

Birth of Modern Europe

The Fall of Bastilles

        The fall of Bastilles allowed major structural alterations to take place in Paris, without many of the earlier legal obstacles to improvement and redevelopment.  On July 14, 1789, the great French revolution inflamed the city of Paris.  On that day Camille Desmoulins, one of the young revolutionary leaders, called on the people to attack the Bastille.  This was an old fortress in the heart of Paris, located on the boulevard of saint-Antione.  The people needed little urging.  The Bastille was a symbol of the power of the monarchy because the kings’ enemies had once been imprisoned behind it’s walls.  By 1789 there were only a few prisoners kept in the Bastille, and was lightly defended by eighty French soldiers and thirty Swiss mercenaries.  The storming of Bastille and it’s ultimate destruction marked a turning point not only in the revolution, but in the makeup of the city of Paris itself.  The day the ancient castle was stormed is still celebrated throughout France, especially in Paris with a spectacular annual fireworks display over the Eiffel tower (which I was fortunate enough to witness this past summer).  The people of France celebrate July 14 as their own independence day and focus their celebrations on the effect Bastille day had on the French revolution.  What is often overlooked is the physical changes the storming of Bastille facilitated.

        The origins of the French revolution were the economic difficulties of the government.  The campaigns of Louis XV’s ministers to raise taxes had been hindered by the high courts, led by the parliament of Paris, which was strengthened in its opposition by widespread popular support.  When efforts to reform the tax system met a similar fate in 1776, the government was forced to finance all its major expenditures with borrowed money.  As a result the national debt soared.  By 1789 fifty percent of France’s annual budget went towards interest payments on the massive debt.  Another 25 percent went to maintain the military, while a full six percent was used to finance the costs of Versailles and the extravagant king.  This left nineteen percent of the annual budget available for the productive functions of the state, such as transportation and general administration.  This was an impossible financial situation.  The fact that the national debt was being held by the aristocratic and Bourgeois creditors, weakened the “absolute” French monarchy.  The weakness of the throne made it impossible for the king to take any drastic or vaguely unpopular actions, for fear of revolution.  Yet with the inability of the government to obtain new gold loans, the king had no alternative but to try increasing taxes.  This was the spark to ignite the powder keg.

        The revolution is possibly the most important event in French history because it marks the beginning of modern France.  Between 1789 and 1799 the monarchy was overthrown, the king executed, and France became a republic. At the outbreak of the revolution French society was organized on a class basis.  There were three classes, or as they were sometimes called, estates, in France.  Two of them, the nobility and the clergy, had many privileges that put an unfair burden on the rest of the nation.  The merchants, the professional people, the workers, and the peasants were the third estate. The third estate was excessively taxed by the previous two, so that the nobles could spend their days in luxury at Versailles, with the king.  In addition to the royal taxes, the peasants also had to pay dues to the church.  To make matters worse, the cost of living was increasing, and working men found that the money they earned bought less and less.  This was the greatest cause of discontent.  A meeting of the Estates General was called for May, 1789.  In order to win the support of the Third Estate, Louis promised that they would have 600 representatives while the nobility and clergy would have their 300 each.  But nothing was said as to whether the three estates should vote separately or as a group.  If Louis XVI and his ministers had presented a good plan of reform to the Estates General, the revolution might have been prevented.  The Third Estate still looked to the king for leadership.  Unfortunately Louis handled the meeting inadequately.  When the Estates General opened at Versailles on May 5, 1789, the nobility and clergy were magnificently dressed.  They occupied the best seats, while the Third Estate, its representatives dressed in sober black, was given the poor seats.  The king spoke to the gathering from his throne. He said little about reform and much about the needs for more taxes.  After that he sent each estate off separately to discuss how the money could be found.  The third estate was bitterly disappointed.  If each estate sat and voted separately, the Third Estate would still be outvoted and there would be no reforms.  So the Third Estate refused to meet separately.  Instead they invited the other two estates to join them.  Not all the clergy and nobles were opposed to reform.  Some of them had been influenced by the philosophers and by the American Revolution.  By June 17 a few members of the clergy joined the Third Estate.  Encouraged by this, the new group called itself the National Assembly.

        The King and most of the nobles were very upset at the formation of a new governing body. When the deputies, as the representatives to the National Assembly were called, arrived at their meeting hall on June 20th, they found the doors locked.  Furious at this, the deputies went to another building nearby which was sometimes used for playing tennis.  There they took an oath not to separate until a new constitution was established for France.  Once again Louis ordered the estates to sit separately.  But the Third Estate had chosen Comte de Mirabeau to be it’s leader.  He declared that “nothing but bayonets will drive us out from here.” Louis, faced with defiance, did not know what to do.  Finally he gave in and ordered the rest of the clergy and nobles to join the Third Estate.  And so the National Assembly was realized.  In fact many believed that the revolution would end at that point, without a single drop of blood.  But the revolution was just beginning.

        As the educated delegates of the Third Estate fought for equality amongst the classes at Versailles, back in Paris, economic hardship gripped the common man in a tightening vise.  150,000 of the city’s 600,000 people were without work.  It was at this point that the people of Paris entered decisively into the revolution.  Rumors that the king’s troops would sack the city began to fill the air.  Angry crowds formed, and the passionate voices urged action.  On July 13th, the people began to seize arms for the defense of the city as the king’s armies moved towards Paris and on July 14 several hundred of the most determined people marched to the Bastille to search for weapons and gunpowder.  The governor of the fortress refused to hand over the gunpowder, panicked, and ordered his men to fire, killing ninety-eight people attempting to enter.  As the fight raged on, the governor was eventually killed, and the prison surrendered.  The head of the governor, along with the head of the mayor of Paris were stuck on pikes and paraded around the city, and the next day a committee of citizens appointed the marquis de Lafayette commander of the city’s armed forces.  Paris was lost to the king, who was forced to recall the finance minister and disperse his troops.  The popular uprising had broken the power monopoly of the royal army and thereby saved the National Assembly.

        The National Assembly was free now to begin work of reform.  They decided to draw up a written constitution.  The machinery of government and the rights of the individual would be clearly stated.  They still wanted to leave the king as the head of the government, but they were determined that his power should be limited by an elected assembly.  While the deputies were still discussing the best ways  of doing this, the peasants, inspired by the success of the Bastille offensive, began rioting.  They had expected great benefits from the revolution and so far had received none.  So they burned down castles and destroyed records of their services.  This peasant uprising alarmed the assembly.  In an all-night session on August 4th the assembly took away all of the traditional rights of the nobles over the peasants. The attack on Bastille had broken the perfect image of power held by the king, and made the people of France realize that the king’s power could be contested.

        The offensive at Bastille had many long lasting effects on Paris, France, and Europe.  In Paris, on a local level the razing of the Bastille castle, destroyed the end piece of a once beautifully contrived grand boulevard.

            The grand boulevard of Saint-Antione, was originally designed by a king of France with Bastille in mind, as the end piece of a long and straight boulevard.  The destruction of  Bastille, in a way, destroyed the look and feel of order along that and many other boulevards.  For the contrived beauty of the boulevard, meant to symbolize the power and authority of the king was now scarred, with a gaping lot where his prison used to be.  With the exception of Bastille and various buildings used for different purposes

 during the revolution, for the most part, Paris remained unharmed by the violence of the revolution.  Yet the revolution and storming of Bastille did bring to an end , many of the earlier legal obstacles to improvement and development.  Property values and sizes were shifting, and properties belonging to the church and nobility (amounting to one eighth of the city’s total area) were partitioned and used as housing and building sites.  But the main body of the densely built city of more than a half a million residents remained untouched.  The storming of Bastille and defeat of the kings previously uncontested power, allowed the land to be partitioned and used to better serve the people.  As Bastille was torn down, the French revolution received a breath of hope it so critically needed.  The offensive of Bastille allowed the people of Paris to see that the power of the king was not absolute by any means, and exposed the weakness of the king.  This new found weakness of the king, empowered the people of Paris and lead to the revolt of the peasants and lower classes, which in turn lead to the end of nobility in France.  This significant shift of political and social power in France allowed the revolution to ultimately succeed, overthrow the king and create the republic which would serve France for many years to come.