The storming of the Bastille in Paris is symbolically marked as the start to the French Revolution and it provided motivation and power to the revolutionaries. Despite the Bastille housing hundreds of prisoners they weren’t the reason that rebellious Parisians attacked it. The Bastille was known as the prison that housed political inmates so anyone that would be in there would be sympathetic to the revolution and against the Crown. The storming of the Bastille took place because the French rebels wanted to get their hands on the 250 barrels of gunpowder that had been transferred there a couple days previously. The rebels wanted to arm themselves and this was the way that they did it. 

The attack on the Bastille took place on July 14, 1789. At this point in time things were looking bad for the people of France, food was scarce and the people felt the government was only looking out for those in higher classes. Many of the Parisons focused their anger on the Crown and the government over the Bastille. The Bastille was viewed as a symbol of King Louis XVI’s absolute authority over the people. Because of this symbol a mob of Parisians gathered together on the afternoon of July 14, 1789 and stormed the Bastille. There were 82 soldiers who had been injured in battle and could no longer fight on the field, along with 32 grenadiers (soldiers armed with grenades) guarding the Bastille. They were led by Bernard-Rene de Launay. The mob of Parisians numbered closer to one thousand and they easily overthrew the soldiers and demanded the exchange of guns and ammunition. There were two drawbridges that protected the Bastille from the angry mob of people. Commander de Launay tried to reason with them but the people were angry and scared and didn’t want to do anything that helped the government. Launay offered to surrender and lower the second drawbridge as long as the crowd would let him and his soldiers leave the Bastille. The Parisians refused and demanded that he lower the drawbridge. De Launay realized that his soldiers wouldn’t be able to defend the Bastille against the angry mob and so he lowered the drawbridge. The mob was then able to swarm the courtyard and free seven inmates from their cells. The crowd also took De Launay and dragged him through the streets of Paris. They then beat and beheaded him. His head was stuck on a pike and paraded through the streets. Many of De Launay’s guards were killed along with him but with a few of them managing to escape the revolutionaries. 

To many of the lower class Parisians the Bastille was seen as the tyranny of the absolute monarchy in France. It was seen as King Louis XVI looking down upon the people’s suffering and smiling at what he saw. The Fall of the Bastille was the ‘spark’ that ignited the revolution fire in the Parisians. It also symbolized the role that the citizens would have to play in the revolution and freeing the people of a terrible monarchy. This was such a historic day for the commoners of France yet in King Louis XVI’s journal on July 14, 1789 he only wrote one word, “nothing” in which he was referencing his day of hunting. He either had no clue about the uprising or he didn’t care about what his people were going through. The storming of the Bastille was a representation of a victory for a nation that was fighting for its freedom from a careless and selfish monarch. After the storming of the Bastille the French Revolution began because the people of France realized they could take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for their ruler to come to their aid and provide for them.

The Bastille is no longer standing today. It was destroyed after the revolution and scattered throughout Paris. It was demolished into individual stones that were taken away as souvenirs by those who survived the revolution or they were used in constructing the new roads of Paris. There is a memorial on the site of the Bastille that helps the people of Paris the events that led to their freedom.