This watercolor painting depicts the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Following years of discontent, a mob stormed the Bastille prison in hopes of finding large ammunition stores. The prison governor resisted and was killed, marking the beginning of the French Revolution. Within years, much of France's nobility would be executed or forced into exile and new ideals of liberty were jettisoned into place. The Revolution created a wave effect across much of the Western world which illuminated historically aristocratic countries such as Great Britain as places that might experience their own revolutions if changes do not occur. A multitude of writers chimed in on the event, starting with Richard Price's Discourse on the Love of Our Country which took a supportive and liberal stance on the affair. Edmund Burke attacked Price's work with a conservative piece, Reflections on the Revolution in France, arguing that the Revolution was wrong due to its rejections of tradition, hierarchy, and aesthetics. Writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Thomas Paine added their voice to the matter with the respective A Vindication of the Rights of Men and Rights of Man. The French Revolution was a turning stone for Europe and North America, ushering an era of classical liberalism and challenging the status quo of society which had persisted for centuries.
Bibliography:
“Storming of the Bastille.” The British Library - The British Library, www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item106472.html.
The National Archives. “French Revolution.” The National Archives, The National Archives, 13 Feb. 2015, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/french-revolution/.
Houel, Jean-Pierre. The Storming of the Bastille. 1789. Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prise_de_la_Bastille.jpg#file.
