Every year on July 14th the French celebrate Bastille Day.The holiday is very peculiar and rather unexpected.And to deal with what it is connected, you need a little history.
powerful fortress with high walls and eight towers, the Bastille was built more than 10 years, 1370-1381 gg.And almost from the beginning it served as a prison fortress.First, it contained the most dangerous criminals, with time it became a political prison.And in the same XVIII century, its prisoners visited by many famous people, including as many as two times it was concluded Voltaire, the great philosopher of the time, as well as the Count of Cagliostro, the Countess de Lamotte, the Marquis de Sade, Nicolas Fouquet, etc.The list goes on, but the purpose of the article is not that.
lies in the prison of the king's personal prescription, without a trial, so to speak.And the orders of the Bastille were much more severe than in any other prison.It is quite natural that this fortress was associated Parisians, and on the part of the French, with the political despotism and tyranny.And this, together with the fact that in the basement of the fortress were stored ammunition, made almost inevitable taking of the Bastille.
revolutionary spirit of the people in 1789, grew rapidly.By mid-July of that year, the feudal estates General States, convened in May of the same year, spontaneously transformed into non-estate agency, which presented itself as the bearer of the people's will, and on that basis claim to supremacy.In following this National Assembly, created by the deputies of the "third estate", declared itself the National Constituent Assembly.
In order to stop the revolution begins in Paris was pulled an army of foreign mercenaries in the amount of more than 20 000. Then he was dismissed one of the most popular among the people of Ministers, namely Jacques Neckar.He was replaced by Baron Breteuil.This news alarmed the inhabitants of Paris, who feared defeat of the National Assembly, because it pinned such hopes.Each of these events gradually intensified popular anger, and thus approaching the taking of the Bastille.
revolutionaries began to call on the people to revolt, the most famous of the agitators was Camille Desmoulins.Consequently, in Paris July 13 start riots, in particular, he was sacked the monastery of Saint-Lazare.To be precise, his granary.Paris Master Jacques de Flessell sought to stop the riots and created a city militia, which consisted of about 48 thousand people.However, arming the police did not.
And then there was the taking of the Bastille.July 14 armed crowd of Parisians, numbering about 50 000 people, looted arms depots at the House of people with disabilities (this word in France, then called the veterans who have retired).Thus, in the hands of the rebels were about 40,000 guns.The next item on the itinerary of the Bastille was, in fact in its cellars, as mentioned earlier, stored gunpowder and bullets.
to the Marquis de Launay rebels had sent a delegation to issue ammunition to equip municipal police.De Launay received a delegation extremely friendly, but declined to give ammunition.One after another, the delegation left with nothing.
Meanwhile, all the people staying in the area.This Bastille garrison consisted of only 114 people, of whom 32 were Swiss Guards, and the remaining 82 - disabled.In addition, the walls of the fortress was installed 13 guns.In the middle of the day, namely at half past one of these guns opened fire on the crowd gathered near the fortress.The result of this action was the death of 89 people and 73 were injured.After that, the Marquis had sent several delegations, and then drove to the drawbridge captured in the House of disabled guns.
Seeing this demonstration of strength and intentions, de Launay no longer hoping for reinforcements from Versailles and therefore decided to blow up the fort.For this, he went down to the basement, where gunpowder was stored with a lighted wick.However, he plans to commit to no avail.The garrison of the Bastille convened a council of war, which almost unanimously voted for change.
In exchange for a promise to save the lives of the defenders of the fortress, they have passed the Bastille to 17 hours.Thus ended the storming of the Bastille.Almost all of the defenders, as well as Master de Flessell were killed by angry crowd.This event was the first victory of the people's revolution.Despite the fact that the taking of the Bastille was not a great victory, it nevertheless played an important role in the history of France.Over time, this event has become a symbol of the inevitable victory over despotism.
Since 1880 Bastille Day is celebrated as a national holiday.
