Why was bastille important

On 12 July , the protests finally became violent when a huge crowd marched through the city displaying busts of Necker. The crowd was dispersed by a charge of Royal German cavalrymen, but the cavalry commander kept his men from directly cutting down protesters, fearing a bloodbath. Protesters carried busts of Jacques Necker seen above through the city on 12 July The protest then descended into a general orgy of plunder and mob justice against supposed royalist supporters throughout the city, with most of the royal troops either doing nothing to stop the protesters or throwing down their muskets and joining in.

They met little resistance, but found that most of the gunpowder had been moved and stored in the old medieval fortress of the Bastille, which had long stood as a symbol of royal might in the heart of the capital. Though it was technically a prison, by the Bastille was barely used and housed just seven inmates — though its symbolic value and imposing appearance still underlined its importance. Its permanent garrison was made up of 82 invalides , or men who had grown too old for front-line combat, but they had recently been reinforced by 32 crack Swiss grenadiers.

With the Bastille also protected by 30 cannon, its taking would not be easy for an untrained and poorly armed mob. Two days later, on 14 July, unhappy French men and women gathered around the fortress and demanded the surrender of the arms, gunpowder, garrison and cannon.

Over the next several hours, Relations between the Soviet Union and China reach the breaking point as the two governments engage in an angry ideological debate about the future of communism. The United States, for its part, was delighted to see a wedge being driven between the two communist superpowers. On July 14, , one of the most egregious breaches of the U.

Constitution in history becomes federal law when Congress passes the Sedition Act, endangering liberty in the fragile new nation. While the United States engaged in naval hostilities with Revolutionary France, known The young Roosevelt was engaged to Flora Payne Whitney, Live TV.

This Day In History. There were even plans to close down the prison because it was so costly to maintain, for such a small purpose. To him it was as unimportant as an insignificant village.

As a prison, it held political dissidents such as the writer and philosopher Voltaire , many of whom were locked away without a trial by order of the king. By , however, it was scheduled for demolition, to be replaced by a public square. But he was removed earlier that summer after falsely shouting out the window that the prisoners inside were being massacred.

Despite inheriting tremendous debts from his predecessor, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette continued to spend extravagantly, such as by helping the American colonies win their independence from the British.

To make matters worse, widespread crop failures in brought about a nationwide famine. Bread prices rose so high that, at their peak, the average worker spent about 88 percent of his wages on just that one staple. Unemployment was likewise a problem, which the populace blamed in part on newly reduced customs duties between France and Britain.

Following a harsh winter, violent food riots began breaking out across France at bakeries, granaries and other food storage facilities. In an attempt to resolve the crisis, Louis XVI summoned the long-dormant Estates-General, a national assembly divided by social class into three orders: clergy First Estate , nobility Second Estate and commoners Third Estate.

Though it represented about 98 percent of the population, the Third Estate could still be outvoted by its two counterparts. As a result of this inequality, its deputies immediately started clamoring for a greater voice. After making no initial headway, they then declared themselves to be a new body called the National Assembly.

Finding the doors to their meeting hall locked on June 20, , they gathered in a nearby indoor tennis court, where, in defiance of the king, they took an oath—famous thereafter as the Tennis Court Oath —never to separate until establishing a new written constitution. But he also moved several army regiments into Paris and its surroundings, leading to fears that he would break up the assembly by force.