User:Lquilter/Bastille Day simplified
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called Fête nationale (French: [fɛt nɑsjɔnal]; "National Celebration") and commonly and legally le 14 juillet (French: [lə katɔʁz(ə) ʒɥijɛ]; "the 14th of July").[1]
The French National Day is the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789,[2][3] a major event of the French Revolution,[4] as well as the Fête de la Fédération that celebrated the unity of the French people on 14 July 1790. Celebrations are held throughout France. One that has been reported as "the oldest and largest military parade in Europe"[5] is held on 14 July on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in front of the President of the Republic, along with other French officials and foreign guests.[6][7]
History[edit]
In 1789, tensions rose in France between reformist and conservative factions as the country struggled to resolve an economic crisis. In May, the Estates General legislative assembly was revived, but members of the Third Estate broke ranks, declaring themselves to be the National Assembly of the country, and on 20 June, vowed to write a constitution for the kingdom.
On 11 July Jacques Necker, the Finance Minister of Louis XVI, who was sympathetic to the Third Estate, was dismissed by the king, provoking an angry reaction among Parisians. Crowds formed, fearful of an attack by the royal army or by foreign regiments of mercenaries in the king's service, and seeking to arm the general populace. Early on 14 July one crowd besieged the Hôtel des Invalides for firearms, muskets, and canons, stored in its cellars.[8] That same day, another crowd stormed the Bastille, a fortress-prison in Paris that had historically held people jailed on the basis of lettres de cachet (literally "signet letters"), arbitrary royal indictments that could not be appealed and did not indicate the reason for the imprisonment, and was believed to hold a cache of ammunition and gunpowder. As it happened, at the time of the attack, the Bastille held only seven inmates, none of great political significance.[9]
The crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous Régiment des Gardes Françaises ("French Guards"), whose usual role was to protect public buildings. They proved a fair match for the fort's defenders, and Governor de Launay, the commander of the Bastille, capitulated and opened the gates to avoid a mutual massacre. According to the official documents, about 200 attackers and just one defender died before the capitulation. However, possibly because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed. In this second round of fighting, de Launay and seven other defenders were killed, as was Jacques de Flesselles, the prévôt des marchands ("provost of the merchants"), the elected head of the city's guilds, who under the feudal monarchy also had the competences of a present-day mayor.[10]
Shortly after the storming of the Bastille, late in the evening of 4 August, after a very stormy session of the Assemblée constituante, feudalism was abolished. On 26 August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen) was proclaimed.[11]
References[edit]
- ^ Article L. 3133-3 of French labour code on www.legifrance.gouv.fr.
- ^ "Bastille Day – 14th July". Official Website of France. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014.
A national celebration, a re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille ... Commemorating the storming of the Bastille on 14th July 1789, Bastille Day takes place on the same date each year. The main event is a grand military parade along the Champs-Élysées, attended by the President of the Republic and other political leaders. It is accompanied by fireworks and public dances in towns throughout the whole of France.
- ^ "La fête nationale du 14 juillet". Official Website of Elysée.
- ^ "The Beginning of the French Revolution, 1789". EyeWitness to History.
Thomas Jefferson was America's minister to France in 1789. As tensions grew and violence erupted, Jefferson traveled to Versailles and Paris to observe events first-hand. He reported his experience in a series of letters to America's Secretary of State, John Jay. We join Jefferson's story as tensions escalate to violence on July 12:
July 12
In the afternoon a body of about 100 German cavalry were advanced and drawn up in the Palace Louis XV. and about 300 Swiss posted at a little distance in their rear. This drew people to that spot, who naturally formed themselves in front of the troops, at first merely to look at them. But as their numbers increased their indignation arose: they retired a few steps, posted themselves on and behind large piles of loose stone collected in that Place for a bridge adjacent to it, and attacked the horse with stones. The horse charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers of stones obliged them to retire, and even to quit the field altogether, leaving one of their number on the ground. The Swiss in their rear were observed never to stir. This was the signal for universal insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred, retired towards Versailles.
The people now armed themselves with such weapons as they could find in Armourer's shops and private houses, and with bludgeons, and were roaming all night through all parts of the city without any decided and practicable object.
July 13
...A Committee of magistrates and electors of the city are appointed, by their bodies, to take upon them its government.
The mob, now openly joined by the French guards, force the prisons of St. Lazare, release all the prisoners, and take a great store of corn, which they carry to the corn market. Here they get some arms, and the French guards begin to form and train them. The City committee determines to raise 48,000 Bourgeois, or rather to restrain their numbers to 48,000.' - ^ "France commemorates WWI centenary on Bastille Day". France 24. July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
- ^ "Champs-Élysées city visit in Paris, France – Recommended city visit of Champs-Élysées in Paris". Paris.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "Celebrate Bastille Day in Paris This Year". Paris Attractions. 3 May 2011. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ What Actually Happened on the Original Bastille Day
- ^ G A Chevallaz, Histoire générale de 1789 à nos jours, p. 22, Payot, Lausanne 1974
- ^ J Isaac, L'époque révolutionnaire 1789–1851, p. 60, Hachette, Paris 1950
- ^ J Isaac, L'époque révolutionnaire 1789–1851, p. 64, Hachette, Paris 1950.