The Bastille in Paris was officially known as Saint Antoine Bastille. It played a major role in France's internal struggles and was used as a state gaol by the Kings of France for the most part of its history. On 14 July 1789, during the Revolution, it was overcome by the crowd and became an important emblem of the French Republican movement.
In modern European history, the French Revolution was the period when the people overthrew the monarchy and gained government power. In 1789, the Revolution started and ended in the late 1790s.The upheaval was triggered by the generalised instability with King Louis XVI's monarchy in France and the weak economic circumstances that he and his wife Marie-Antoinette died of guillotine.
The French population rose from 18 million to 26 million between 1700 and 1789, leading to large numbers of unemployed citizens. The French citizens were split into social classes or "Estates." The first estate was the clergy, the second estate was the nobles and the third estate was the common peoples. The majority were Third Estate members. The third estate paid much of its taxes, while the nobility enjoyed lavish lives and had all of the top jobs.
France has put the nation on the verge of bankruptcy with its expensive participation in the American Revolution and wasteful expenditures by King Louis XVI and his predecessor. In the fall of 1786, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, Controller General of Louis XVI, introduced a financial reform plan that included a compulsory land tax from which the wealthy classes would no longer be exempted.
The conference was planned for the 5th of May 1789, with delegates from all three estates collecting lists of grievances that would then be sent to the king.
When on 20 June 1789 the Third Estate delegates together with certain members of the clergy claimed they were true representatives of the Nation, and that they would not be disbanded until this was recognised by a King and the other two orders (Nobility and Clergy). The nobility and clergy were invited to join the third party now renamed: The National Assembly
Following the establishment of the National Assembly, its representatives took the Oath of tennis court, pledging that, before a new constitution had been enacted, they would not relent in their efforts. The revolutionary spirit of the National Assembly galvanised France in numerous ways. Citizens in Paris stormed in pursuit of arms the biggest prison of the town, the Bastille. In the rural areas , farmers and peasants rebelled against their feudal contracts by destroying their landowners' manors and estates. These rural attacks were known as the "Great Fear" until the early August of the decrees that released the farmers from their oppressive contracts. These attacks persisted. A few days after the conference, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, establishing an acceptable code of justice and French people 's autonomy, was published.
The revolutionaries came to the Bastille on the morning of 14 July. They called on the Bastille military official, the Governor of Launay, to give up the prison and to hand the powder over. He denied it.
The crowd became restless as the drug talks progressed. They succeeded in getting into the courtyard in the early afternoon. They started to try to break into the main fortress once within the courtyard. In the Bastille, the soldiers were frightened and shot into the crowd. The battle had started. When some of the soldiers joined the crowd's side, the turning point in the battle came.
It was soon realised by De Launay that the situation was hopeless. He surrendered the fort and control was captured by the revolutionaries.