The Storming of the Bastille

On 14 July 1789 crowds besieged the Bastille, a medieval fortress used as a state prison and arsenal in eastern Paris. After hours of negotiation and fighting, and with the help of mutinous French Guards who brought cannon, the governor, the Marquis de Launay, surrendered. Around a hundred attackers died, and de Launay and several defenders were killed afterwards by the crowd. The prison held only seven inmates.

Yet the event's symbolic power was enormous: the Bastille represented arbitrary royal power, and its fall showed that the people of Paris could defeat it. The king withdrew his troops, recalled Necker and on 17 July visited Paris, accepting the red, white and blue cockade. Historians debate how much the fall itself mattered militarily; most agree that its main significance was political, protecting the assembly and launching a lasting revolutionary symbol.