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When the Walls Come Crumblin’ Down: Happy Bastille Day!
July 14, 2009
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Bastille Day is to France as the Fourth of July is to the United States. But the revolution behind the tricolour was far different from the one behind the stars and stripes. On the morning of July 14, 1789, Parisians flocked en masse to the Bastille. This was the real start of the French Revolution.
Revolution had been brewing in France since the 1770s. Louis XV emptied his country’s coffers during the Seven Years’ War, and he’d paid more attention to his mistresses than his subjects. When Louis XVI — a mere teenager — took the throne in 1774, he wasn’t prepared to lead a nation in a financial crisis. His extravagant wife Marie Antoinette compounded problems at court with her lavish spending. The resurrected Estates General thought they could negotiate with the king to form a three-chambered parliament. This would guarantee the French people (not just the nobility and clergy) a voice. The National Assembly vowed to write a constitution for the people of France, and they thought Louis might support it. But then he dispatched troops to the streets of Paris and cut loose his finance minister, who’d been supportive of the people’s cause.
The city erupted in a fury, and a mob headed for the Bastille. This 14th-century fortress held prisoners of state and gunpowder — and the crowds were after both. Storming the Bastille, the people killed the guards, set the prisoners free and gathered gunpowder. They razed the Bastille, and as this massive symbol of the ineffectual monarchy crumbled to pieces, it became clear that the revolution had arrived.
NPR has a wonderful collection of “Revolutionary Sounds: A Bastille Day Music Mix” on its Web site. You can listen as you read more about revolutionary France.
How the French Revolution Worked
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Palace of Versailles
How the Enlightenment Worked
Top 5 Marie Antoinette Scandals
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3 Responses to “When the Walls Come Crumblin’ Down: Happy Bastille Day!”
[...] a lady-in-waiting to my and Candace’s favorite, Marie-Antoinette, right about the time the Bastille was razed to the ground — not the best time to be in the court of Louis XVI. She and her husband, her faithful [...]
Hi Candice, loved the podcast. I’ve only recently come upon them and am making my way through the back catalogue- congrats on getting married by the way! To you it was months ago but to me it was only a couple of podcasts back 
What I find fascinating about the storming of the Bastille is that there was apparently only around 12 prisoners in there at the time. It perhaps shows how symbolically important the building was rather than how it actually effected (affected?) French people’s lives.
To add to the music section, check out Reuben’s ‘Fall of the Bastille’. It lyrically has nothing to do with the French Revolution (I think) but is still a rocking track.
As for future podcasts, how about Jack the Ripper? Napoleon’s attack and subsequent retreat from Moscow? How about the Mongols- I read that they could travel for miles on their ponies by making curds from their milk and drinking their blood. I also read that Mongol archers were so good / strong that they had one arm and shoulder much larger and stronger than the other.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the nice music links, Candace. I’ll take that over 3OH!3 any day of the year =)