Storming of the Bastille, 1789

Storming of the Bastille

Insurgent Parisians stormed the Bastille, the royal fortress and prison. The day, 14 July 1789, became a symbol of the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Date

14 July 1789exact date

Place

Bastilletoday: Place de la Bastille, Paris, France · Western and Central Europe

Participants

Kingdom of France

Threads

French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

The uprising was triggered by the dismissal of the popular finance minister Jacques Necker on 11 July, which Parisians saw as the start of preparations to disperse the National Assembly. Townspeople in search of weapons and gunpowder besieged the fortress; after an exchange of fire the garrison surrendered, and the governor, the Marquis de Launay, was lynched by the crowd on the way to the Hôtel de Ville.

Only seven prisoners remained in the Bastille by then, but its fall became a symbol of the collapse of the ancien régime; 14 July is France’s national holiday.

Connections

Related events

First inauguration of George Washington30 April 1789 · North Americain 1790 Lafayette gave President Washington the key to the Bastille, which is kept at Mount Vernon

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen26 August 1789 · Western and Central EuropeThe revolutionary summer of 1789

Same participants

Same place

Viking siege of Parisbetween 24 November and 25 November 885 – October 886 · Western and Central Europe

Execution of Louis XVI21 January 1793 · Western and Central Europe

Coup of 18 Brumaire9–10 November 1799 · Western and Central Europe

Napoleonic Code (French Civil Code)21 March 1804 · Western and Central Europe

Coronation of Napoleon2 December 1804 · Western and Central Europe

Battle of Paris18 (30) March 1814 – 19 (31) March 1814 · Western and Central Europe

Hundred Days20 March – 8 July 1815 · Western and Central Europe

Holy Alliance14 (26) September 1815 · Western and Central Europe

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within 5 years of this event

Eastern Europe

Siege of Izmail11 (22) December 1790
Second Partition of Poland12 (23) January 1793

Balkans and Anatolia

Treaty of Jassy29 December 1791 (9 January 1792)

Central and Northern Asia

Billings–Sarychev expedition25 October (5 November) 1785 – March 1794
Syrym Datuly’s uprising1783–1797

East Asia

Adam Laxman’s embassy to Japan13 (24) September 1792 – 8 (19) September 1793
Macartney Embassy to China14 September 1793
White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Mutiny on the Bounty28 April 1789

North America

First inauguration of George Washington30 April 1789

Latin America

Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804