La Prise De La Bastille Analysis

Opello and Rosow identified the beginning of the French Revolution when Louis XVI convoked the estates General (1995, p.330). The clergy and the nobility were exempted of the taxes imposed by the king during a long time. However, in 1789, during the convocation of the Estates, the king wanted to install taxes and that these part of the society paid taxes. The refusal of the population added to the practices of these new taxes created many conflicts. This struggle led to the proclamation of the Third estate as “Assemblée Nationale” (National Assembly) and the octroiement to vote the tax in the 17th of June 1789. Secondly, the 14th of July 1789 marked a turning point in the history of France: “la prise de la Bastille”. The storming of the Bastille symbolized the end of the "absolute" monarchy and intervention of the population in French political life. This led to the end of royalty and the proclamation of France as a republic in 1792 and to the beheading of Louis

Schwarzmantel identified the principle aspect of modernity as “the proclamation of a set of basic rights, valid at all times and in all circumstances” (1998, p.56). Indeed, in 1789, the “Declaration of the rights of Man and of the Citizen” was published in France. Some authors such as Courbet and Furet claimed that the American Declaration of Independence of 1776 was directly linked with the French Revolution. This new establishment gave to the population the “right to participate in the state” (Schwarzmantel, 1998, p.56) and the rule of majority was applicable in the republic. The changes in the French political body, led to the democratization of the country. Opello and Rosow (1999), describe the possibility of an expansion of the state power due to the fact that “the representation of sovereignty created a new realm of individual freedom that weakened the absolutist state in favor of the individual”