The Bastille Research Paper

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They wanted blood. They had felt oppressed for too long and soon the people of Paris and the Elite followed in their footsteps. The Revolution reached a turning point when a Parisian group called the Sans-Culottes stormed the Bastille. This was done in an act of political outcry over the dismissal of finance minister and Third Estate sympathizer, Jacques Necker. The goal was to storm the Bastille and steal its ammunition for protection against a rumored plan to slaughter the Parisians (LOOK UP AUTHOR OF THE BASTILLE, 55). An article on the storming published in the English newspaper The World just days after the event reports that: “As soon as the Party had destroyed the Bastile, the seized the Governor Monsieur De Launet, and carrying him forth, beheaded him in the sight of the people, and …show more content…

Not just in the act of storming, but in the added actions. Not only did the crowd take ammunition and free the Bastille’s seven prisoners, but they also aggressively executed three men of power without trial, in an act of passion and non-rationale. This shows how far the Parisians were willing to go for change. The King and those in power had no choice but to listen because the streets of France were becoming dangerous. If there is anything to take away about the events leading up to King Louis’s trial it is this: do not underestimate the power of the peasants. The Third Estate is what powered the French Revolution. These people started with minimal representation and power in their government and influenced one of the most shocking overthrows of monarchy in European history. It goes to show that anyone with a voice can have power in their society, especially when those voices ban together to form an entity as intimidating as “the crowd”. Through the use of the crowd and its demand for power, the Third Estate became influential and tipped the balance of power away from the monarchy and more