The+Bastille


 * Bastille **
 * By Liv **
 * Building History- Bastion de Saint-Antoine was first built in the 100-year war. It was originally a gate and hadn’t started being extended into a medieval fortress until the year 1370 and was finished in 1383. It was created as a way to defend the east end of paris and the Hôtel Saint-Pol royal palace. Once the war had ended, it was reused as a state prison by Louis XIII. **
 * Storming- By 1789, France was close to a revolution, because of the critical food shortage and the rage of King Louis XIII ruling.The commoners and lower class were the most frustrated because the rich and royal wasted all their money and the poor barely had enough to pay for food.It wasn’t until July 13 the revolution actually started. It began by the rebels shooting soldiers on guard in the bastille towers and that evening they stormed the Paris Arsenal. At dawn the next morning a huge armed crowd began to gather around Bastille. Launey (the french governor) refused to surrender the fortress and its munitions to the revolution leaders. He then received a 2nd delegation and promised not to open fire on the crowd below, to prove it he showed them that the cannons were empty. Although the plan backfired and instead of calming the annoyed crowd, it made a group of men climb over the outer wall of the courtyard and lower a draw bridge! 300 men ran in and attempted to open a 2nd drawbridge, Launey decided he needed to act fast and ordered the soldiers to open fire, because of this, about 100 men were killed or injured. The soldiers managed to hold the mob off, but more and more revolutionaries formed. Around 3pm a group of deserters from the french army arrived with 5 cannons, they dragged them into the courtyard and aimed them at Bastille, Layney waved his white flag in surrender. **
 * After the storming- **** After that Launey and his followers was taken into custody and the prisoners in Bastille were freed. **** Upon arriving at the Hotel de Ville they were arrested, but the governor was taken away by a mob and murdered. The revolutionaries took control of Paris and then the French countryside, forcing King Louis XII to accept a constitutional government. And in 1792 the monarchy was completely abolished and Louis and his wife (Mary-Antonette) were sent to the guillotine for treason in 1793. **