Bastille Day
By Jane Davy

Bastille Day is a national holiday of France. It is celebrated on July 14 because on that day in 1789 at the beginning of the French Revolution, a large crowd of Parisians captured the Bastille (an old fortress in Paris which had been used as a prison and overtime had become a symbol of oppression). This act persuaded King Louis XVI to withdraw his troops from Paris and to accept the revolution.
Ever since then, the people of France have celebrated July 14 as a national holiday.

The celebration of Bastille Day is ordinarily cause for national rejoicing, with parades, music, and dancing in the streets.

The French revolution began after a finical crisis, which subsequently lead to King Louis XVI wanting to raise taxes. To win support for new taxes, he called a meeting of the Estates-General. The Estates-General was made up of representatives from the three estates, or classes, the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners (who had as many representatives as the other two estates combined). It opened on May 5, 1789, at Versailles, near Paris.

In June 1789, members of the third estate, the commoners, declared themselves a National Assembly, with full power to write a new constitution for France.

At first, Louis XVI tried gathering troops around Paris to break up the Assembly. However, many French people organised an armed resistance movement in Paris. On 14th July 1789, a huge crowd of Parisians captured the Bastille. Which was when Louis XVI first accepted the revolution was going to happen.

Bastille is a French word for a strongly fortified structure. Around 1370, King Charles V built the Bastille of Paris as a fortress. Later it was used as a prison for people who displeased the king or his officials. By 1789, the Bastille held only a handful of prisoners.