Kelli Aikens
Dr. Landrum
History 102
25 February 2014
The Storming of Bastille
The Storming of Bastille began on July 14, 1789 by a mob of salesmen and crafts men who wanted to revolt against Bastille and steal their weapons and gun powder. “The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power”(Bastille Day and the French Revolution). During the mobs attack on Bastille there were guards there to guard the prison, although there was a big crowd, the crowd was not big enough to faze the guards. However Marquis de Launay the governor at the time was in huge fear that the crowd would only get angrier causing a revolution. He was trying to procrastinate to situation by allowing representatives into the castle, all along Launay had a rescue team on the way to try to save his castle. Before the conversation could began on the situation taking place with Bastille, a mob of revolutionaries invaded Bastille causing the guards to have to use their fire arms killing several hundreds of people. The rescue team arrived to the scene on Bastille but they did not do anything to help the situation. Being that the rescue team did not help Launay knew he would have to surrender. At 4pm he allowed the mob to enter into Bastille. 800 men destroyed Bastille killing all of the guards and they also beheaded Launay, allowing a huge victory for France. They even put Launay’s head on a state and carried it around