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Bastille
built 641 days ago
As a hated symbol and being in the heart of Paris, the Bastille was a perfect target for the protestors. At the time of the actual 'storming' of the Bastille, it is reported that there were actual negotiations being held on a peaceful handover of the prison... the protestors broke into one of the outer compounds and a bloody seize began. At the end of the day, nearly 100 protestors had lost their lives to only one soldier, although more soldiers were to be killed by the lynch mob.
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Bastille Day is a National holiday in France. It is very much like Independence Day in the United States because it is a celebration of the beginning of a new form of government.
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It is recognized by many historians that the storming of the Bastille had a more symbolic than strategic part in the actual revolution. It represented a statement of liberty and the fight against oppression. By seizing the Bastille the peasants signaled that the monarch's power was no longer absolute.
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Although the Bastille only had seven prisoners in it when it was liberated by the Parisian mob, the fall of the prison became a symbol of triumph over despotism. It ... signified the end of the authority of Louis XVI, because he was no longer able to control the political tides of France.
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At a very early period... the Bastille was employed for the custody of state prisoners, and it was ultimately much more of a prison than a fortress. According to the usual account, which one is tempted to ascribe to the popular love of poetical justice, the first who was incarcerated within its walls was the builder himself, Hugues Aubriot. Be this as it may, the duke of Nemours spent thirteen years there in one of those iron cages which Louis XI. called his fillettes; and Jacques d'Armagnac, Poyet and Chabot were successively prisoners. It was not till the reign of Louis XIII. that it became recognized as a regular place of confinement; but from that time till its destruction it was frequently filled to embarrassment with men and women of every age and condition.
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The fall of the Bastille probably created one of the greatest of symbols of the initial stage of the Revolution. After all, this medieval fortress had come to represent the ancien regime for most Parisian men and women. After the attack on the Bastille had concluded, the people leveled the fortress, taking home with them pieces of masonry as souvenirs (not unlike what happened in Berlin in November 1989). The image below depicts a model of the Bastille made from from one piece of masonry.
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Bastille