2). Describe the incidents that led …

National Assembly was busy at Versailles drafting a constitution; the rest of France was seething with turmoil.

 • A severe winter had meant a bad harvest, the price of bread rose. Often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies.

• After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops.

ance was seething with turmoil.

 • A severe winter had meant a bad harvest, the price of bread rose. Often bakers exploited the situation and hoarded supplies.

• After spending hours in long queues at the bakery, crowds of angry women stormed into the shops.

• At the same time, the king ordered troops to move into Paris. 

On the morning of 14 July 1789, the city of Paris was in a state of alarm. Rumours spread that he would soon order the army to open fire upon the citizens.

Some 7,000 men and women gathered in front of the town hall and decided to form a peoples’ militia. They broke into a number of government buildings in search of arms.

Finally, a group of several hundred people marched towards the eastern part of the city and stormed the fortress-prison, the Bastille, where they hoped to find hoarded ammunition. In the armed fight, the commander of the Bastille was killed and seven prisoners released. Yet the Bastille was hated by all, because it stood for the despotic power of the king. The fortress was demolished and its stone fragments were sold in the markets to all those who wished to keep a souvenir of its destruction.