Bastille Day: A Turning Point in the French Revolution.
The French Revolution was a political movement devoted to the people, more specifically, the common people. The motto of the Revolution was "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," meaning freedom, equals, and alliance. Although the Revolution was thought to be a bloody tragedy by some, the majority of the people around the world saw the Revolution as much more. The French Revolution, on a technical level, took place between the years of 1789 and 1799.1 It began with the storming of the Bastille, but tensions were mounting long before that. However, the taking of the Bastille was a significant symbol in France and the world as a whole, for it symbolized what can be done when the people take the power into their own hands. .
The growing economic and social importance of the bourgeoisie, the middle class of France, was usually described as the cause of the Revolution. It was believed that the bourgeoisie overthrew the Old Regime because the regime had given power and privilege to the other classes such as the nobility and clergy, who prevented the bourgeoisie from advancing socially and politically. Economic recession in the 1770s frustrated the bourgeoisie in their rise to power and wealth, and rising bread prices just before the revolution increased discontent among works and peasants.2 .
Here's how economic life was for the common people:.
Prices in the marketplace had gone up 62%, yet wages were up only 22%. The price of bread took half of wages, vegetables 16%, clothes 15%. lighting 1%. In Paris at the time, a million loaves of bread a day were needed. There were three different kinds of bread: white (for the wealthy), which were bought by the loaf, brown-white and brown, which were purchased by weight. Many Parisians were destitute in the pre-Revolution.2.
However, now it is believed that the revolutionary process started with a crisis in the French State.