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"Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorates the storming of the
Bastille, which took place on 14 July 1789 and marked the beginning of the
French Revolution. The Bastille was a prison and a symbol of the absolute and
arbitrary power of Louis the 16th's Ancient Regime. By capturing this symbol,
the people signaled that the king's power was no longer absolute: power should
be based on the Nation and be limited by a separation of powers.
Although
the Bastille only held seven prisoners at the time of its capture, the storming
of the prison was a symbol of liberty and the fight against oppression for all
French citizens; like the Tricolore flag, it symbolized the Republic's three
ideals: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all French citizens. It marked the
end of absolute monarchy, the birth of the sovereign Nation, and, eventually,
the creation of the (First) Republic, in 1792.
Bastille Day was declared the
French national holiday on 6 July 1880, on Benjamin Raspail's recommendation,
when the new Republic was firmly entrenched. Bastille Day has such a strong
signification for the French because the holiday symbolizes the birth of the
Republic. As in the US, where the signing of the Declaration of Independence
signaled the start of the American Revolution, in France the storming of the
Bastille began the Great Revolution. In both countries, the national holiday
thus symbolizes the beginning of a new form of government."
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