On July 14, 1789, French partisans storm the Bastille in Paris, France. A fortress which served as an armory and political prison, the Bastille came to represent the authority and abuses of power of the monarchy. Economic troubles (including poor agriculture harvests and debt from the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War), growing influence of political ideologies based in the Enlightenment, growing social and economic inequality, and poor policies and decisions on the part of King Louis XVI contributed to the tinderbox being built in France at the time. Following the dismissal of Jacque Necker, Louis XVI's financial minister and a sympathetic party towards the Third Estate which had been attempting to create a constitution for France, large demonstrations began in Paris on July 12. Soon these demonstrations grew into a riot as the partisans involved began to seize whatever supplies they could find, including food and weapons, and stormed the Bastille on July 14.

At the time, the Bastille held only seven prisoners with a military garrison of 82 veteran soldiers reinforced by 32 grenadiers. While the engagement initially started with negotiation attempts between the partisans and the Bastille's garrison regarding the surrender of the garrison with the removal of its cannon and the release of its arms and gunpowder, the crowd outside soon became restless and forced their way inside. Gunfire soon erupted and, after several hours of fighting, the governor of the garrison Bernard-René de Launay surrendered the Bastille. He and three officers of the garrison were subsequently beaten and stabbed to death by the crowd. The Bastille itself was demolished over the next few months, being mostly destroyed by November. The French Revolution, however, would continue for over a decade more and end with the abolition of the monarchy and the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte.