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What Is Bastille Day? · Gil I Am

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We hear about it every single summer, we see the
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  Speaker 1: amazing fireworks, and most of us know it has something
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  Speaker 1: to do with the French Revolution. But our focus today
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  Speaker 1: is getting to the bottom of one fundamental question. What
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: is Bestille Day? Really? Now you probably think it's all
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  Speaker 1: about storming a heavily guarded, bloody prison, right, and honestly,
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  Speaker 1: that's exactly what most people around the world are taught.
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  Speaker 1: But looking closely at the historical record, history has a
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  Speaker 1: pretty brilliant, almost hidden twist waiting for us. What we're
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: actually celebrating on July fourteenth is far more complex and
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  Speaker 1: surprisingly a lot less violent than the popular legend suggests.
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  Speaker 1: To start us off, it's absolutely crucial to know that
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  Speaker 1: the very name we use is kind of made up
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  Speaker 1: by outsiders. While English speakers proudly call it Bastille Day,
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  Speaker 1: the French themselves almost never use that term. Actually, they
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  Speaker 1: just refer to it legally and commonly as le catue
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth of July or la Fitnacina, the national holiday.
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  Speaker 1: This little difference in naming it's our first big clue
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  Speaker 1: that there's way more to the stay than justice. Single fortress.
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  Speaker 1: Section one, the spark of revolution the chaos of July
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine, So this whole thing builds from a
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  Speaker 1: time of intense economic crisis and skyrocketing political tension in
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  Speaker 1: the summer of seventeen eighty nine. Things really kicked off.
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  Speaker 1: On July eleventh, King Louis the sixteenth dismissed Jacques Necker,
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  Speaker 1: his finance minister, who was actually quite sympathetic to the
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  Speaker 1: common folks. While this provoked massive anger, Terrified of an
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  Speaker 1: attack by the royal army, the Parisian crowds decided they
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  Speaker 1: needed to arm themselves and fast. By the morning of
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  Speaker 1: July fourteenth, they besieged the Hotel Desimbalid to grab firearms
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  Speaker 1: and cannons, but they hit a roadblock they had no gunpowder.
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  Speaker 1: That directly led to the afternoon's climax storming the Bastille
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  Speaker 1: to secure mass detachments of ammunition. This single day set
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  Speaker 1: off a wild chain reaction that, by August fourth saw
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  Speaker 1: the complete abolition of feudalism across France. The crowd didn't
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  Speaker 1: just target the best deal for the gunpowder, though, they
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  Speaker 1: went after it because of what it represented. It was
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  Speaker 1: this looming symbol of absolute royal tyranny. Infamous for holding
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  Speaker 1: victims of arbitrary royal indictments. Basically, the king could lock
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  Speaker 1: someone up without a trial, without an appeal, and often
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  Speaker 1: without even giving a reason. It was like the ultimate
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  Speaker 1: physical manifestation of unchecked power right in the middle of Paris.
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  Speaker 1: But get this, here is the reality of what the
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  Speaker 1: mob actually found when they finally breached the walls. Despite
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  Speaker 1: the Bastille's fearsome, larger than life reputation as a dark
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  Speaker 1: dungeon packed with political dissidents, they found exactly seven inmates inside,
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  Speaker 1: literally just seven, and historians point out that absolutely none
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  Speaker 1: of them were of any real political significance. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: even with so few prisoners, the event was undeniably explosive.
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  Speaker 1: The fortress was actively defended, and to avoid a massive
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  Speaker 1: mutual massacre, the commander, Governor Deloney, actually capitulated and opened
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  Speaker 1: the gates, but then a tragedy misunderstanding caused the fighting
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  Speaker 1: to flare right back up. In the absolute chaos that followed,
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  Speaker 1: Delannay and several defenders were killed. The bloodshed of that
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  Speaker 1: afternoon officially cemented the fourteenth of July seventeen eighty nine
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  Speaker 1: as a highly violent turning point in the French Revolution.
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  Speaker 1: Section two, The Festival of Unity, the surprising second July fourteenth.
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  Speaker 1: The narrative totally shifts here, though it doesn't just stop
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  Speaker 1: with a prison break and a bloody mob. Fast forward
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  Speaker 1: exactly one year later, and we are looking at a
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  Speaker 1: completely different vibe. On July fourteenth, seventeen ninety, France held
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  Speaker 1: Befete de la Federacio. Unlike the violence of the year before,
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  Speaker 1: this event was all about peace and national unity. Even
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  Speaker 1: the prep work was unifying. When the site at the
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  Speaker 1: Champ de Mars wasn't going to be ready in time,
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  Speaker 1: thousands of everyday Parisians just grabbed tools in what became
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  Speaker 1: known as the Day of the Wheelbarrow to finish building
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  Speaker 1: it together. On the actual day, and astonishing two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and sixty thousand citizens gathered in the pouring rain, General
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  Speaker 1: Lafayette and even Kingly the sixteenth took an oath to
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  Speaker 1: the Constitution. The whole shebang capped off with a massive
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  Speaker 1: four day popular feast where everyone just celebrated their new
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  Speaker 1: found freedom. Section three, making the holiday official the eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty political Compromise, So jump ahead almost a century to
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty. The government of the Third Republic really wanted
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  Speaker 1: to establish an official annual national holiday to celebrate France,
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  Speaker 1: but they had a huge political dilemma on their hands
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  Speaker 1: trying to pick the date they needed legal legitimacy to
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  Speaker 1: unite the country. On one side, July fourteenth, seventeen eighty
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  Speaker 1: nine was the birth of the New Era, sure, but
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  Speaker 1: it was fundamentally a day of illegal rebellion and bloodshed.
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  Speaker 1: Glorifying that alone was way too divisive. On the flip side,
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  Speaker 1: July fourteenth, seventeen ninety was all about peace and unity,
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  Speaker 1: but it kind of lacked the revolutionary punch of storming
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  Speaker 1: the bastial. So what did they do? They brilliantly solved
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  Speaker 1: it by merging the two completely different July fourteenths into
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  Speaker 1: a single, dual purpose holiday. Senator Henry Martin, the guy
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  Speaker 1: who actually wrote the National Day law, totally championed this compromise.
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  Speaker 1: He made the case that the second July fourteenth couldn't
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  Speaker 1: be blamed for shedding a single drop of blood, it
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  Speaker 1: was the true consecration of French unity. By setting it
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  Speaker 1: up this way, they officially anchored the holiday to the
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  Speaker 1: peaceful seventeen ninety festival to bring everyone together while at
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  Speaker 1: the same time everyone still quietly acknowledged the grittiest seventeen
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  Speaker 1: eighty nine uprising that made it all possible to begin with.
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  Speaker 1: It was an absolute masterstroke of political branding. Section four.
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  Speaker 1: The Grand Military Parade, a Parisian tradition since eighteen eighty.
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  Speaker 1: So what does this officially sanctioned holiday actually look like today? Well,
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  Speaker 1: since eighteen eighty the day has been marked by what's
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  Speaker 1: widely considered the oldest and largest regular military parade in Europe.
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  Speaker 1: It is a meticulously choreographed spectacle. The parade marches straight
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  Speaker 1: down the iconic shomps Ily Ze, starting right from the
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  Speaker 1: architectree off. It passes under the watchful eye of the
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  Speaker 1: President of the French Republic and various foreign ambassadors. It
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  Speaker 1: regularly features Allied forces marching right alongside French troops, and
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  Speaker 1: it culminates with an absence lutely spectacular flyover by the
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  Speaker 1: Portroyal de France and their Alpha jets, trailing those vibrant red,
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  Speaker 1: white and blue colors of the French flag across the sky.
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  Speaker 1: Section five. A global celebration from Paris to the world.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the fourteenth of July has spread like wildfire.
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  Speaker 1: Way beyond the borders of France. It's taken on a
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  Speaker 1: life of its own, with cities around the world adopting
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  Speaker 1: their own incredibly surprising and honestly wonderfully weird traditions. In Leech, Belgium,
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  Speaker 1: they actually celebrate to commemorate their unexpected resistance alongside the
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  Speaker 1: French in World War One. In Philadelphia up until recently,
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  Speaker 1: they had this amazing tradition where a Marie antoineae impersonator
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  Speaker 1: would literally throw locally made tasty cakes at a militia
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  Speaker 1: outside the Eastern State Penitentiary. Down in French Hope, South Africa,
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  Speaker 1: which translates to the French Corner, they celebrate with world
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  Speaker 1: class urmet food and wine, and over in Poppy Tee, Tahiti,
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  Speaker 1: the day has beautifully merged with the Hiva Itahiti Festival,
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  Speaker 1: bringing in traditional singing, firewalks and massive canoe races. It
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  Speaker 1: just goes to show how a single historical date can
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  Speaker 1: be adapted to fit local cultures all over the globe.
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  Speaker 1: So knowing all this that the day isn't just about
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  Speaker 1: a prison riot, but it's actually a deeply complex political
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  Speaker 1: compromise that mixes revolutionary fire with a profound desire for
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  Speaker 1: peaceful national unity. How are you going to view the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth of July now, whether you call it Bastille dae
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  Speaker 1: or lafete nacionale, how will you choose to take part
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  Speaker 1: in this incredible global tradition. Definitely something to chew on
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  Speaker 1: the next time you see those fireworks light up the
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  Speaker 1: summer sky.