Happy Bastille Day? Not for Many French Then or Now

America’s revolution was the inspiration for France’s. Occurring within the same generation, the outcomes of the two famous revolutions are starkly different.

French troops storming the Bastille during the French Revolution. The prison represented the hated Bourbon monarchy and Bastille day is now celebrated as the beginning of the revolution. Rischgitz/Getty Images

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July 14 is National Day in France (Fête nationale française), the rough patriotic equivalent to America’s Fourth of July celebration. Commonly known in the English-speaking world as Bastille Day, it commemorates the storming and sacking of the Bastille prison tower, a symbol of the old world’s royalist power and corruption, in Paris in 1789. The nationalist holiday also serves as a moment to reflect on the history of revolutions, both in France and in America.