On July 14, 1789, a crowd of Parisians stormed the Bastille, an event that became one of the defining moments of the French Revolution. But they weren't primarily there to free prisoners. They wanted gunpowder.

France was in crisis. Government debt, high bread prices, and an unfair tax system had fueled growing anger. Meanwhile, representatives of the Third Estate had formed the National Assembly and were challenging the authority of King Louis XVI. When royal troops gathered around Paris and the king dismissed his popular finance minister, Jacques Necker, many feared a military crackdown.

Parisians began arming themselves. On the morning of July 14, crowds seized thousands of muskets from the Hôtel des Invalides, but they needed ammunition. The Bastille, a royal fortress and prison, held a large supply of gunpowder.

After hours of fighting, the crowd captured the fortress. Inside, they found just seven prisoners: four forgers, two men considered mentally ill, and an aristocrat imprisoned at his family's request. There were no famous political prisoners waiting to be rescued.

The crowd got the gunpowder it had come for, but it also accomplished something far more important. The Bastille had long symbolized royal authority and arbitrary imprisonment. Its fall showed that the king's power could be challenged by ordinary people and quickly became a symbol of the French Revolution.