You are a foreigner (American, Prussian, English, it doesn’t really matter…) who happens to be in France during the period of the French Revolution. As many people throughout Europe are keenly interested in the ongoing actions of the Revolution, you have been asked to provide up to date news of the events in France.
Thus, your objective in this blog post is to write a news story regarding one of the many notable events that took place in France during this violent and chaotic period of time. The events of your news story must take place somewhere between July 14, 1789, which was the attack on the Bastille, and 1804 when Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of the French.
Your news story should be about two paragraphs in length, but try to keep it no more than four. It should be written like a legitimate news story that generally answers the questions of “Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?” As necessary, do a bit of additional research to gather the proper information on your event, such as dates, places, and names of specific people involved.
This blog is due on Monday, March 12 by 11:59 pm
Sample News Story:
CHAOS AND CARNAGE AT THE BASTILLE!
PARIS, FRANCE - Chaos and violence ensued in the streets of Paris yesterday, as months of fear, anxiety, and anger at France’s continued political upheaval and uncertainty finally boiled over at the famous Bastille Prison.
As the National Assembly continued to meet in an attempt to write a constitution for the French government and people, His Majesty King Louis XVI dispatched troops to Versailles and Paris in order to keep the peace. Unfortunately, the military presence led to a rumor among the city’s residents that the king planned an attack aimed at destabilizing and disbanding the Assembly. Believing in the unfounded rumor, riotous mobs of an untold number began roaming the city streets in search of weapons with which to defend themselves and the Assembly on the nights of the 12th and 13th of July. Knowing that it housed a large amount weapons, ammunition, and gunpowder, yesterday morning the mobs directed their attention to the Bastille, demanding entrance and access to the arsenal. Witnesses say that the governor of the prison, the Marquis Bernard-Rene de Launay refused their demands, but sometime in the afternoon the mob managed to breach the fortifications and began attacking the garrison that consisted of about 80 French soldiers and 30 Swiss grenadiers. Unconfirmed reports suggest that soldiers may have opened fire on the rioters at some point. One witness, who asked not to be identified due to his involvement in the incident, claimed “The soldiers shot at us, and I saw at least 50 people dead or wounded. But rather than scaring us away, it only gave us more reason to attack this symbol of the king’s tyranny.”
By about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the rioters had taken complete control of the fortress, freeing the prisoners inside, taking possession of their desired weapons, and capturing the prison governor Monsieur Launay and his assistant, the lieutenant governor. The lieutenant could not be immediately identified. Eyewitnesses report that the two men were then executed by the mob’s leaders, and that the killings were carried out in a way such that good taste dictates that I not describe it here. The remains of the two men were then paraded around the city in a gruesome display that seems to indicate that the violence in this country is far from over.
His Majesty King Louis XVI could not be immediately reached for comment.
