User:Crookandcharlatan/Sandbox2

This article is about the event. You may be looking for the memory.

"Paris is starving, and the price of bread just tripled. Working-class women are about to change the course of the revolution."

―Bishop on the Women's March, 2014.

The Women's March on Versailles, also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution.

On 5 October 1789, more than 700 women, frustrated by the lack of bread and the prices at which it was being sold, mobilized in Les Halles to protest. Joined by labourers and revolutionaries, they ransacked the Hôtel de Ville, procuring weapons and cannons, and subsequently marched on the Palace of Versailles. There, the protesters successfully pressed their demands upon Louis XVI and succeeded in bringing him back to Paris.

Food shortages and taxes

"Kings and nobles pay no tax, while we shoulder the burden for them! We must band together, citizens!"

―Théroigne rallying the crowds, 1789.

One of the driving forces behind the French Revolution was the shortage of food, particularly bread, among the common people. During the late 18th century, France's population numbered 26 million, 22 million of which were farmers that could barely support their families. The French's refusal to adopt the potato as a staple of their diet, unlike England and other European countries, further compounded their already precarious situation.

As such, they were especially susceptible to the bad harvests that they faced in the decade leading up to the French Revolution. Many desperate farmers flocked to the cities in search of work and food, causing conditions to deteriorate.

Adding to the frustrations of the working class were the taxes levied by the King. Both the clergy and the nobility were exempt from taxation, leaving the beggars, bakers, cloth merchants and estate owners to shoulder France's debts. The failures of ambitious overseas military campaigns caused the country to sink even deeper into financial ruin, with taxes rising as a result. The King nonetheless continued to spend frivolously, drawing ire and resentment from the lower classes.

March through Paris

"Let's tell the royals that our families must eat too!"

―Théroigne gathering the market women, 1789.

Following the Storming of the Bastille and the Great Fear, revolutionary fervor spread among the populace. The clergy and the aristocracy had lost their priviliges, and feudalism had been abolished, but true change for the working class was slow to come. Ordinary citizens were still struggling to keep themselves fed, with the price of grain having skyrocketed due to droughts in the summer of 1788. In 1789, one loaf of bread cost more than half a day's pay for the common workers.

Eventually, the populace's frustration reached a breaking point; on 5 October, women across the marketplaces of Paris, Les Halles in particular, gathered to protest. The crowds, which were already growing drastically, converged at the Hôtel de Ville and ransacked it, taking 1700 muskets and 4 cannons. Joined by workers from the Saint-Marcel and Saint-Antoine districts, as well as revolutionaries, the women marched towards Versailles.