At one time in France, kings and queens ruled. Many people were very angry with the decisions made by the kings and queens.

The Bastille was a prison in France that the kings and queens often used to lock up the people that did not agree with their decisions. To many, it was a symbol of all the bad things done by the kings and queens. So, on July 14, 1789, a large number of French citizens gathered together and stormed the Bastille.

Just as the people in the United States celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence as the beginning of the American Revolution, so the people in France celebrate the storming of the Bastille as the beginning of the French Revolution. Both Revolutions brought great changes. Kings and queens no longer rule. The people rule themselves and make their own decisions.

The representatives of the French people, organized as a National Assembly, believed that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man were the sole cause of public calamities¹ and of the corruption² of governments.

As a result, they determined³ to set forth⁴ in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall remind them continually of their rights and duties. Therefore the National Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under the auspices⁵ of the Supreme⁶ Being, the following rights of man and of the citizen:

1 Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2 The aim of all political association is the preservation⁷ of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially⁸ in the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authoritywhich does not proceed directly from the nation.

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment⁹ of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law.

5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society.Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.

6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, are equally eligible¹⁰ to all dignities and to all public positions and occupations, according to their abilities, and without distinction except that of their virtues¹² and talents.

7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned¹³ except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. Any one soliciting¹⁴, transmitting, executing, or causing to be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any citizen summoned or arrested in virtue¹¹ of the law shall submit without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense¹⁵.