Enlightenment in Spain in 1782, and the Bahamas were seized later that year. The Treaty of Paris (1783) restored much of what Spain had lost in the Seven Years' War, including Florida. King Charles III died on 14 December 1788. Seven months later, French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, launching the French Revolution. Charles III's eldest son was both epileptic and mentally disabled and was passed over for the throne in favor of his second eldest, Charles IV. Charles IV was seen by many of his time as being as uninterested in politics as Ferdinand VI had been. His chief interest upon his arrival
Storming of the Bastille were arguments that the Bastille should be preserved as a monument to liberation or as a depot for the new National Guard, the Permanent Committee of Municipal Electors at the Paris Town Hall gave the construction entrepreneur Pierre-François Palloy the commission of disassembling the building. Palloy commenced work immediately. The demolition of the fortress itself, the melting down of its clock portraying chained prisoners, and the breaking up of four statues were all carried out within five months. On 16 July 1789, two days after the Storming of the Bastille, John Frederick Sackville, serving as ambassador to France, reported to