The Destruction of the Bastile as 'The Destruction of the Bastille' and 'Monody on the Death of Chatterton' behind him". The Destruction of the Bastile The Destruction of the Bastile was composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1789. The poem describes Coleridge's feelings of hopes for the French Revolution as a catalyst for political change. When the Bastille was overrun during the French Revolution and destroyed in July 1789, many political liberals within Britain celebrated. The schoolboy Coleridge, in particular, leaned towards radical views and would later become more and more radical although his views within "The Destruction of the Bastile" are more moderate. Although
Causes of the French Revolution have lagged slightly behind the Low Countries, and possibly Switzerland, in per capita wealth, the sheer size of the French economy made it the premier economic power of continental Europe. Historian John Shovlin states, "It is a truism that the French Revolution was touched off by the near bankruptcy of the state." It was the burden of the national debt that led this to the long-running financial crisis of the French government. Before the revolution, the French debt had risen from 8 billion to 12 billion livres. Extravagant expenditures on luxuries by Louis XVI, whose rule began in 1774, were