Answer:
The main reason why the rebel Parisians stormed the Bastille was not to free any prisoners but to get ammunition and arms. At the time, over 30,000 pounds of gunpowder was stored at the Bastille. But to them, it was also a symbol of the monarchy’s tyranny.
This armed the Parisian rebels, allowing the possibility of a successful offensive attack. At the time the monarchy did not realize the significance of this capture, which speaks partly to his ignorance of the precariousness of French domestic politics at the time, but also that the event carries more symbolic significance than it did military strategic importance at the time.
