The movement started quite innocently, as a movement for the reform of the university. The whole thing was apparently sparked by a demonstration in Nanterre, the new branch of the University of Paris, and ensuing disciplinary measures against students who had participated in a demonstration against the war in Vietnam. That was followed by demonstrations in Paris itself, in the Sorbonne, and the demands were the usual ones, namely radical reform of the totally outdated and medieval structure of the university.

The demands were mainly for the hiring of a thousand new professors, the building of new classrooms and facilities for library study, and a thorough reform of the fantastically rigid and crazy examination system. In order to give more weight to these demands, the students demonstrated in the courtyard of the Sorbonne. For a reason nobody understands — the demonstration was perfectly peaceful — the rector of the university, apparently on the suggestion of the minister of the interior, asked for the police to clear the courtyard. The police appeared and invaded the Sorbonne, for the first time in the history of this university.

This was indeed a historical novelty. European universities are immune against the police. The police are not supposed to enter the universities, and that is one of the age-old traditions which is actually adhered to in France and other countries. It was the first time in history that the police intervened and by force cleared the courtyard, with several hundred students injured.