Tag: french revolution

Left wing politics

Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition of social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involves a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished. According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, left-wing supporters “claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated.

Within the left–right political spectrum, Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in the French Estates General. Those who sat on the left generally opposed the Ancien Régime and the Bourbon monarchy and supported the French Revolution, the creation of a democratic republic and the secularisation of society while those on the right were supportive of the traditional institutions of the Old Regime. Usage of the term Left became more prominent after the restoration of the French monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the Independents.The word wing was first appended to Left and Right in the late 19th century, usually with disparaging intent, and left-wing was applied to those who were unorthodox in their religious or political views.

The term Left was later applied to a number of movements, especially republicanism in France during the 18th century, followed by socialism, including anarchism, communism, the labour movement, Marxism, social democracy and syndicalism in the 19th and 20th centuries.Since then, the term left-wing has been applied to a broad range of movements, including the civil rights movement, feminist movement, LGBT rights movement, anti-war movement and environmental movement as well as a wide range of political parties.

The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left.One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained: “We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp”.

When the National Assembly was replaced in 1791 by a Legislative Assembly comprising entirely new members, the divisions continued. “Innovators” sat on the left, “moderates” gathered in the centre, while the “conscientious defenders of the constitution” found themselves sitting on the right, where the defenders of the Ancien Régime had previously gathered. When the succeeding National Convention met in 1792, the seating arrangement continued, but following the coup d’état of 2 June 1793 and the arrest of the Girondins the right side of the assembly was deserted and any remaining members who had sat there moved to the centre. However, following the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794 the members of the far-left were excluded and the method of seating was abolished. The new constitution included rules for the assembly that would “break up the party groups”.

The terms “left” and “right” were not used to refer to political ideology per se, but only to seating in the legislature. After 1848, the main opposing camps were the “democratic socialists” and the “reactionaries” who used red and white flags to identify their party affiliation. With the establishment of the Third Republic in 1871, the terms were adopted by political parties: the Republican Left, the Centre Right and the Centre Left (1871) and the Extreme Left (1876) and Radical Left (1881). The beliefs of the group called the Radical Left were actually closer to the Centre Left than the beliefs of those called the Extreme Left

French revolution

ALL OF US HAVE STUDIED ABOUT LOUIS XVI FAMOUS STORY. AND THE SAGA OF NAPOLEAN BONAPARTE.LETS HAVE A FLASHBACK TO THE HISTORY

French Revolution

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Women’s participation in the revolutionary events in France between 1789 and 1795 has only recently  been given nuanced treatment. Early twentieth- century historians of the French Revolution are  typified by Jaures, who, though sympathetic to the women’s movement of his own time, never even mentions its antecedents in revolutionary France. Even today most general histories treat only cursorily a few individual women, like Marie Antoinette. The recent studies by Landes, Badinter, Godineau, and Roudinesco, however, should signal a much-needed reassessment of women’s participation.

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Godineau and Roudinesco point to three significant phases in that participation. The first, up to mid-1792, involved those women who wrote political tracts. Typical of their orientation to theoretical issues—in Godineau’s view, without practical effect—is Marie Gouze’s Declaration of the  Rights of Women. The emergence of vocal middle- class women’s political clubs marks the second phase.  Formed in 1791 as adjuncts of middle-class male political clubs, and originally philanthropic in function, by late 1792 independent clubs of women began to advocate military participation for women. In the final phase, the famine of 1795 occasioned a mass women’s movement: women seized food supplies, held officials hostage, and argued for the implementation of democratic politics. This phase ended in May of 1795 with the military suppression of this multiclass movement. In all three phases women’s participation in politics contrasted markedly with their participation before 1789. Before that date some noblewomen participated indirectly in elections, but such participation by more than a narrow range of the population—women or men—came only with the Revolution.

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What makes the recent studies particularly compelling, however, is not so much their organization of chronology as their unflinching willingness to confront the reasons for the collapse of the women’s movement. For Landes and Badinter, the necessity of women’s having to speak in the established vocabularies of certain intellectual and political traditions diminished the ability of the women’s movement to resist suppression. Many women, and many men, they argue, located their vision within the confining tradition of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who linked male and female roles with public and private spheres respectively. But, when women went on to make political alliances with radical Jacobin men, Badinter asserts, they adopted a vocabulary and a violently extremist viewpoint that unfortunately was even more damaging to their political interests.

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Each of these scholars has a different political agenda and takes a different approach—Godineau, for example, works with police archives while Roudinesco uses explanatory schema from modern psychology. Yet, admirably, each gives center stage to a group that previously has been marginalized, or  at best undifferentiated, by historians. And in the case of Landes and Badinter, the reader is left with a sobering awareness of the cost to the women of the Revolution of speaking in borrowed voices.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution&ved=2ahUKEwiEnaOv7ufxAhVbyzgGHSZLB8EQFnoECCYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1ntUmqXdSYR9ME1L2DAcE8

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.history.com/.amp/topics/france/french-revolution&ved=2ahUKEwiEnaOv7ufxAhVbyzgGHSZLB8EQFnoECEYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw30-DOOzIkwL94onNDgzDcD&ampcf=1

Jour de la Bastille (Bastille Day)

Jour de la Bastille, the national day of France is commonly known as Bastille Day in English. Every year on 14th July France celebrates her national day. On this day France celebrates the storming of the Bastille as a national holiday. Bastille was a military fortress and prison. The Bastille symbolized the tyranny of the French monarchy especially King Louis XVI.

France used to celebrate this day very enthusiastically but from 2020 this celebration holds back. As in 2020 for the first time since 1945, authorities have called off the annual military parade along the Champs-Elysees in Paris due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Only 2,000 soldiers – half the usual number were gathered at the Place de la Concorde. In 2020 French Macron tweeted “This July, we will pay tribute to those who have put all their strength, all their skills, all their humanity against the virus.”

This year, France celebrated her national day with a traditional national military parade but firework has been canceled due to the pandemic and concerns over the Delta variant. This year the theme of the parade is “Winning the Future” highlighting “the French’s will to overcome health crisis-related difficulties”. The occasion reveals the army’s anticipation role “thanks to high technology (…) able to prevent crisis and imagine fights from the future”. This year, French President Emmanuel Macron wishes to express “The [Nation’s] affection for the army” and pay tribute to the women and men “who chose to fight for France and shown a sense of commitment and availability like no other”.

Fall of Bastille

The Bastille was built in the 1300s during the Hundred Years’ War against the English. It was designed to protect the eastern entrance to the city of Paris. And later used as a French state prison and a place of detention for important persons during the 17th and 18th centuries by the reign of Louis XVI.

During the time of the American Revolution, America and France worked together. France helped America with the aim to end England’s power in the American colonies. A lot of money was spent in the war and consequences were paid by the people of France suffering from starvation, unemployment, and tensions in the country.

In 1789, there was an economic crisis and tensions in France, the people of France were frustrated and angry with the cruel behavior of kings and elites, and clergies. The Bastille was a symbol of the tyranny of king and queen. The revolutionaries, more than 1000 people most of them were craftsmen and store owners of the Paris marched towards the Bastille on 14th July 1789. They demanded that the military leader (governor de Launay) of Bastille surrender the prison and hand over the gunpowder but he refused and due to this crowd become angry. The revolutionaries managed to enter the courtyard and began to try and break into the main fortress. The soldiers started firing and the fight begins. But an interesting or turning point of this fight was when soldiers joined the side of the crowd. And the military leader surrendered the fort to the revolutionary. Governor de Launay was killed, some prisoners were released (only seven prisoners were inside) and Bastille was razed and mixed in the soil. The storming of Bastille led to a series of events that led to overthrew of King Louis XVI and the French Revolution. The people who took part in the storming of Bastilles were considered heroes during the revolution and took the title “Vainequeurs de la Bastille” meaning “winners of the Bastille”.

The date 14th July represents the unity of French people

The date of the fall of Bastille 14 July is celebrated today as the French National Day. In France, it is called the “The National Celebration” or The Fourteenth July”.