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Jul. 14th, 2006 02:00 pmHappy Bastille Day!
The birth of a movement is always hard to rigidly define, which bugs the hell out of historians. For America, we celebrate July 4th and the Declaration, but one could also place the dawn of American freedom at the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, or the Boston Massacre in 1770, or the Tea Party in 1773. The Declaration, however, is a good marker as it drew a line in the sand from which it would be difficult to step back. Monarchs and executives rarely negotiate with open treason.
France drew its line in the sand at the time a mob of citizens overthrew a royal prison. There were no political prisoners released out of the seven inmates incarcerated in the Bastille (the prison was going to close anyway). The mob may instead have been going after gunpowder and arms. Anyone can nitpick details, given the span of centuries.
Like the Americans, other events predated July 14th, perhaps including the decision to back the American rebellion. However, it's hard to step back from open defiance of the King, so France has Bastille Day.
France's journey to a more-or-less stable democracy(*) has been rocky, as has been ours. Unlike America, France did not have the luxury of sending loyalists back to the home country. The Reign of Terror savagely beheaded the opposition, and France later dealt with Napoleon (including his encore), another dip back into monarchy in a couple flavors, back to a Republic, back to an Empire, and back again to a Republic.
And that was just in the first 80 years.
So, Happy Birthday France. Not necessarily France, the modern nation, but France, the free people.
---
(*) I'm referring to the modern concept of democracy, roughly defined as the election of representatives, as opposed to theoretical (and spooky) democracy defined by Political Scientists)
The birth of a movement is always hard to rigidly define, which bugs the hell out of historians. For America, we celebrate July 4th and the Declaration, but one could also place the dawn of American freedom at the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, or the Boston Massacre in 1770, or the Tea Party in 1773. The Declaration, however, is a good marker as it drew a line in the sand from which it would be difficult to step back. Monarchs and executives rarely negotiate with open treason.
France drew its line in the sand at the time a mob of citizens overthrew a royal prison. There were no political prisoners released out of the seven inmates incarcerated in the Bastille (the prison was going to close anyway). The mob may instead have been going after gunpowder and arms. Anyone can nitpick details, given the span of centuries.
Like the Americans, other events predated July 14th, perhaps including the decision to back the American rebellion. However, it's hard to step back from open defiance of the King, so France has Bastille Day.
France's journey to a more-or-less stable democracy(*) has been rocky, as has been ours. Unlike America, France did not have the luxury of sending loyalists back to the home country. The Reign of Terror savagely beheaded the opposition, and France later dealt with Napoleon (including his encore), another dip back into monarchy in a couple flavors, back to a Republic, back to an Empire, and back again to a Republic.
And that was just in the first 80 years.
So, Happy Birthday France. Not necessarily France, the modern nation, but France, the free people.
---
(*) I'm referring to the modern concept of democracy, roughly defined as the election of representatives, as opposed to theoretical (and spooky) democracy defined by Political Scientists)
