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Article: Has the French Revolution ever ended?
- Article from:
- The Irish Times
- Article date:
- July 14, 2009
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Irish Times. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Bastille Day celebrations mark a historical motif that has been
imprinted on French society since, writes LARA MARLOWE in Paris
THE CITY bristled with rumours that morning, 220 years ago today.
It was a time of economic crisis, even hunger, and the spring had
been taken up with the election of deputies to the Estates General
(a consultative body that had not convened for 175 years) and the
drafting of lists of grievances.
The king's soldiers had carried out manoeuvres around Paris for
several days, strengthening fears of a plot by the aristocracy to
end growing demands by the Third Estate, as the commoners were
known. "What is the Third Estate?" the revolutionary Abbe Sieyes
wrote in ...