Bastille Day

Everyone is writing about / celebrating Bastille Day today. I find it hard to do. I know a lot of history-minded Americans see the French Revolution as sort of a Part II to our own struggles in the 18th century. In the sense that it eventually resulted in a permanent democracy, albeit nearly 100 years later, I guess the comparison is somewhat fair. But that’s a stretch.

The French Revolution was a much more bloody and chaotic conflict which is why it was so easy for Napolean to seize control in 1799. One thing that sets the French Revolution apart from our own is that it was actually a civil war and in that way it is much more comparable to our own internal conflict than to the American Revolution which was ultimately a war between nations. Also, the fact that it was a shrugging off of centuries of monarchy verses only roughly 100 hundred years in the United States may also be why it was more violent.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been watching the John Adams series. Ironically, last night I watched a scene where the new French ambassador to the United States is trying to force George Washington to support the French rather than make a treaty with the British. The ambassador demands they honor previous agreements. Alexander Hamilton speaks up at that time and says, “Our agreements were with King Louis. His murder nullifies that agreement.” That was a powerful statement in my opinion.

While I respect the French celebration of Bastille Day, it is hard for me to do so knowing how it iniated a long period of turmoil. On a more personal note, some of my relatives came here from France in the post-Napoleonic period and it was no doubt at least in part to try and gain some stability. So if I celebrate anything it is that 1/16 of my blood comes from the shores of France. I don’t know if that means much but it’s important to me.