Left and Right, the Tricolour and the Nation

The Revolution created much of the vocabulary and symbolism of modern politics. In the National Assembly in 1789, supporters of a strong royal veto sat to the right of the president, while those who wanted to limit the king's power sat to the left, giving rise to the terms 'right' and 'left'. The tricolour cockade combined the blue and red of Paris with royal white, and the tricolour flag became the national flag. The Marseillaise, first a war song, was declared a national song in 1795.

Above all, the Revolution transformed the idea of the nation from subjects of a king into a community of citizens holding sovereignty. Older words such as 'citizen' and 'patriot' took on new political meanings, while new ones such as 'nationalism' and even 'terrorism', which first described the Terror, entered political language. These ideas and symbols spread worldwide and were adapted by movements of every kind.