Remembering the Revolution: Bastille Day and Commemoration

How the Revolution is remembered has itself been political. For much of the 19th century, French regimes struggled over its legacy: monarchists rejected it, Bonapartists celebrated Napoleon, and republicans honoured 1789 and the Republic. Only under the Third Republic did revolutionary symbols become official: the Marseillaise became the anthem in 1879, 14 July became the national holiday in 1880, and 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity' was placed on public buildings. Debates continued over which parts to celebrate.

The 1889 centenary was marked by the Eiffel Tower and a world's fair, and the 1989 bicentenary featured a grand parade in Paris while historians argued about the Terror and the Vendée. In recent decades France has also begun to commemorate the abolition of slavery and the Haitian Revolution more prominently. Commemoration shows how each generation selects and reinterprets the past.