Happy Bastille Day!
I don't know if it is the heat typically or purely coincidental, but there have been a number of revolutions that resulted in new nations or independence in the month of July. Bastille Day happens to be one of my favorites, and never more so than with the change of administrations this year in France.
We owe so much of our nation coming into existence to the French, from figures like the Marquis de Lafayette, who negotiated a great deal of that support from Louis XVI. He was later one of the guiding figures in the French revolution as well as one of those who was a moderating influence on it.
Trivia questions for the day. looking at the intersection of the French and ourselves.
1. What was the actual name, as distinct from his title, of Lafayette?
2. Which of the following, while French nationals, are considered United States Founding Fathers as well as significant figures in the French Revolution?
a. Comte de Rochambeau
b. Comte de Grasse
c. Admiral de la Touche Treville
d. Marquis de Lafayette
3. We refer to the press/ news media, and now increasingly some bloggers as the fourth estate; the first, second and third estates are a traditional division from the French. What are the first, second and third estates?
4. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the American Revolutionary War. The failure of the Estates General of 1789 led to the forming of the National Assembly and the French Revolution, inspired in part by our own Continental Congress and the American Revolution. What public issue that we face today was addressed by the National Assembly?
a. national security
b. debt and taxation
c. balance of power between church and state
5. The French Revolution was supportive of what economic system?
a. socialism
b. capitalism
c. mercantilism
d. co-operativism / communalism
6. What was the motto of the French revolution, inspired by the American Revolution, that continues to be their motto today?
a. liberty, equality, brotherhood
b. all for one and one for all
c. bread, wine, freedom
7. What was the intellectual movement that spread across Europe that originated in France that was the foundation for the American Revolution?
a. the Enlightenment
b. the Encyclopediae
c. Naturalism
Vive la France! Vive la liberte! et Vive des questions de trivia!
