How the term "left-wing" and "right-wing" come from?
Now the terms"left-wing" and"right-wing" are used as symbolic labels for liberals and conservatives, but they have been initially coined in reference to the physical seating arrangements of politicians throughout the French Revolution.
The split dates to the summer of 1789, when members of the French National Assembly met to start drafting a constitution. The delegates were deeply divided over the issue of how much authority King Louis XVI ought to possess, and as the debate raged, the two major factions each staked out territory in the assembly hall. The anti-royalist revolutionaries seated themselves to the presiding officer left, while the conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy gathered to the right.
It's to do with seating arrangements
"I tried to sit in various areas of the hall and to not adopt any noticeable place, in order to stay more the master of my view," one right-wing baron wrote, "but I was forced absolutely to depart the left or else be condemned to vote independently and thus be subjected to jeers in the galleries."
The branches only lasted throughout the 1790s, when newspapers started making reference to the progressive"left" and traditionalist "right" of the French meeting. The distinctions later vanished for many years during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte.
But with the Bourbon Restoration and the launch of a constitutional monarchy in 1814. Liberal and conservative agents once again took up their individual articles on the left and right of the legislative chamber. From the mid-19th century, "left" and"right" had entered the French vernacular as shorthand for opposing political ideologies. Political parties even started self-identifying as"center-left,""center-right,""extreme left" and"extreme right."
France's"left" and"right" labels
France's"left" and"right" labels filtered out to the rest of the world during the 1800s. But they were not common in English-speaking nations until the early 20th century. The terms are now used to refer to the opposing ends of the political spectrum. But their roots are still evident in the seating arrangements of several legislative bodies. From the U.S. Congress, for instance, Democrats and Republicans traditionally sit on opposite sides of the House and Senate chambers.