Forget Gezi uprising and Buyukada meetings...Roll the dates back to look into the Jacobin[1] heritage of Turkish Left and the red color[2] for revolution.
Mavi Boncuk |
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"The effects of the French Revolution reached far beyond the confines of France itself. The Ottoman Empire, ancient ally and major trading partner of France, was not immune from the repercussions of the 'Age of Revolutions', especially since it was home to permanent French communities with a certain legal autonomy. French Revolutionaries in the Ottoman Empire examines, for the first time, the political and cultural impact of the French Revolution on Franco-Ottoman relations, as well as on the French communities of the Ottoman Empire. The modern interpretation of revolutionary ideological expansionism is strongly influenced by the famous propaganda decree of 19 November 1792 which promised 'fraternity and help to all peoples who wish to recover their liberty', as well as the well-studied efforts to export the Revolution into the territories conquered by the revolutionary armies and to the various Sister Republics. Against all expectations, however, French revolutionaries in the Ottoman Empire exhibited neither a 'crusading mentality' nor a heightened readiness to use force in order to achieve ideological goals. Instead, as this volume shows, in matters of diplomacy as well as in the administration of French expatriate communities, revolutionary policies were applied in an extremely circumspect fashion. The focus on the effects of the French regime change outside of France offers valuable new insights into the revolutionary process itself, which will revise common assumptions about French revolutionary diplomacy. In addition, Pascal Firges takes a close look at the establishment of the new political culture of the French Revolution within the transcultural context of the French expatriate communities of the Ottoman Empire, which serves as a thought-provoking point of comparison for the emergence and development of French revolutionary political culture."
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[1] The Jacobin Club was one of several organizations that grew out of the French Revolution, and it was distinguished for its left-wing, revolutionary politics. A Jacobin was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–99). The club was so called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue Saint-Jacques (Latin: Jacobus) in Paris.Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses. Jacobin is sometimes used in Britain as a pejorative for radical, left-wing revolutionary politics, especially when it exhibits dogmatism and violent repression.[2] In France, Jacobin now generally indicates a supporter of a centralized republican state and strong central government powers and/or supporters of extensive government intervention to transform society.
The most prominent political clubs of the French Revolution were the Jacobin Clubs that sprung up throughout Paris and the provinces in August of 1789. By 1791, there were 900 Jacobin clubs in France associated with the main club in Paris. According to Spielvogel, "Members were usually the elite of their local societies, but they also included artisans and tradesmen".
Jacobin clubs served as debating socitites where politically minded Frenchmen aired their views and discussed current political issues. Many members of Jacobin clubs were also deputies and used the meetings to organize forces and plan tactics. The most notorious deputy connected with the Jacobin club is Robespierre. Marat was also aligned with the Jacobin club, and this association caused his death. Charlotte Corday, his murderer, targeted Marat because she thought that he represented the worst of the Jacobin movement .
The club supported and participated in some of the most shocking events of The Revolution. Members of Jacobin clubs were among the mob invaded the Tuileries on August, 10, 1792. They also supported the execution of Louis XVI. Druing the Terror, local Jacobin clubs turned the provinces into nightmares of fear and destruction as members took it upon themselves to be agents of the Terror, and sent thousands to the guillotine (Dowd, 129). The clubs were also strictly anticlerical, and during the Terror some clubs wages a crusade against the church, imprisoning priests and looting churches.
The Jacobin clubs were closed soon after Robespierre was killed in 1794, but not before they became synonomous with revolutionary fervor and fear.
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[2] (pictured) Columbia wearing a Phrygian cap, personification of the United States (World War I patriotic poster).
The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe and Anatolia, including Phrygia, Dacia, and the Balkans. In early modern Europe it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty through a confusion with the pileus, the felt cap of manumitted (emancipated) slaves of ancient Rome. Accordingly, the Phrygian cap sometimes is called a liberty cap; in artistic representations it signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty.
In 1675, the anti-tax and anti-nobility Stamp-Paper revolt erupted in Brittany and north-western France, where it became known as the bonnets rouges uprising after the blue or red caps worn by the insurgents. Although the insurgents are not known to have preferred any particular style of cap, the name and color stuck as a symbol of revolt against the nobility and establishment. Robespierre would later object to the color, but was ignored. The use of a Phrygian-style cap as a symbol of revolutionary France is first documented in May 1790, at a festival in Troyes adorning a statue representing the nation, and at Lyon, on a lance carried by the goddess Libertas. To this day the national allegory of France, Marianne, is shown wearing a red Phrygian cap.
Mavi Boncuk |
"The effects of the French Revolution reached far beyond the confines of France itself. The Ottoman Empire, ancient ally and major trading partner of France, was not immune from the repercussions of the 'Age of Revolutions', especially since it was home to permanent French communities with a certain legal autonomy. French Revolutionaries in the Ottoman Empire examines, for the first time, the political and cultural impact of the French Revolution on Franco-Ottoman relations, as well as on the French communities of the Ottoman Empire. The modern interpretation of revolutionary ideological expansionism is strongly influenced by the famous propaganda decree of 19 November 1792 which promised 'fraternity and help to all peoples who wish to recover their liberty', as well as the well-studied efforts to export the Revolution into the territories conquered by the revolutionary armies and to the various Sister Republics. Against all expectations, however, French revolutionaries in the Ottoman Empire exhibited neither a 'crusading mentality' nor a heightened readiness to use force in order to achieve ideological goals. Instead, as this volume shows, in matters of diplomacy as well as in the administration of French expatriate communities, revolutionary policies were applied in an extremely circumspect fashion. The focus on the effects of the French regime change outside of France offers valuable new insights into the revolutionary process itself, which will revise common assumptions about French revolutionary diplomacy. In addition, Pascal Firges takes a close look at the establishment of the new political culture of the French Revolution within the transcultural context of the French expatriate communities of the Ottoman Empire, which serves as a thought-provoking point of comparison for the emergence and development of French revolutionary political culture."
[1] The Jacobin Club was one of several organizations that grew out of the French Revolution, and it was distinguished for its left-wing, revolutionary politics. A Jacobin was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political movement that was the most famous political club during the French Revolution (1789–99). The club was so called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue Saint-Jacques (Latin: Jacobus) in Paris.Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses. Jacobin is sometimes used in Britain as a pejorative for radical, left-wing revolutionary politics, especially when it exhibits dogmatism and violent repression.[2] In France, Jacobin now generally indicates a supporter of a centralized republican state and strong central government powers and/or supporters of extensive government intervention to transform society.
The most prominent political clubs of the French Revolution were the Jacobin Clubs that sprung up throughout Paris and the provinces in August of 1789. By 1791, there were 900 Jacobin clubs in France associated with the main club in Paris. According to Spielvogel, "Members were usually the elite of their local societies, but they also included artisans and tradesmen".
Jacobin clubs served as debating socitites where politically minded Frenchmen aired their views and discussed current political issues. Many members of Jacobin clubs were also deputies and used the meetings to organize forces and plan tactics. The most notorious deputy connected with the Jacobin club is Robespierre. Marat was also aligned with the Jacobin club, and this association caused his death. Charlotte Corday, his murderer, targeted Marat because she thought that he represented the worst of the Jacobin movement .
The club supported and participated in some of the most shocking events of The Revolution. Members of Jacobin clubs were among the mob invaded the Tuileries on August, 10, 1792. They also supported the execution of Louis XVI. Druing the Terror, local Jacobin clubs turned the provinces into nightmares of fear and destruction as members took it upon themselves to be agents of the Terror, and sent thousands to the guillotine (Dowd, 129). The clubs were also strictly anticlerical, and during the Terror some clubs wages a crusade against the church, imprisoning priests and looting churches.
The Jacobin clubs were closed soon after Robespierre was killed in 1794, but not before they became synonomous with revolutionary fervor and fear.
The Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with several peoples in Eastern Europe and Anatolia, including Phrygia, Dacia, and the Balkans. In early modern Europe it came to signify freedom and the pursuit of liberty through a confusion with the pileus, the felt cap of manumitted (emancipated) slaves of ancient Rome. Accordingly, the Phrygian cap sometimes is called a liberty cap; in artistic representations it signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty.
In 1675, the anti-tax and anti-nobility Stamp-Paper revolt erupted in Brittany and north-western France, where it became known as the bonnets rouges uprising after the blue or red caps worn by the insurgents. Although the insurgents are not known to have preferred any particular style of cap, the name and color stuck as a symbol of revolt against the nobility and establishment. Robespierre would later object to the color, but was ignored. The use of a Phrygian-style cap as a symbol of revolutionary France is first documented in May 1790, at a festival in Troyes adorning a statue representing the nation, and at Lyon, on a lance carried by the goddess Libertas. To this day the national allegory of France, Marianne, is shown wearing a red Phrygian cap.
