History Workshop

Revolutions and contestations in french History

On the evening of July 14, 1789, after the French people had stormed the Bastille, a woken Louis XVI asked the duke de la Rochefoucauld: «Is it a revolt?». «No sire,the duke replied, it?s a revolution». In 1357, Etienne Marcel, Provost of the Merchants of Paris, led the populace and almost overthrew the Monarchy, whereas the May 68 upheaval eventually prompted the resignation of Charles de Gaulle in 1969 and transformed French society.