Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
La Liberté guiding the people by Eugène Delacroix (1830).
Those of you who have visited le nid* in recent months may have noticed we’ve named our salles de classes* according to the French motto ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité*.
It’s a well-known phrase for many French learners, but do you know its history?
Having overthrown the monarchy during the French Revolution (1789 - 1799), the revolutionaries were in search of a motto to unite the country. Many variations on the three words were bandied about and in fact Parisians took to writing a longer form on their houses from 1793: Unité, Indivisibilité de la République, Liberté, Egalité et Fraternité ou La Mort*. The inhabitants were soon asked to remove the last three words since it was too reminiscent of La Terreur*, the period of the French Revolution involving massacres and public executions.
It was only in 1946 when the three-part phrase we all know was stated explicitly in the constitution of the Fourth Republic that it become official. It is sometimes suggested that the three colours of the French flag represent the motto with blue for freedom, white for equality and red for brotherhood. Intéressant, non*?
*the nest | *classrooms | *freedom, equality, brotherhood | *Unity, Indivisibility of the Republic, Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood or Death | *The Reign of Terror | *Interesting, isn’t it?