Where Did the Terms 'Left Wing' and 'Right Wing' Come From? - HISTORY - 0 views
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originally coined in reference to the physical seating arrangements of politicians during the French Revolution.
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The split dates to the summer of 1789, when members of the French National Assembly met to begin drafting a constitution.
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The anti-royalist revolutionaries seated themselves to the presiding officer’s left, while the more conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy gathered to the right.
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The divisions only continued during the 1790s, when newspapers began making reference to the progressive “left” and traditionalist “right” of the French assembly.
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with the Bourbon Restoration and the beginning of a constitutional monarchy in 1814, liberal and conservative representatives once again took up their respective posts on the left and right of the legislative chamber.
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France’s “left” and “right” labels filtered out to the rest of the world during the 1800s, but they weren’t common in English-speaking countries until the early 20th century.