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The French Genocide That Has Been Air-Brushed from History
- bediger4000 8y agoI lookup up "vendee rebellion" in Google (which it suggested after I got to the 2nd "e" in "vendee"): About 136,000 results (0.57 seconds) This is hardly white-washed from history. Quillette's ignorance is showing. Yes, the Vendee rebellion and subsequent massacre(s) probably didn't appear in the writer's High School history text book, but a lot of stuff didn't. Armenian Genocide of 1915, anyone? Anything other than "manifest destiny" about Native American's fate?
- seszett 8y agoI don't know where the author was educated, but I wouldn't be surprised if the wars of Vendée were not taught outside of France, and since it's a very internal affair (England did not come to the help of the Vendéens who counted on it - the Virée de Galerne) during a time already heavy with historically significant events on a international scale, I think it's quite normal. In France though it is far from forgotten. A very well done, state-sponsored, large museum explains (Historial de Vendée) at length these events, mostly from a Vendean perspective as I felt (I am from Vendée myself, and the founder of the museum is a politician known to be royalist) and a theme park (Puy du Fou, second most popular in France after Disneyland) also has many attractions around this theme, also mostly from an anti-republican point of view (it was founded by the same person as the other museum). I wouldn't mind official excuses from the Republic on how this happened I guess, but nobody today is responsible for what happened then, so it would be meaningful anyway.