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Grace Rettew
Raymond
UWRT: 1104
10/16/16
History of France
The flag of France, commonly know as the French Tricolor, has been altered many times
to get to what it is today. Previous to the French Revolution, the French flag took on
many shapes and forms. When the Bourbons came to power, they changed the preceding
flag, representing the royal coat of arms. It originally had a blue shield with three golden
fleurs-de-lis. It was altered to display a shield against a background showing the Bourbon
dynastic color, white. After the French Revolution in 1790, the navy flag was changed to
a flag with three vertical stripes. These stripes represented to ideals of France during the
Revolution. The first stripe, blue, represented liberty. The second, white, represented
equality, and the third, red, represented fraternity (World Atlas Editors). Four years later,
the tricolor was made the official National flag for use by the common people (Smith).
Not only does the flag of France correlate with the French Revolution, but the
national anthem of France, La Marseillaise, does as well. Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle
composed it on April 24, 1792. After France declared war on Austria on April 20, 1792, a
distressed P.F. Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg, called for a troop marching song.
Rouget do Lisle, captain of the engineers and am amateur musician, answered by creating
the song. It was originally called Chant de guerre de larmee du Rhin but was changed to
La Marseillaise because of its popularity amongst volunteer army units form Marseille.
The song originally had six verses, but had a seventh and eight verses added to it later on
(Encyclopdia Britannica Editors).

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Though I have been a nanny for multiple international families of French descent,
I myself could not currently become a French citizen. There are a plethora of
requirements such as: having a French parent, being married to a French citizen, living in
France for five or more years along with, being 18 or older, showing youre of good
character and morals, proving you dont have a criminal record, and passing the language
test. The language test is called the French Knowledge Test for Access to French
Nationality (TCF- ANF) and the passing level required is the same as a B1 under the
common European language test. In order to become a citizen, one must fill out a dossier
including: an application form, a birth certificate, evidence of marital status, evidence of
parents marital status, evidence of children, evidence of profession, criminal records,
proof of residence in France, and an attestation de moralite (a letter from your maire, the
mayor) attesting to your good character. The process takes one to two years to be fulfilled
(French Entre Editors).
It is very interesting learning about the history and background of where my
ancestors once came from, along with the families I have worked with. Seeing how the
changing flag came to what it is today and the construction on the National Anthem was
also quite intriguing because they both came to be due to the French Revolution after
undergoing multiple changes. It also seems like quite an arduous task attempting to
become a citizen of France as it is lengthy and requires a lot of documents and time. I
hope to culture myself further throughout this family tree project and learn more about
my familys roots in France.

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Works Cited
Flag of France. France flag and Description. World Atlas, 17 Nov. 2015. Web. 16
Oct. 2016.
"flag of France". Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-France>.
Https://www.facebook.com/sylviaedwardsdavis?ref=hl. "How to Become a French
Citizen." FrenchEntre. N.p., 21 July 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
"La Marseillaise". Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016
<https://www.britannica.com/topic/La-Marseillaise>.

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