The Latin Quarter is the next location this tour is going to be visiting and is located in the center east of the left bank of Paris. It is, historically, the oldest district in Paris, with its centre being at La Sorbonne, where it got its name from all of the Latin speaking students residing there in the Middle Ages. Although the history of the Latin Quarter begins around the year 52 BC, when Romans conquered the area which was inhabited by the Gauls and built the city of Lutetia, its identity derives from 1253 when Robert de Sorbon created la Sorbonne. [1]

[1] Pieter Dhondt, Elizabethanne Boran, Student Revolt, City, and Society in Europe: From the Middle Ages to the Present, Routledge, 2017, 45.

[2] Michael Seidman. The Imaginary Revolution: Parisian Students and Workers in 1968. Berghahn Books: July 30, 2004, 37.

The Latin Quarter is includes various famous monuments within Paris including the brand-new Institut du Monde Arabe to the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Museum of Natural History) and even the Musee de Cluny, and the Jardin des Plantes.[3]

There are also churches including Saint-Severin and Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. These are built as a student's refuge.

The Latin Quarter has its beginning in the history of the 13^th century but also has a history that can be seen in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. This history is seen within political unrest In 1871 where the Place Saint Michel was the center of the Paris Commune, and in May 1968, where the student uprisings occurred.[4] If la Sorbonne is seen as the explosion of the May 1968 protests then the Latin Quarter can be seen as the resulting debris from that explosion. It is the location where over 20,000 people, students and teachers, protested. The university, while being still blocked off by police, who engaged the protesters in violence. In reciprocation, the students began to create barricades to fight the police off. Approximately 420 people were arrested while approximately 340 police and around 600 students were hurt. Proceeding immediately after on the night of May 10^th enormous crowds gathered on the Left Bank and skirmished with the police.[5] The fight was engaged until dawn of the next day and a high number of people were arrested and/or injured. The events were broadcast on radio as well as television the next day which garnered support from civilians as the police were viewed as over stepping their bounds and participating in overly violent tactics.[6]

[4] https://www.linkparis.com/latin-quarter.htm. Accessed on November 11, 2017.

[5] Daniel Singer, Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968, South End Press, 2002, 56.

[6] Keith A. Reader, Khursheed Wadia, The May 1968 Events in France: Reproductions and Interpretations, Springer, 2016, 12.

[3] iMinds, Latin Quarter, iMinds Pty Ltd, 2014, 11.

These police brutalities convinced a majority of the French workforce to go on strike.

France was basically paralyzed. An agreement was reached between the unions and the government on May 27^th where they raised the minimum wage, cut working hours, reduced the age of retirement and maintained the right to organize themselves.

So were these events that took place in the Latin Quarter a consequence of an "uprising" or "revolution"? The students did take possession of the Latin Quarter while garnering support from locals. This event within the Latin Quarter did lead to the paralysing of Paris with the introduction of the workers and high school students across Paris. The Latin Quarter can be seen as important to the argument that the events of May 1968 in Paris was indeed a "revolution".

Bibliography

Dhondt, Pieter & Boran, Elizabethan. Student Revolt, City, and Society in Europe: From the Middle Ages to the Present. Routledge, 2017.

https://www.linkparis.com/latin-quarter.htm. Accessed on November 11, 2017.

iMinds. Latin Quarter. iMinds Pty Ltd, 2014.

Reader, Keith A. & Wadia, Khursheed. The May 1968 Events in France: Reproductions and Interpretation. Springer, 2016.

Seidman, Michael. The Imaginary Revolution: Parisian Students and Workers in 1968. Berghahn Books, 2004.

Singer, Daniel. Prelude to Revolution: France in May 1968. South End Press, 2002.