aaaA Barricade, from the French barrique (barrel), is any object or structure that

creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow

of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denotes

any improvised field fortification, such as on city streets during urban warfare.

Barricades also include temporary traffic barricades designed with the goal of

dissuading passage into a protected or hazardous area or large slabs

of cement whose goal is to actively prevent forcible passage by a vehicle. Stripes

on barricades and panel devices slope downward in the direction traffic must

travel.[2][3]

There are also pedestrian barricades - sometimes called bike rack barricades for

their resemblance to a now obsolete form of bicycle stand, or police barriers.

They originated in France approximately 50 years ago and are now produced

around the world. They were first produced in the U.S. 40 years ago by

Friedrichs Mfg[4] for New Orleans's Mardi Gras parades.

Anti-vehicle barriers and blast barriers are sturdy barricades that can respectively

counter vehicle and bomb attacks.[5][6]

Contents

1In history 2Gallery 3See also 4References

In history[edit]

The origins of the barricade are often erroneously traced back to the "First Day of

the Barricades", a confrontation that occurred in Paris on 12 May 1588 in which

the supporters of the Duke of Guise and the ultra-Catholic Holy League

successfully challenged the authority of king Henri III. In actuality, although

barricades came to widespread public awareness in that uprising (and in the

equally momentous "Second Day of the Barricades" on 27 August 1648), none of

several conflicting claims concerning who may have "invented" the barricade

stand up to close scrutiny for the simple reason that Blaise de Monluc had

already documented insurgents' use of the technique at least as early as 1569 in

religiously based conflicts in southwestern France.

Although barricade construction began in France in the sixteenth century and

remained an exclusively French practice for two centuries, the nineteenth century

remained the classic era of the barricade. Contrary to a number of historical

sources, barricades were present in various incidents of the great French

Revolution of 1789, but they never played a central role in those events. They

were, however, a highly visible and consequential element in many of the

insurrections that occurred in France throughout the 1800s, including in the

revolutions of 1830 ("the July Days") and 1848 (in both February and June.)

Other Parisian events included the June Rebellion of 1832, which was smaller in

scale, but rendered famous by Victor Hugo's account in Les Misérables, the

combat that ended the Paris Commune in May 1871, and the more symbolic

structures created in May 1968.

The barricade began its diffusion outside France in the 1780s and played a

significant role in the Belgian Revolution of 1830, but it was only in the course of

the upheaval of 1848 that it became truly international in scope. Its spread across

the Continent was aided by the circulation of students, political refugees, and

itinerant workers through the French capital, where many gained first-hand

experience of one or another Parisian insurrection. The barricade had, by the

middle of the nineteenth century, become the preeminent symbol of a

revolutionary tradition that would ultimately spread worldwide. Barricade

references appear in many colloquial expressions and are used, often

metaphorically, in poems and songs celebrating radical social movements.

[7][8]

Gallery[edit]