Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne
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Breton Revolutionary Army
Armée révolutionnaire bretonne |
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| Founded | 1971 |
| Ideology |
Breton nationalism Revolutionary Socialism Ecologism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
The Breton Revolutionary Army (French: Armée Révolutionnaire Bretonne, ARB) is an illegal armed organization that is part of the Breton nationalism movement in the Brittany region of France.
Until the end of the 15th century, Brittany had managed to remain independent vis-à-vis its French and English neighbours. In December 1491, however, after two consecutive civil wars opposing the French Crown to an alliance of French Princes (among them Brittany) and foreign powers, the latter were defeated and the young Breton duchess, Anne, was married to the young King Charles VIII, thereby tying Brittany to France.
In 1532, the then French monarch, Francis I of France, officially tied Brittany to France despite originally allowing it to preserve its fiscal and legal privileges. This partial autonomy, in turn, allowed Brittany to remain unaffected by most of the foreign and domestic conflicts that afflicted the French Kingdom throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
During the French Revolution, however, Brittany’s relative autonomy was revoked. Its parliament abolished, its Breton language banned, and its territory divided into five departments. This new transformed Brittany provoked bipolar reactions throughout the five new departments, as some overwhelmingly endorsed such fusion while others systematically rebelled against the fragile new Republic.
The Breton Revolutionary Army was created in 1971 as the armed wing of the Front de Liberation Breton (FLB), in English known as the Breton Liberation Front. The FLB had been established in 1963 with the intention to secure the liberation of Brittany from France. The ARB seeks recognition by the French government of the existence of the Breton people, the integrity of its territory, and the Breton language. Christian Georgeault is the group’s current leader and a former Emgann general Secretary.
The 1974 bombing in Roc Tredudon marks the first of approximately 200 terrorist acts on foreign soil, both inside and outside Brittany.
The ARB, unlike its Corsican (FLNC) and Basque (ETA) counterparts, does not seek to achieve human casualties. This is a view shared across the entire Breton political spectrum and especially by the Breton people who, until the attack on a McDonald's in 2000, during which an employee was killed, have tolerated the actions of the separatist movement. Until the 2000 attack, only two casualties (two ARB members were killed when trying to defuse their own bombs that they thought would injure someone) had resulted from their attacks. Nevertheless, considerable property damage has been inflicted as a result of these attacks.
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