ITS EFFECT ON EUROPE: AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF FRENCH HEGEMONY

 

DELETING THE CITY WALL TRUMPETED FRENCH DOMINATION OF THE CONTINENT, BY IMPLYING THAT ATTACKING PARIS WAS UNTHINKABLE

(VICTORIES 1672, RAMPART DEMOLISHED 1674)

Protective walls were universal:  

The Second Fall of Constantinople, by Tintoretto, towards 1600 / zoom

Constantinople 

Rome

                By Apollinary Vasnetsov, 1922 / zoom

Moscow toward 1350

Du Niger au golfe de Guinée by Louis Gustave Binger, 1892 / zoom

Sikasso (Mali), end 19th century

     View of Vienna from Josephat, official commission, 1690 / zoom

            Getty Images/Vernon Lewis Gallery / Stocktrek Images

New Orleans in 1812

    Anonymous engraving / zoom

Marrakech toward 1840

Or so it seemed.

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Next,

That arc heralds three centuries of calamity