As we have seen, the centenary year of the French Revolution was set to become a year of civic commemorations for the Third Republic. From the beginning, the 1889 Exposition Universelle itself was marked as a triumphant republican celebration in the face of political adversity, both internally and externally, and was poised to become “the greatest pacifist monument of Europe.” Indeed, the commemorative and thus historic aspect of the Exposition was more pronounced than in any of the earlier French fairs, and among its many retrospective exhibits—in addition to the musical ones discussed above—were the centenary exhibition of French paintings, Charles Garnier's “History of Human Habitation,” and even a survey of erstwhile means, systems, and places of repression in France. In 1889, France was constructing not only her future as a progressive republican nation, but also a past to go with it.

This past, however, was contested between various political groups, whether Boulangistes, légitimistes, moderates, or radicals. No other event in the history of modern France was as significant as the Revolution, whether it was vilified as the nadir of the nation's history or celebrated as its grandest era. But even in the case of those for whom the Revolution was a moment of glory, its historic location was disputed: for the moderate republicans, the liberalist year of 1789 represented the point in time to celebrate; for the radical republicans, 1792 was the key year because it was then that France became a republic; and for the socialists, 1793 was the year of regicide and the start of the Terror. The organization of the centenary celebrations proper thus turned into a disagreement over the specific commemoration dates. In the end, the moderate government won out over some of the more radical deputies and declared five dates as commemorative days for 1889, emphasizing the priority of 1789, yet aligning it subtly with the events of 1792: 5 May 1789 (the reopening of the Estates General); 20 June 1789 (the Tennis Court Oath); 14 July 1789 (the storming of the Bastille); 4 August 1789 (the abolition of privileges); and 21 September 1792 (the declaration of the Republic).