Word: genevans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...city's role in modern diplomacy began with the Battle of Solferino in Italy in 1859. A Genevan traveler, Henri Dunant, was so appalled by the spectacle of the wounded French and Austrian soldiers left to die on the battlefield that he wrote an indignant book titled Un Souvenir de Solferino. From that book came the Geneva Convention of 1864, in which 16 nations agreed for the first time on humane treatment for the wounded. From Dunant's protest also came the creation of the International Red Cross...
...recall of Calvin does not mean remorse among the Genevans. The city, despite its placid lakeshore site, is a grim spot enlivened mainly by nocturnal vices: gambling, drinking, whoring. In one notorious district there is a tavern for every three dwellings. Though he cherishes his own ration of wine (teetotaling comes later in Protestant history), the cleric inveighs against every excess. He condemns dancing as a prelude to fornication and finds Genevan feasting obscenely luxurious. (Among the new ordinances he demands is one limiting banquets to three courses of a mere four plates each...