Barricade. Barricade 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. Barricades, as physical barriers erected during protests or uprisings, have been depicted in art as symbols of resistance, rebellion, and social change. Artists have often used barricades to convey the intensity and urgency of political and social movements. They can be depicted as imposing structures, blocking progress and symbolizing oppression, or as tools of empowerment, used to challenge authority and demand change. In art, barricades can be seen as both obstacles and opportunities, reflecting the complex nature of social and political struggles. 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 prevent forcible passage by a vehicle. Stripes on barricades and panel devices slope downward in the direction traffic must travel. 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 used around the world. They were first used in the U.S. 40 years ago by Friedrichs Mfg for New Orleans's Mardi Gras parades. Anti-vehicle barriers and blast barriers are sturdy barricades that can respectively counter vehicle and bomb attacks. 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, 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.