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The Paris Commune was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended Paris, and working-class radicalism grew among its soldiers. Following the establishment of the French Third Republic in September 1870 and the complete defeat of the French Army by the Germans by March 1871, soldiers of the National Guard seized control of the city on March 18. The Communards killed two French army generals and refused to accept the authority of the Third Republic; instead, the radicals set about establishing their own independent government.
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The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, it consisted of 144 delegates elected by the 60 divisions of the city. Before its formal establishment, there had been much popular discontent on the streets of Paris over who represented the true Commune, and who had the right to rule the Parisian people. The first mayor was Jean Sylvain Bailly, a relatively moderate Feuillant who supported constitutional monarchy. He was succeeded in November 1791 by Pétion de Villeneuve after Bailly's unpopular use of the National Guard to disperse a riotous assembly in the Champ de Mars.
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In the history of labor, socialism, and revolutions, the historiography of the Paris Commune connects its 1871 events with the revolutions of 1848 and 1917. Historical interpretation of the Commune influenced subsequent revolutionary ideology and sociopolitical events. As of the late 20th century, there were two main historiographical schools of thought: the political interpretation, that the Commune was a patriotic eruption of fury in response to circumstantial hardship following the Siege of Paris; and the social interpretation, that the Commune was the result of macro socioeconomic forces boiling over, e.g., that it was a war of class struggle. Histories in the latter interpretation have used the Commune's events to make ideological points on behalf of their authors, either that the Commune was an illegitimate, criminal aggression, or that the Commune was the consummation of revolutionary momentum. Similarly, historians within both the political and social interpretations have disagreed as to whether the Commune was inevitable or accidental, a harbinger of the future or a sunset for revolutionary zeal.
The semaine sanglante was a weeklong battle in Paris from 21 to 28 May 1871, during which the French Army recaptured the city from the Paris Commune. This was the final battle of the Paris Commune.
The Battle of Courbevoie was the first battle of the 1871 Paris Commune.
The Declaration to the French People is a summary of the 1871 Paris Commune's political program by its government, the Commune. It was written by three journalists: Charles Delescluze, Jules Valles, and Pierre Denis, a Jacobin, socialist, and Proudhonist, respectively. The Commune adopted the summary three weeks into their term. Only one elected official dissented. The declaration inveighs against the Versailles government and aligns the Commune with other provinces. The program is made in the name of Paris, not the working classes or revolution, and primarily demands a republican government and secondly, Commune autonomy extended to all of France, giving local bodies control over administration, economics, education, and security. It referenced a federation between communes.
On 1 March 1871 the Imperial German Army paraded through Paris to mark their victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The city had been under siege by Prussian forces since September 1870, with Prussia being unified into the German Empire on 18 January 1871. The Armistice of Versailles of 28 January ended hostilities, but the city remained in French hands. Preliminary peace terms were agreed in the 26 February Treaty of Versailles, which allowed 30,000 German troops to occupy Paris from 1 March until the treaty was ratified.
References
- ↑ Tombs, Robert (2014). The Paris Commune 1871. Taylor & Francis. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-317-88384-5.
- ↑ Tombs 2014, p. 73.
- ↑ Merriman, John (2014). Massacre: The Life and Death of the Paris Commune. Basic Books. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-465-05682-8.
- ↑ Merriman 2014, p. 75.
