Commune of Paris (Encyclopedia Britannica)

also called Paris Commune, French Commune de Paris, (1871), insurrection of Paris

against the French government from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It occurred in the wake
of France’s defeat in the Franco-German War and the collapse of Napoleon III’s Second
Empire (1852–70).

The National Assembly, which was elected in February 1871 to conclude a peace with
Germany, had a royalist majority, reflecting the conservative attitude of the provinces.
The republican Parisians feared that the National Assembly meeting in Versailles would
restore the monarchy.

To ensure order in Paris, Adolphe Thiers, executive head of the provisional national

government, decided to disarm the National Guard (composed largely of workers who
fought during the siege of Paris). On March 18 resistance broke out in Paris in response
to an attempt to remove the cannons of the guard overlooking the city. Then, on March
26, municipal elections, organized by the central committee of the guard, resulted in
victory for the revolutionaries, who formed the Commune government. Among those in
the new government were the so-called Jacobins, who followed in the French
Revolutionary tradition of 1793 and wanted the Paris Commune to control the
Revolution; the Proudhonists, socialists who supported a federation of communes
throughout the country; and the Blanquistes, socialists who demanded violent action.
The program that the Commune adopted, despite its internal divisions, called for
measures reminiscent of 1793 (end of support for religion, use of the Revolutionary
calendar) and a limited number of social measures (10-hour workday, end of work at
night for bakers).

With the quick suppression of communes that arose at Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Marseille,
and Toulouse, the Commune of Paris alone faced the opposition of the Versailles
government. But the Fédérés, as the insurgents were called, were unable to organize
themselves militarily and take the offensive, and, on May 21, government troops
entered an undefended section of Paris. During la semaine sanglante, or “bloody week,”
that followed, the regular troops crushed the opposition of the Communards, who in
their defense set up barricades in the streets and burned public buildings (among them
the Tuileries Palace and the City Hall [Hôtel de Ville]). About 20,000 insurrectionists were
killed, along with about 750 government troops. In the aftermath of the Commune, the
government took harsh repressive action: about 38,000 were arrested and more than
7,000 were deported.