The Paris Commune of 1871

The Franco-Prussian War destroyed the Second Empire and left Paris besieged, hungry, and defeated. The republican government disputed the armistice, finances, and National Guard with inhabitants of the capital. An attempt to remove artillery in March 1871 met resistance from soldiers and residents. Government withdrew to Versailles, while Paris held elections and established the Commune. Workers and local political organizations participated in this reorganization of authority after military defeat.

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The leadership included socialists, republicans, and representatives of different revolutionary traditions. Measures concerned local autonomy, education, labour, separation of Church and state, debts, and worker cooperatives. Women organized medical assistance, work, and political activity. The city also needed supplies during continuing warfare. Its short existence prevented many policies from developing fully, and disagreements within Paris combined with military pressure from Versailles to restrict what could be implemented.

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Government troops entered Paris in May. Barricade fighting, executions, imprisonment, and deportation followed during the Bloody Week and its aftermath. Some exiles returned after the amnesty of 1880. The experience entered socialist, anarchist, and republican debate through competing memoirs and records. Marx’s Civil War in France supplied one contemporary political interpretation. Later movements continued examining both the Commune’s policies and the violence used to suppress it.

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