Prologue¶
Core Argument¶
On 9 August 1870, after six days of battle and three lost engagements, Parisian crowds surrounded the Corps Législatif demanding the Republic. The deputies of the Left, the sole remaining moral authority, hesitated and refused to act, despite offers of support from 100,000 ready workers. Jules Favre's proposal to seize government was met with threats from the Right; the Left abandoned the initiative, leaving Napoleon III in power and allowing the loss of France's last two armies. For three weeks, the deputies concealed crushing military truths while the nation sank. The great bourgeoisie, having accepted the Second Empire out of fear of socialism, proved incapable of governing. Only a handful of revolutionary socialists and workers opposed the war, demonstrating for peace on 15 July and appealing to German workers, but they lacked authority and political experience, their movement hampered by twenty years of oppression and internal divisions.
On 4 September, a popular insurrection invaded the Corps Législatif, expelled the deputies, and forced Gambetta to proclaim the abolition of the Empire. The Left, which had resisted the Republic and sought a negotiated peace, was carried to the Hôtel-de-Ville, where Jules Favre and others proclaimed themselves the Government of National Defence, appointing General Trochu, a Napoleon appointee, as military head. The International and workers' syndicates offered co-operation, but Paris placed blind confidence in the Government despite warnings from Blanqui. By 19 September, Paris was invested. The Central Committee of the Twenty Arrondissements demanded municipal elections, arming of all citizens, and war to the end; the Government postponed elections indefinitely. Trochu, Favre, and Picard privately declared defence impossible and sought negotiation, simulating resistance to appease Paris while awaiting terms.
On 31 October, crowds invaded the Hôtel-de-Ville demanding the Commune. A commission including Blanqui and Millière was proclaimed to hold elections, but the revolutionary forces failed to consolidate power. By evening, reactionary National Guards freed Trochu and Ferry; a convention was agreed, but Trochu's battalions retook the Hôtel-de-Ville. The Government demanded a plebiscite; Paris voted 322,000 ayes, with only 54,000 civilian noes. The revolutionaries lacked cadres, method, and organisation. Jacobins like Delescluze and Blanqui lived in exclusive circles; returning exiles of 1848 were vain and disdained Socialists. The lower middle class abdicated moral responsibility.
Trochu's subsequent period of defence aimed to save Paris from revolutionaries, not the enemy. Sorties were mismanaged; hunger intensified until children died on empty mothers' breasts. On 6 January, the Committee of the Twenty Arrondissements issued a red poster declaring the Government had failed and calling for the Commune. On 22 January, a demonstration at the Hôtel-de-Ville was fired upon; thirty were killed or wounded. On 28 January, Paris capitulated. The armistice disarmed the forts, required 200 million francs, and applied to all provincial armies. The Government preserved the National Guard's arms only because storming Paris would have been necessary.
The February election produced a motley assembly; the provincial vote revealed a savage reactionary surge. Gambetta, arriving by balloon on 9 October, committed a serious blunder: he cancelled elections, maintained Bonapartist officials, and refused to empower the Leagues. Militarily, he failed to seize the opportunity after Metz's capitulation; the Loire army had 80,000 men, but General D'Aurelles de Paladines, a reactionary, halted on learning of Metz's fall. The Conservative Vendée arose, with monarchists, clericals, and capitalists waiting their turn. M. Thiers, the apparent leader, worked only to baffle the defence; his house became headquarters for Conservative notabilities. The reactionary press spread the watchword that fighting was madness. The peasant, deliberately kept ignorant by the bourgeoisie, was won over. At the signal of elections, Conservatives grouped with lists ready; the clergy united Legitimists and Orleanists. Out of 750 members, 450 were born monarchists. Thiers was returned in twenty-three departments.