This year continued to be painful for Paris. The description of the Commune, like that of the Prussian siege, relies on Alistair Horne’s Seven Ages of Paris. The defeat by Bismarck left a bad taste in the mouths of the French, particularly the radical left. At the end of February the National Guard troops in control of a 200 gun battery on Montmartre seized the guns for use against the Republican government. This left the government forces vulnerable to bombardment, so they withdrew to Versailles, which became the temporary seat of the Republic.

(This painting, Famile sur une barricade pendant la commune, is by Honore Daumier (92x73cm. Prague, Galerie Norodin). While Daumier was too old to man the barricades himself by this time, his sympathies were with the Commune. His painting reflects the imminence of defeat and approaching death.)

At this point the communards dithered and did not follow up their advantage and move on Versailles. The Republican army was in disorganization after the war and largely disarmed. Action by the communards might have carried the day for them. As it was, they did little in preparing defenses or reaching out to the rest of France. They did arrest a number of people, including the archbishop of Paris. Horne cites this famous interrogation between Rigualt, the new police chief and an arrested priest.

“R: What is your profession?
P: Servant of God.
R: Where does your master live?
P: Everywhere.
R (to clerk): Take this down. X, describing himself as a servant of one called God, a vagrant.”
 
 
 
 

By May the Republican army had mobilized itself and was ready to enter Paris. The Republicans began their own bombardment of the city, and as the Prussians, were indiscriminate in hitting civilian as well as military targets. Still, the communards did little to defend themselves. On the 21st of May the army entered through an unguarded section in the walls and over 70,000 troops were in the city by the next day. This was to trigger a 'semaine sanglante,' or bloody week, where somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000 – 25,000 Parisians died. This painting, Arrestation de Louise Michel, is by Jules Girardet (45x37cm, St. Denis, musee d'Art et Histoire). She was a communard who led the defense of Montmartre. Horne quotes her as reveling in the smell of gunfire and the sound of bullets whizzing through the air.

Fighting started in earnest throughout the city, but the communard forces were outnumbered and out gunned. The new design of streets, with long straight boulevards, shifted the advantage to a more organized force with cannon and made the barricade strategy of earlier times less effective. On the 23rd the communards made a stand at Concorde, where they were attacked from neighboring rooftops. The defenders fired the buildings, and also set fire to the Tuileries, more in vengeance than for strategic advantage. Fires spread throughout the city over the next day as the resistance used fire bombs to destroy bourgeoisie homes.
 
 
 
 
 

The communards made a final stand near Pere Lachaise, a famous cemetery in the 11th arrondissement. Many of those captured were treated harshly, and either summarily executed or died on a short march to Versailles. Horne notes that this was the last siege that Paris experienced. It was occupied by the Germans during W.W.II, not as the result of siege, but rather as the result of military collapse. This image is of the execution of members of the commune. It is from Almanach Francais.

Paris was resilient and life was returning to normal by June. Monet and Pissarro returned from London, and other Impressionist artists turned their attention to the landscapes around Paris.
 
 

Among the building burned is the Hotel de Ville. These pictures show the results after the ashes cool. It is subsequently rebuilt. Charles Marville is the photographer, and the book, Le Nouveau Paris is edited by Philippe Mellot.

Gustave Courbet, Still Life: Fruit, 1871-72, Oil on canvas, 23 1/4 x 28 3/8 in (59 x 72 cm), Shelburne Museum, Vermont

New coinage is introduced, dropping Napoleon III and proclaiming the Republic.

January 18: The second Reich is declared (German unification). (AL)

February 8: Elections chose a  majority of delegates interested in peace, generally conservative  and with monarchist tendencies. This helps trigger the radical reaction that leads to the Commune (March 18). CHF

May 10: Treaty of Frankfort which ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. (AF)