1871: Paris tries to govern itself after defeat

The cannons on Montmartre

On the morning of 18 March 1871, French soldiers climbed Montmartre to retrieve cannon held by the Paris National Guard. Some troops refused to fire on the crowd that surrounded them. The government’s leader, Adolphe Thiers, withdrew to Versailles. Paris had survived a punishing siege during France’s war with Prussia, only to face an armed argument with its own government about peace, political authority and the cost of living.

Parisians resented the peace terms, the conservative National Assembly elected in February and decisions affecting National Guard wages and unpaid rent. The city was not united: many residents feared further war, while radicals demanded local self-government. On 26 March, voters elected a council that became known as the Commune. It included socialists, republicans and other revolutionaries who agreed on resisting Versailles more readily than on a complete economic program.

Reform under the pressure of war

The new council supported secular education, measures concerning rent and pawned goods, and a greater role for workers in public life. Louise Michel taught and served with the National Guard; Eugène Varlin, a labor organizer, pushed for practical administration and worker cooperation. The council had limited money, divided leadership and scarcely two months to govern. The revolt was also marked by violence against prisoners and political opponents, including the killing of hostages near its end.

Thiers ordered an army offensive to recapture the city. During 21–28 May, known as Bloody Week, Versailles troops took barricade after barricade. Thousands of Communards died; figures vary by historian. Survivors faced imprisonment or deportation. The scale of the state’s reprisal did not erase the Commune’s own crimes, and the Commune’s reforms did not remove the divisions among its leaders.

A powerful memory with a narrow record

The Commune became an example invoked by later socialist and communist activists. Its actual institutions, however, operated only briefly and amid civil war. Its elected council could propose policies but could not demonstrate how a national economy would function under its authority. The episode reveals both the demand for representation among embattled workers and the consequences when opposing authorities treat a political dispute as an enemy army to be defeated.