The Paris Commune. On Saturday, March 18, 1871, the insurrection begins that will lead, a week later, to the Paris Commune. Thiers, the head of the Government, since 3 a.m. has sent detachments of the regular army to surround the neighborhoods of Paris where weapons and cannons are kept and to recover them under full control. At 6 in the morning, with a coup, on the hill of Montmartre they seize the artillery and then begin to take them away. At this point, the National Guards and many women oppose them. The Parisians of the neighborhood insist that those cannons are theirs because they bought them with their subscriptions to defend Paris from the Prussians and do not want to leave them to an army and a government that signed the surrender. At 9 in the morning, a few shots are fired, the crowd retreats. The soldiers of the regular army refuse to fire on the crowd and the National Guard; in fact, they fraternize with them. The gendarmerie and the cavalry have to withdraw, the coup has failed, General Lacomte, who was in command, is captured by the insurgents and executed by his soldiers. The same fate for General Clément-Thomas, dressed as a civilian, recognized and captured in Place Pigalle. The Parisians from the eastern and central districts of the city rise up. The head of the Government and his ministers leave Paris and move to Versailles.
