The Paris Commune. March 12, 1871, Sunday. We take advantage of this day, when there are no major events in Paris, to mention what had happened in the previous months. On July 19, 1870, France declared war on Prussia. A disastrous adventure for France, on September 2 there was the great defeat at Sedan and Emperor Napoleon III himself was taken prisoner. Between September 19 and 20, Paris was besieged by 180,000 Prussians. Strasbourg and Metz fell one after the other. The population and the National Guard became increasingly hostile to the emergency government. On October 31 there was an attempted insurrection in Paris, but it immediately ended badly. On January 5, 1871, the Prussians began bombing Paris. On January 18, Wilhelm I was proclaimed Emperor of Germany right at Versailles, in the Hall of Mirrors of the palace. On January 28, the armistice was signed between the Prussians and the Government of National Defense, which in the meantime had taken refuge in Bordeaux. The victors were granted the right to parade on March 1, 1871, in Paris along the Champs-Elysées, in a mourning capital, in front of statues covered with a black veil. After enduring a painful siege, Parisians felt betrayed by their rulers. The newly elected National Assembly, dominated by monarchists, further fueled tensions. After the end of the fighting against the Prussians, the latter refused to return to Paris and left Bordeaux for ... Versailles, the royal city! The next day, among its first measures, the government took the anti-popular provisions we talked about the day before yesterday, including the abolition of the allowance due to the National Guard, which in Paris brought together no fewer than 180,000 men from the petty bourgeoisie and the working class who had volunteered to defend the capital from the enemy and had become accustomed to living under arms.
