V.2. "THE TERRIBLE YEAR" 1870-1871

MENU: 5.2. "The Terrible Year"

THE SECOND EMPIRE PROVOKES WAR WITH PRUSSIA TO SUPPRESS CHALLENGE FROM THE LEFT.

The result is military debacle, the siege of Paris, La Commune and the civil war and frightful repression that follow.

Internet / source not said

Defeat and revolution

• A war of choice brings disaster

• Explosion

• Civil war and carnage

• Ruins. Vengeance. Evolution

• Mystification: Old School, now and two historians fight back

• Fraternity that worked

• An omen and a turning point

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Next,

A war of choice brings disaster

5.2.1. A WAR OF CHOICE BRINGS DISASTER

Allegory of the Siege of Paris by Ernest Meissonnier, 1870 / zoom

Toward upheaval

• "To Berlin!" cry Parisians

• Hallucinations of an enclosed population 

• Treason?

• Tensions rise

• The Guard becomes a counter-power

• Cannons the army neglects 

• Prussians parade but guards steal the show 

• The Assembly pours oil on the fire

• The cannons on the hills

    

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Next,

"To Berlin!" cry Parisians

"TO BERLIN!" CRY PARISIANS

WARS ARE OFTEN STARTED FOR DOMESTIC REASONS: IN 1870 

Bismarck wants to unite the German states around Prussia and Second Empire reactionaries want to break liberal opposition. Émile Zola's protagonist Nana* is a courtesan, symbol of the Second Empire, hears the cry "To Berlin!" from her deathbed.

*Eponymous novel, 1879

The New Babylon

Defeats are immediate:

   The Prussian Infantry Pushes back the French Cavalry, August 6, 1870, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Denis

 The French attack, the Prussians repulse them.

 The Funeral of the Flag (detail) by Emmanuel-Auguste Massé / undated, antiquarian sale  / zoom

A general tears up a flag and gives the pieces to his troops to keep it from becoming a trophy.

Within six weeks Emperor and much of the French army are taken prisoner.

(On September 2, by the Battle of Sedan)

Napoleon III surrenders (Arte,a Franco-German television station) / YouTube 2006

Otto von Bismarck and Napoleon III after the Battle of Sedan in 1870 by Wilhelm Camphausen, 1871 / zoom

# # #

In Paris a republic is proclaimed: France's only bloodless revolution succeeds in a single morning.

(On September 4)

History of the Revolution of 1870 by Jules Claretie, 1872 -1875 (in French)

"A human sea filled place de la Concorde. Paris did not bother to worry about Napoleon III, the Republic existed before it was proclaimed." 

-- Louise Michel 

The Empress flees, leaving lunch on the table. 

# # #

The split between conservative republicans and those who want social change appears immediately:

• To avoid the explosive term "Republic," conservatives say "Government of National Defense."

• Recalling their betrayal of the popular revolution of 1830 and support for the massacre of June '48, within hours radicals demand elections in each district to supervise mayors and collect requests.*

*"A Montmartre doctor jumped on a table to make the proposal... in an ambiance greatly influenced by the French Revolution, it had to recall Camille Desmoulin's call to arms."

-- Letter published in the newspaper Rappel of September 6,

cited in The Republican Central Committee of the Twenty Districts of Paris 

by Jean Dautry and Lucien Scheller, 1960 (in French), p. 13 / zoom

• Next day 4-500 militants establish a Central Committee as a counterweight.  

# # #

When Bismark demands Alsace-Lorraine, a war about a dynastic quarrel in Spain becomes a fight for France.

-- A narrative that is exceptionally clear: The Siege of Paris by Pierre Dominique, 1932

Karambolage (a French-German television series) Youtube, 2020 (in French)

Germany's keeping Alsace-Lorraine would have infinitely more serious consequences than payment of huge the huge reparations, which the coins represent.

Le Monde illustré

"Seeking funds for the wounded in the streets of Paris by battalions of the national guard"  

     (Notice the military parade in the background.)

It culminates in besieging Paris:

(September 19, 1870 - January 28, 1871)

 Zoom

"The City of Paris and its Environs, Showing the French fortifications and the Prussian Lines of Investment, 1871"

• Hunger and cold (the winter of 1870-1871 is one of the coldest of the century)

Musée Carnavalet

The French word "queue" (tail) enters English when British journalists use it to describe the poor waiting in line for supplies. 

Killing of an Elephant, anonymous engraving, 1870 / zoom

The wealthy patronize the black market and eat zoo animals. A society woman hosts a dinner for 22 guests who feast on antelope, ham and turkey.

-- Georges Valance, Thiers

Servants know of the event, and news of that and similar occasions add to popular fury.

• Bombardments begin on January 5, and on the day before the armistice are even more intense:

Zoom

"The war of invasion, 1870-1871"

Le Monde illustré, January 28,1871 / zoom

"Left-bank inhabitants install themselves in their cellars."

# # #

Aggravating a situation that is already explosive, the conservative government...

• Denies that Metz capitulates without fighting (on October 28) and publishes optimistic bulletins that no one believes.

-- This statement and and the next to from Memories of a Revolutionary, from June 1848 to the Commune, by Gustave Lefrançais 1886-1887 (in French) 

• Forces immediate payment of customs from a farmer bringing cattle and supplies into town when the siege is imminent, refusing an I.O.U. 

• Forbids using the barriers that surround properties as firewood. (It does allow tearing down trees, but the wood is too green.)

• Fails to establish coherent price controls or rationing. In the particularly miserable 13th, there is no rationing until the last days of the siege.

-- Gérard Conte, Elements of History in the 13th Arrondissement, 1989 (in French)

The sources show many more such details.

# # #

The mortality of the poor quadruples. Louise Michel says that in poverty-stricken Montmartre, a fourth of newborns die.

-- Louise Michel

     Montmartre toward 1900 / zoom

Suffering strengthens the resistance of lower and lower-middle-classes, but the wealthy, who are relatively spared, as early as December plan a church to atone for sins of the left that they say have led to defeat :

Richard Nahem, Eye Prefer Paris

To be continued.  

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Next,
Hallucinations of an enclosed population

HALLUCINATIONS OF AN ENCLOSED POPULATION

"PARISIANS DREAMED OF A REGENERATED FRANCE

THAT WOULD POWERFULLY SOAR TOWARD THE LIGHT..."

AS DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

-- Lissagary

Carrier pigeons sent off by balloon were the only source of information.

 

 Gambetta Leaves by Balloon, October 1870 by Jacques Didier and Lucien Guiard, no date / zoom

The daily service began on November 4, but is too costly to have much effect.

A result of isolation: Parisian troops try to reinforce the last French army, not knowing that it has been defeated and that the town of Orleans has fallen.

     The Prussian Army Enters Orleans by Ludwig Braun in "History of the Franco-German war" by Col. Rousset, 1911 / zoom

The statue is of Joan of Arc. The capture of Orleans was her first victory, which makes its fall more bitter yet.

After heavy losses, three days and nights in sub-zero weather and wounded dying of the cold, the French learn that Orléans has been lost because the French general refused to attack when he had the advantage. He is Aurelle de Paladines: The next page returns to him.

-- A vivid account: La Commune by Pierre Dominique, 1970

That was the last French army. Its defeat means that freeing Paris from the outside has become impossible. 

Innumerable, obscure losses make Parisians more determined yet... 

Ma Commune de Paris

 An ambulance. Three wounded. Three dead.

The commander whose casualties are shown above writes,

"There is among the defenders of the Republic an enthusiasm, and audacity, that is altogether comparable to that of 1793. If [social] republicans were at the head of this movement, we could proclaim the Republic in Berlin in 10 days!" 

-- Gustave Flourens, head of the Belleville guard, December 6, 1870

 cited in Ma Commune de Paris

They look back to the Revolution...

• When "barefoot workers stopped a peddler's wheelbarrow offering shoes for sale, clubbed together and bought fifteen pairs of shoes for our soldiers." 

-- Victor Hugo, Ninety-three

• And ultra-motivated volunteers without uniforms, experience or strategy simply rushed forward. Austrian conscripts who had been enrolled by force and were controlled by fighting in lines, turned and ran. 

    -- Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution

         The Battle of Jemappes, November 6, 1792 by Raymond Desvarreux-Larpenteur, 1913 / zoom

 It is still remembered;

"Hero of the Battle of Jemmapes in 1792," street sign in the 13th district

• So now they believed that 500,000 Parisians, armed, trained and ardently motivated, would overwhelm the 200,000 Prussians, who were unfree and forced to fight.

But:

• German soldiers too have a historic reason for fighting: Please scroll down.

• The Prussian proximity makes surprise impossible, due to spies and noise: Parisians "... are so glad to fight that they let us know an hour in advance."

-- Bismark cited by Pierre Dominique

• How would masses of troops get through the narrow city gates? During the battle of Buzenval — described below  — one-third of the troops are stuck behind them.

• Should the Parisians succeed in breaking the encirclement, what then? Can they force the Prussians to leave France, helped by guerrillas alone?

• How find supplies in an area that Prussian requisitions have already ravaged?

• Do they really want to camp out in the terrible cold? 

-- All remarks in Tombs (Bismarck quote excepted)

# # #

The Prussiens are so sure of victory that they proclaim their Empire even before the French accept the armistice:*

*Proclamation of Empire, January 18, 1871; armistice, January 28

The Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles, January 28, 1871, by Anton von Werner (the court painter, who was present), 1885 / zoom

Proclaiming the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors, 

which is an ode to Louis XIV and his wars,

 was revenge for French deliberately devastating southwestern Germany 

(in 1672 and 1688-1689)

Louis XIV Crosses the Rhine in the Presence of his Enemies, Hall of Mirrors, © Coproduction RMN – EPV, permission to reproduce awaited /zoom

A version of the work lost during World War II included this painting.

Destruction by the French armies,

which went far beyond the usual practice of unpaid troops 

living off the land, 

began the cycle of vengeance between Germany and France:

For Louis's propaganda and a German schoolbook,

please click.

# # #

Instead of explaining an offensive's practical realities, the government chooses an attack that it knows suicidal.

(The second battle of Buzenval, January 19, 1870)

Remarks made at the council of war:

• Clément-Thomas, whom we have already introduced and who will soon become Commander of the Guard, speaks "of hot heads that need cooling off." 

-- Dominique, 253

• Another general: "These clowns want their heads blown off. All right." 

  -- Tombs, Bivouac, 129

My Paris Commune cites similar sources.

The Battle of Buzenval,  anonymous print of the time / zoom

 

The attack aims at Versailles, the Prussian headquarters "defended by a heavy band of trenches, fortifications, obstacles and guns."

"As those who planned it knew well, the enterprise was morally dubious: it had virtually no chance of success. But it would show the National Guard [the militia, which until then had been kept out of the fighting] and the left that there was no panacea."  

-- Tombs, pp.128-9. 

• Casualties: 600 Prussians; 4000 French, including at least 1400 neighborhood militia.

• Prussians destroy the town of Saint-Cloud and château of Meudon in reprisal.

• The métro station "Buzenval" in blue-collar eastern Paris was opened in 1933. The name shows the intensity with which the population recalled the battle, even after the infinitely bloodier struggles of World War I.

To avoid signing the capitulation, the Commander of Paris resigns:

Trochu and troops at Bastille, illustration in Claretie

"General Trochu ... knew that with the army eliminated ... defending Paris was a 'heroic folly.'

I don't think anyone could have saved Paris in 1871 or have won that war. Trochu himself did not believe that piercing the siege was possible and avoided pursuing sorties that would add to the casualties. So the impression of indecision. And as no relieving army came even close to the Prussian rear, he became the scapegoat for an impossible situation."

-- Marc Ambrose-Rendu, 
military historian, personal communication 

His replacement is General Joseph Vinoy, who had helped suppress resistance to the Emperor's coup d'état:

(Armistice signed on January 28)

Parisians believe that they have been betrayed.

# # # 

Twelve years after the battle of Buzenval

 an homage to its combattants was built

on the way to the battlefield,

at the roundabout of Courbevoie at La Defense,

now multinationals' headquarters:

 Statue, Louis-Ernest Barrias ; photo (cut), Bernard Cerquiglini / zoom 

The pigeon on the goddess's head shows the statue's size.  

 

"The city of Paris wears the greatcoat of the National guard, her head that a wall encircles looking toward the invader as she leans on a cannon. Her face is drawn, somber, menacing. At her feet a wounded guard tries to load his gun for the last time." 

-- Official description

 No important member of the government 

attended the inauguration,

probably because many survivors of the battle 

had gone on to fight for La Commune. 

Cries for the amnesty of deported Communards

 interrupted the speeches.

-- My Paris Commune 

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Next,
Treason?