IV.3.1.a. A MOST UNLIKELY REVOLUTION

MENU: 4.3.1.a. A most unlikely revolution 

REACTIONARIES THREATENED FROM THE LEFT PROVOKE A WAR, WHICH BRINGS THE LAST AND MOST TRAGIC OF THE 19TH-CENTURY INSURRECTIONS

("THE TERRIBLE YEAR", 1870-1871)

Internet / sourced not said

In brief

• A war of choice brings disaster

• Hallucinations of an enclosed population 

• Treason?

• Tensions rise

• Guards become a counter-power 

• Cannons the army neglects  

• Prussians parade but guards steal the show 

• The Assembly pours more oil on the fire

• The cannons on the hills 

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Next,
A war of choice brings disaster

A WAR OF CHOICE BRINGS DISASTER

TO STOP LIBERAL OPPOSITION, THE SECOND EMPIRE LAUNCHES INTO WAR* WITHOUT PREPARATION OR ALLIANCES  

(IN JULY 1870) 

* Bismarck wants it as well, to unite the German states around Prussia. 

"To Berlin!" cry Parisians:

The new Babylon

French defeats are immediate...

The Prussian Infantry Pushes back the French Cavalry, August 6, 1870, City Museum of Saint-Denis

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

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

...and within six weeks their army is lost and the Emperor 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

# # #

A republic is proclaimed immediately after the news arrives. 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 and radical republicans appears immediately:

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

• It does not hold elections, despite the vehement demand for them.

• Recalling the betrayal of 1830 and massacre June '48, within hours radicals ask for public meetings in each district to supervise mayors and collect requests.*

* "A Montmartre doctor jumps 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 to work with the government... and be 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 consequences than the payment of huge reparations, which the coins represent.

 Zoom

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

(Notice the military parade)

It culminates in the siege of 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

City Museum (Musée Carnavalet) 

The word "queue" enters the English language when British journalists use it to describe waiting for supplies during one of the coldest winters of the century. 

Killing of an Elephant, anonymous engraving, 1870 /  zoom

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

-- Georges Valance, Thiers

• It is one of the coldest winters of the century.

• 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."

Zoom

"Episode of the bombardment of Paris. The first shells fall near the Montparnasse cemetery" 

That cemetery, on the southern fringe, was next to a kind of no-man's land, as the unprepossessing buildings in the background suggest. Decades later it would be a place where artists and Russian revolutionaries settled, because it was even cheaper than Montmartre (shown in the picture below). 

As in earlier images of fighters and rebels, the publication substitutes people to whom its audience will relate for plebeians.

# # #

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.

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

• Forbids using barriers that surround properties for firewood, despite the cold. (It does allow tear down trees, but the wood is too green.)

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

• 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 authorities run canteens for the poorest but side with the privileged, as shown by refusing to let freezing people burn property barriers as firewood. 

The mortality of the poor quadruples. In poverty-stricken Montmartre, a fourth of newborns die.

-- Louise Michel

     Montmartre toward 1900 / zoom

Suffering strengthens the resistance of lower and lower-middle-class Parisians...

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

...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.

So not only do they accept the debacle,

but they use it to blame their opponents 

 while the fight goes on.

*     *     *

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

The only source of information was carrier pigeons sent off by balloon:

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

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

A result of isolation: Parisian troops try to connect with 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 Colonel Rousset (Tallendier), 1911

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. 

The innumerable, obscure losses...

My Paris Commune

 An ambulance. Three wounded. Three dead.

...make Parisians more determined yet.

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

 in cited in My Paris Commune (in French)

* They look back to the Revolution, when conscripts in aristocratic armies did flee from ultra-motivated French volunteers, and believe that 500,000 Parisians, armed, trained and ardently motivated, will overwhelm the 200,000 Prussians, who are unfree and forced to fight.

But:

• German soldiers too have a reason for fighting: Please read on.

• 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 to be asked /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 met already 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.

Departmental archives of Hauts-de-Seine, account (in French) / 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, 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 

*    *    *

Next,
Treason?