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