POLITICAL REASONS FOR WAVING THE FLAG, AND THEIR RESULTS FOR FRANCE

THE FRENCH FAR RIGHT WANTS TO BRAKE LIBERAL OPPOSITION AND BISMARCK WANTS TO UNITE THE GERMAN STATES AROUND PRUSSIA

"To Berlin!" cry Parisians:

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

# # #

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 republicans who want social change 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 by republican conservatives in 1830 and their 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 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 and cold (it is one of the coldest winters of the century)

Musée Carnavalet

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

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

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 barriers that surround properties for firewood, despite the cold. (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 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. 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