Paris Commune

I. Louis Napoleon--(Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte) the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, came to power after the Revolution of 1848 was put down.



A. Bonapartist movement--after the second defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, all members of the Bonapartist “dynasty” (the members of his family that he had designated as in his line of succession) were exiled from France--although many people in the country held out hope that members of the family would someday return and lead France back to “greatness.”



1. Swiss Exile--Louis Napoleon was raised largely in Switzerland after his uncle’s defeat; in the early 1830s he attempted to lead a coup d’etat to overthrow Louis Phillipe. That attempt ended in failure, but Napoleon escaped back to Switzerland. France demanded that Louis Napoleon be handed over to authorities in France, but the Swiss declined; to prevent hostilities from breaking out between the two countries, Louis Napoleon moved his exile to the United States.

2. Second Coup d’Etat--when Louis Napoleon left the US, he attempted a second coup. This time, in addition to being defeated, he was also captured and place in jail. With the help of Bonapartist, he escaped jail and France, and went into exile in England.



B. 1848 Revolution

1. Return to France--with Louis Phillipe abdicating and fleeing the country, Louis Napoleon returned to France and largely on the strength of the name Napoleon was selected to the National Assembly, and in the election that followed was elected president of the Second Republic.

2. Liberal Political Agenda--Louis Napoleon was elected partly because of his famous name, partly because the monarchists saw him as the “least worst” candidate in the field, and partly because he had spouted platitudes about both modernizing the French economy (placating the bourgeois), as well as temporizing the excesses of capitalism (thus appealing to the workers).

3. Monarchist opposition--because he was seen as the least likely threat to monarchist ambitions to return a Bourbon to the French throne, they thought nothing of is request to amend the new French constitution, to allow him to run for a second term as president--that would interfere with plans to replace him with a king. In response, Louis Napoleon appealed to the dispossessed workers, who were denied the right to vote because of a three-year residency requirement. After also finding allies in the French army, Napoleon stages yet another coup, and seized power from the National Assembly. This seizure was later “authorized” by a referendum by French voters.

C. Second French Empire

1. Declaration--the Second Empire was not declared until December 2, 1852--a year after Louis Napoleon seized power. The first half of the second Napoleon regime was characterized by the heavy hand Napoleon used against his political opponents--censorship of the press, restrictions on parliamentary debate and political power, and manipulation of elections.

2. Liberalization--beginning in 1861, Louis Napoleon began loosening some of these political restrictions, as well as implementing some other progressive programs.



a) Implementation of the Haussmann plan--slum clearance in Paris, which consisted of the removal of many working families to the industrial suburbs of Paris, where they would be closer to the factories they worked in. this allowed the creation of the famous boulevard system that characterizes Paris to this day. It also limited the political power of workers in revolutionary circumstances, since it removed them from the city, and made barricades more difficult to construct and hold during disturbances.





b) Capitalist development--some of Louis Napoleon’s primary backers were followers of an early socialist by the name of Saint-Simonions; these people created one of the early investment banks, the Credit Mobiler, which sold stock to the French public and then used that money to finance industrial enterprises in the country.

D. Foreign adventurism--military conquest and the extension of the French empire had fueled his uncle’s success, and Louis Napoleon was determined to follow that course as well.



1. Algeria--already a French colony (and it would remain so until the early 1960s), Louis Napoleon actually limited French settlement in the country to the coastal area. His reform of land tenure in the country, however, impoverished much of the population. Napoleon abolished tribal holding of land in favor of individual ownership; this concentrated land holding among the well to do, at the expense of the poor.

2. Crimean War--France joined Great Britain in opposing Russian attempts to exercise greater influence over the Ottoman Empire. This ended the long animosity between England and France, but also made France something of a junior partner to Great Britain.



3. East Asia--again joined Great Britain in the Second Opium War, and the French gained greater influence in Indochina (present day Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand); but the same effort failed spectacularly in the Korean peninsula.

4. Papal States--attempted to support both the primacy of the Pope (to appease conservative French Roman Catholics), while also supporting Italian nationalists (who worked in opposition of the Pope). This confused policy also worked to undermine France’s position on the Continent, as Prussia at this time was working to consolidate most of the German-speaking states into one state, under its suzerainty.

5. American Civil War--Napoleon attempted to position France on the side of the Confederacy, but was unable to provide assistance (or even political recognition) without the agreement from Great Britain.



6. Mexico--helped overthrow the Mexican government, and placed an Austrian noble, Maximilian, on the throne there. Napoleon was unable to stop the Mexican resistance, under Benito Juarez, from defeating the forces under Maximilian, and he was defeated and executed in 1867.

7. Austro-Prussian War (1866)--France, occupied by events in Mexico, failed to either come to the aid of Austria, or gain concessions from Prussia to remain neutral in this conflict until it was over. The new threat this posed made conflict with Prussia more likely.



8. Franco-Prussian War (1870)--France was crushed, Louis Napoleon captured. National Guard forces in Paris declared the Third Republic.

II. Paris Commune

A. Refusal to surrender--as Prussian forces, after defeating the French army at Sedan, moved toward Paris, the middle and upper classes in the city fled; this left the working class, and the working-class portion of the National Guard, in control of much of the city.

1. Four-month siege--beginning in September of 1870 and continuing until early January 1871, the city of Paris remained under siege, with much of the population living on what they could capture in the city (rats, etc.)

2. Surrender by the Government of National Reconciliation--the Prussians insisted on a condition that they be allowed to parade in Paris, which the people there vehemently opposed; they took most of the cannon and other weapons, and retreated to Montmarte.

3. Thiers flees to Versailles--the head of the Government of National Reconciliation fled to Versailles, and from there directed the national government forces against the Communards.



B. Socialist Government in Paris--the commune became the first socialist government



1. Separation of Church and State

2. Granting of pensions to unmarried companions and children of National Guards killed on active service

3. Return of tools and property worth up to 20 francs from pawnshops

4. Right of employees to take over enterprises abandoned by their owners (with compensation to be paid to absent owners)



C. Commune crushed--the Communards and National Guard proved to be no match for the combined forces of the regular French army and the Prussian army. Commune forces were defeated, and in the following week between 20,000 and 30,000 suspected Communards and supporters were murdered by the Versailles government.