Abstract
IN July 1870 War Broke Out Between France and Prussia, concluding with the defeat and capture of Louis Bonaparte, the authoritarian leader of France, in September. In response, a new republic was formed, a Government of National Defense to continue the resistance against Prussia. Paris was besieged by the Prussian army and in early 1871 a new National Assembly was created, based in Versailles, to negotiate peace. One provision of the peace treaty was the disarmament of the National Guard, the Parisian militia. Moves to do this provoked the National Guard to repudiate the new French government in Versailles and form its own government in Paris: the Paris Commune of 1871. It only lasted from March until May before being suppressed by the government at Versailles, with the aid of the Prussians. Although it only had a brief existence, for Marx and Engels the Paris Commune was a landmark in the political struggle of the working class to forge a new order.
Keywords
National Guard General Council Governmental Power Universal Suffrage Authoritarian LeaderPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
- 1.David Fernbach, editor, The First International and After (New York: Random House, 1974), p. 185.Google Scholar
- August H. Nimtz, Jr., Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000), p. 210.Google Scholar
- 3.Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 243.Google Scholar
- 4.Hal Draper, The Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ from Marx to Lenin (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987), pp. 37–38.Google Scholar