Editing Paris Commune (section)

{{Short description|Revolutionary city council of Paris of 1871}}
{{For|the Paris Commune during the French Revolution|Paris Commune (1789–1795)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Paris Commune
| partof            = the aftermath of the [[Siege of Paris (1870–1871)|siege of Paris]] in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]
| image             = Barricade18March1871.jpg
| caption           = A barricade thrown up by [[Communard]] [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] on 18 March 1871.
| date              = 18 March – 28 May 1871<br/>({{Age in months, weeks and days|month1=3|month2=5|day1=18|day2=28}})
| place             = Paris, France
| result            = Revolt suppressed
* Disbanding of the second National Guard by the French government
| combatant1        = {{Flagicon|France|1794}} [[French Third Republic|French Republic]]
* [[French Army]]
| combatant2        = {{Flagicon image|Socialist red flag.svg}} [[Communards]]<br/>[[National Guard (France)|National Guard]]
| commander1        = {{Nowrap|{{Flagicon|France|1794}} [[Patrice de MacMahon]]}}
| commander2        = {{Plainlist}}
* {{Flagicon image|Socialist red flag.svg}} [[Louis Charles Delescluze|Louis C. Delescluze]]{{KIA}}
* {{Nowrap|{{Flagicon image|Socialist red flag.svg}} [[Jarosław Dąbrowski]]{{KIA}}}}
{{Endplainlist}}
| strength1         = 170,000<ref>{{Cite web |title=Les aspects militaires de la Commune par le colonel Rol-Tanguy |trans-title=The military aspects of the Commune by Colonel Rol-Tanguy |url=http://www.commune1871.org/bulletins/base/bulletin%2018/Textes/commune02.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304030335/http://www.commune1871.org/bulletins/base/bulletin%2018/Textes/commune02.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=16 September 2014 |publisher=Association des Amies et Amis de la Commune de Paris 1871 |language=fr}}</ref>
| strength2         = 25,000–50,000{{Sfn|Milza|2009a|p=319}}
| casualties1       = 877 killed, 6,454 wounded, and 183 missing<ref name="Versailles1875"/>
| casualties2       = 6,667 confirmed killed and buried;<ref name="RTombs">Tombs, Robert, "How Bloody was la Semaine sanglante of 1871? A Revision". ''[[The Historical Journal]]'', September 2012, vol. 55, issue 03, pp. 619–704.</ref> unconfirmed estimates from 10 to 15,000<ref name="Audin, Michele 1871">{{Cite book |last=Audin |first=Michele |title=La Semaine Sanglante, Mai 1871, Legendes et Conmptes |language=fr |publisher=Libertalia |date=2021}}</ref>{{Sfn|Rougerie|2014|page=118}} to as high as 20,000 dead.{{Sfn|Lissagaray|2000|p=383}} 43,000 were taken prisoner, and 6,500 to 7,500 self-exiled abroad.{{Sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=431–432}}
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Paris Commune}}
}}

The '''Paris Commune''' ({{Langx | fr | Commune de Paris}}, {{IPA|fr|kɔ.myn də pa.ʁi|pron}}) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in [[Paris]] on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870–71, the French [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]] had defended Paris, and [[working-class]] radicalism grew among its soldiers. Following the establishment of the [[French Third Republic]] in September 1870 (under French chief-executive [[Adolphe Thiers]] from February 1871) and the complete defeat of the [[French Army]] by the Germans by March 1871, soldiers of the National Guard seized control of the city on 18 March. The Communards killed two French Army generals and refused to accept the authority of the Third Republic; instead, the radicals set about establishing their own independent government.

The Commune governed Paris for two months, promoting policies that tended toward a [[Progressivism|progressive]], [[anti-clericalism | anti-religious]] system, which was an eclectic mix of many 19th-century schools of thought. These policies included the [[separation of church and state]], [[Self-governance|self-policing]], the remission of rent, the abolition of [[child labor]], and the [[workers' self-management|right of employees to take over an enterprise]] deserted by its owner. The Commune closed all [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] churches and schools in Paris. [[Feminist]], [[communist]], old-style [[social democracy]] (a mix of reformism and revolutionism), and [[anarchist]]/[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhonist]] currents, among other socialist types, played important roles in the Commune.

The various [[Communards]] had little more than two months to achieve their respective goals before the national French Army suppressed the Commune during the {{lang|fr|[[semaine sanglante]]}} ("bloody week") beginning on 21 May 1871. The national forces still loyal to the Third Republic government either killed in battle or executed an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Communards, though one unconfirmed estimate from 1876 put the toll as high as 20,000.<ref name="Audin, Michele 1871" /> In its final days, the Commune executed the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris|Archbishop of Paris]], [[Georges Darboy]], and about one hundred hostages, mostly [[Gendarmerie (France) | gendarmes]] and priests.

National army forces took 43,522 Communards as prisoners, including [[Women in the Paris Commune|1,054 women]]. More than half of the prisoners had not fought, and were released immediately.  The Third Republic tried around 15,000 in court, 13,500 of whom were found guilty, 95 were sentenced to death, 251 to forced labor, and 1,169 to deportation (mostly to [[Penal colony of New Caledonia | New Caledonia]]). Many other Commune supporters, including several of the leaders, fled abroad, mostly to England, Belgium or Switzerland. All the surviving prisoners and exiles received pardons in 1880 and could return home, where some resumed political careers.{{Sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=431–432}}

Debates over the policies and result of the Commune had significant influence on the ideas of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]], who described the régime in Paris as the first example of the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]]. Engels wrote: "Of late, the Social-Democratic philistine has once more been filled with wholesome terror at the words: ''Dictatorship of the Proletariat''. Well and good, gentlemen, do you want to know what this dictatorship looks like? Look at the Paris Commune. That was the Dictatorship of the Proletariat."{{Sfn|Rougerie|2004|pp=264–270|ps=, citing remarks by Frederick Engels, London, on the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune, 18 March 1891.}}