1871: Generals Lecomte and Thomas, at the birth of the Paris Commune

ExecutedToday.com ^ | March 18, 2020 | Headsman

[CheshireTheCat]

On this date in 1871, the Paris Commune was born, with the execution of Generals Lecomte and Thomas.

Paris had come to the brink of revolution by dint of the country’s humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After a monthslong Prussian siege of the capital, Paris had become thoroughly radicalized and stood at tense loggerheads with the newly elected conservative national government of Adolphe Thiers. A militant National Guard swelled by the city’s large proletariat had defended Paris during its late privations, only to see a government of national humiliation accept punishing peace terms from Bismarck and submit to a Prussian victory parade on the Champs d’Elysees.

Now, it blanched at the national government’s intention to reassert its own long-absent authority in Paris.

These sovereigns’ rivalries chanced to focus in the critical moment upon 400 bronze cannon in Paris, which the National Guard had used in the city’s defense and deployed to working-class neighborhoods with the intention of keeping them out of the government’s hands....

[C210N]

Also, early in 1871, was the ‘Act of 1871’, signed by Grant in late February, where the Republic of the United states for America fell, with a corporate overlay known as the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.

[Chewbarkah]

The stories of the entire roster of March 18 killins’ were fascinating! Thanks for your faithful posting of the deaths de jour.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

As far as I can tell, both sides of the 1871 French civil troubles were in the wrong. That’s French politics for you.

I also like that you post these items. I often learn a bit of history I hadn’t known, or find myself refreshing my memory about things I might have read about long ago.

[A strike]

That is quite illuminating,
thx