A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

732 Ch. 1 8 • The Dominant Powers in the Age of Liberalism

Jules Favre, peace negotiator, and Adolphe Thiers, provisional head of the govern­

ment, accede to the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, France’s right arm. They drag the

weeping female image of France away from the “social republic.”

By signing the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871), France lost Alsace and

some of Lorraine to the new German Empire. Prussian troops would occupy

Paris and retain garrisons in eastern France until a large indemnity had been

paid off. The National Assembly’s choice of Versailles, the home of the Bour­

bon monarchs, as the temporary capital stirred popular anger and suspicion.

Parisians, who had held out against the Prussians for four months, resented

the ease with which the provinces had seemed to capitulate. Wealthy Pari­

sians who had left Paris at the beginning of the siege returned from the

safety of the countryside. Landlords insisted that back rents be paid immedi­

ately, angering renters, many of whom were unemployed workers who had

managed to hang on during the siege.

The Paris Commune

Early in the morning on March 18, 1871, Thiers sent a small detachment

of troops to the butte of Montmartre in Paris to seize cannon that had

belonged to the National Guard, many of whose members were socialists,

during the siege. Women at the market alerted the neighborhood; a crowd

surrounded the detachment and put two generals up against the wall and

shot them. Thiers ordered his troops to surround the capital. A second

siege of Paris began, this one a civil war.

During the Prussian siege, socialists had placed bright red posters on the

walls of the capital calling for the establishment of the “Paris Commune” to