The Commune of Paris finds its source in a republican impulse referring to the First Republic and the revolutionary government of the Commune of Paris (1792), as well as to the popular insurrection of June 1848 under the Second Republic and which had been repressed in a bloody way by the government established by the Revolution of February 1848. It is moreover since this date that the red flag rallies the insurrectionists and barricaders (symbolizing the blood of the working people, the tricolor flag being seen as synonymous with repression, the red flag was originally, under the Revolution, the flag symbolizing martial law, the people took over this symbol to make fun of monarchs and soldiers).
From 1804 to 1871, France having lived mainly under monarchical or imperial regimes (First Empire, Restoration, July Monarchy, Second Empire), the republican regime had only worked for a very few years. In July 1870, Napoleon III began a war against Prussia which, ill-prepared, quickly led him to defeat. The Third Republic was proclaimed on September 4, 1870, but the war continued. Paris was besieged and experienced a severe famine during the winter of 1870-71. Jules Favre, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of National Defense, signs an armistice with Bismarck. This provides, in addition to the end of hostilities for a renewable period of fifteen days, the convocation of a National Assembly, responsible for deciding on the continuation of war or peace. The February 8 elections send a high proportion of monarchists to the National Assembly. All elected officials in Paris are Republicans, often extremists. The government of the Republic meets first in Bordeaux, then in Versailles, so as not to fall under the Parisian revolts as it almost happened during the Government of National Defense (October 31 in particular).
Since February 17, the government of the Republic has been headed by Adolphe Thiers "head of the executive power"; he seeks to conclude a peace treaty with Prussia. The Parisians, who endured a very harsh siege, want to protect Paris from the Prussians and open a new political and social era[1]. They refuse to be disarmed. It was therefore the showdown between the royalists, upper middle class and provincial conservatives, all in favor of a rapid peace with Germany, withdrawn to Versailles, and the Parisian population (essentially that of the eastern districts of Paris subject to the very harsh wage and social conditions of the time and the main victim of the famine caused by the siege of Paris by the Germans).
In Paris, the social mix in the districts, the rule since the Middle Ages, almost disappeared with the urban transformations of the Second Empire. The western districts (7th, 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements) concentrate the richest Parisians (with their servants). The central neighborhoods still retain wealthy people. But the working classes were grouped together in the East (11th, 12th, 13th, 10th, 18th, 19th and 20th arrondissements). The workers are very numerous:442,000 out of 1.8 million inhabitants according to the 1866 census. There are also a large number of craftsmen (nearly 70,000, most working alone or with a single worker) and very small tradesmen whose social situation is fairly close to that of workers. These popular classes began to organize themselves. The right to strike, which was granted in 1864, was widely used in the last years of the Second Empire. On the occasion of the legislative elections of February 1864, workers published the manifesto of the Sixty, which demanded freedom of work, access to credit and solidarity. Since September 1864, there has been a Workers' International, which has representatives in Paris (in 1868, the imperial government dissolved the French section of the International, whose members took part in republican demonstrations). The freedom of the press law of 1868 allowed the public emergence of anti-capitalist economic demands:the "nationalization" of banks, insurance companies, mines, railways (Malon and Varlin's program for the legislative elections of 1869)... The Blanquists, who preach the insurrection, manifest themselves more and more.
It is therefore not surprising that the Parisian working classes fear that they will once again be cheated of the benefits of “their” revolution of September 1870 (overthrow of the Second Empire). Already, after the Parisian revolutionary days of July 1830 and after that of February 1848, and the elections of May 1848, the wealthy classes had confiscated political power for their benefit, by installing the July Monarchy and the Second Empire. In 1871, the Parisians were suspicious of the assembly newly elected in February 1871, where two-thirds of the deputies were monarchists of various tendencies (they were campaigning for the restoration of the monarchy!) or Bonapartists. The assembly, suspicious of popular Paris always ready to ignite, decided, on March 10, to sit in Versailles (under German control and in the city which is the symbol of absolute monarchy!). The assembly leads a social policy that will put some of the Parisians in difficulty. On March 10, it decides to abolish the moratorium on trade bills, rents and debts, now three terms become payable. Many workers, craftsmen and traders see their means of living threatened (it is estimated that nearly 150,000 people are thus threatened with bankruptcy or legal proceedings). In addition, the assembly suppresses the daily pay of 1.50 francs for soldiers of the National Guard, thus depriving part of the poor classes of Paris of a source of income. This policy reminds the oldest Parisians of the policy pursued in the spring of 1848 by the Assembly, which was dominated by the Party of Order, one of whose leaders was Thiers. When the government decides to disarm the Parisians, they feel directly threatened. It is a question of removing from the Parisians the 227 guns stored in Belleville and Montmartre. The Parisians consider these cannons as their property. They see themselves defenseless against possible attacks by government troops (as in June 1848). However, the Parisians have nearly 500,000 guns.