World War: WHEN PARIS FELL TO THE GERMANS IN 1871

THE capture of Napoleon III at Sedan on Sept. 2,1870, ended the Second Empire, but not the Franco-Prussian War. Invested by the German Armies, cut off from the rest of France, without defenders at the front, Paris organized its own resistance under fiery, one-eyed Interior Minister Leon Gambetta. The city held out for four desperate months. Then Bismarck laid down his harsh peace terms to the provisional Government of Adolphe Thiers at Versailles. Radical Parisians, still armed for the siege and fearing a restoration of the monarchy, set up a revolutionary Commune on March 18, 1871. The city which had previously been bombarded by the Germans was again bombarded by the French under Marshal MacMahon. Venerated by Socialists as the first workers’ republic in history, the ill-fated Commune lasted until Thiers’ troops conquered the city on May 29. As unpopular with their fellow Frenchmen as so many fifth columnists are today, thousands of Communards were killed. Before peace was made, Bismarck had William I proclaimed German Emperor at Versailles.