Key Facts
- Duration
- 7 days (21–28 May 1871)
- Communard combatants killed
- 10,000–15,000
- Prisoners taken
- 43,522
- Tried and convicted
- 13,500 of 15,000 tried
- Hostages executed by Communards
- ~100
- Sentences of death handed down
- 95
Strategic Narrative Overview
Between 8 and 20 May 1871, Versailles forces retook territory surrounding Paris and began artillery bombardment. On 21 May, French Army troops entered the city through an unguarded gate and systematically advanced street by street. Communards erected barricades and executed roughly one hundred hostages, including Archbishop Georges Darboy. They also set fire to prominent Paris landmarks, including the Tuileries Palace and the Hôtel de Ville. Combat spread across arrondissements until the final Communard stronghold, Père Lachaise cemetery, fell on 28 May.
01 / The Origins
After France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the Treaty of Frankfurt, the Thiers government attempted on 18 March 1871 to remove National Guard cannons from Montmartre. The confrontation resulted in the execution of two French generals by the Guard, prompting Thiers and Marshal MacMahon to withdraw to Versailles. The radical Paris National Guard then established the Paris Commune, a revolutionary municipal government, setting the stage for armed conflict with the Versailles authorities.
03 / The Outcome
The last Communard soldiers surrendered on 28 May 1871, ending the Paris Commune entirely. Of 43,522 prisoners taken, 15,000 were tried and 13,500 convicted; 95 were sentenced to death and 1,169 deported, mostly to New Caledonia. Commune leaders and supporters fled to England, Belgium, and Switzerland. A general amnesty in 1880 allowed all prisoners and exiles to return to France, and some resumed political careers.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Patrice de MacMahon, Adolphe Thiers.
Side B
1 belligerent
Louis Charles Delescluze.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.