Gardes nationaux et curieux sur la colonne Vendôme renversée le 16 mai 1871 - Photo de Bruno Braquehais.
The National Guard
The National Guard is an old institution, born in July 1789, which has survived all the regimes of the 19th century. Recruited from among the most heavily taxed citizens, it was often seen as the armed tool of Parisian notables. Reduced to 28,000 men at the end of the Second Empire, it found new life with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
After the proclamation of the Third Republic and the start of the siege of Paris in September 1870, its strength was increased to 300,000 men and it was opened up to the working classes. Needy guards, who were very numerous at a time of unemployment, were paid 30 sous a day.
In 1871, the Paris National Guard was made up of twenty legions, one for each arrondissement, with 234 battalions. A decree of 6 September 1870 organised the election of officers and non-commissioned officers by the National Guards. This method of appointment led to the election of active militants from clubs, trade union chambers and sections of the International. In this way, the National Guard became a popular and republican militia, a real people's army.
After the armistice was signed on 28 January 1871, the National Guard asserted itself as a patriotic and republican force, hostile to the capitulation and determined to defend the Republic against the monarchist majority in the Assembly elected on 8 February 1871.
On 15 February 1871, delegates from the National Guard legions met in the Tivoli-Vauxhall, near the present-day Place de la République, to coordinate the action of the 20 district legions. They elected a Central Committee of the National Guard Federation, hence the name "Fédérés" for the National Guards.
On 18 March 1871, the army, sent by Adolphe Thiers, tried to seize the National Guard cannons stored in Montmartre and Belleville. The population opposed the attempt and fraternised with the soldiers. Thiers fled to Versailles. That same evening, the Central Committee of the National Guard took up residence at the Hôtel de Ville and exercised de facto power. The next day, it called the Parisian electorate to elect a communal assembly. The elections took place on 26 March. The Commune was proclaimed on 28 March on the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the presence of an enthusiastic crowd. The Central Committee then placed its powers in the hands of the Commune.
Between its seizure of power on 18 March and the proclamation of the Commune on 28, the Central Committee of the National Guard took emergency measures: reactivation of public services, lifting of the state of siege, freedom of the press, release of political prisoners, suspension of the sale of objects deposited at the Mont-de-Piété, reinstatement of National Guard pay, moratorium on rents and repayments, etc.
After the failure of the last sorties in April and the abandonment of the forts of Issy and Vanves at the beginning of May, the Fédérés prepared for an assault by the Versailles troops. On 21 May, Versailles' troops entered Paris from the west. During Bloody Week (21-28 May 1871), the Fédérés, reduced to a few thousand, defended themselves foot by foot in a Paris bristling with barricades. The final battles took place in eastern Paris, at Père-Lachaise and Belleville.
After the Commune was crushed, the Assembly voted on 25 August 1871 to disband the National Guard.
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