Parisians will pay dearly for their great dream of social democracy ; in blood, in their flesh, but also economically, socially, politically and administratively.
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On May 28, 1871, the epic of the Paris Commune ended in the last bloody battles of Père Lachaise. The Versailles repression has no limit. Without counting the deaths during the Prussian siege, the fighters killed on the barricades, the number of shot during the bloody week, and after, which would have been of the order of 20 to 30,000, without any form of trial or after an expeditious conviction. by a victorious tribunal of war. 36,000 Communards were taken prisoner, 4,500 were deported to New Caledonia according to the special law of March 23, 1872. 6,000 people escaped repression and went into exile: 3,000 in Great Britain, 1,500 in Belgium, 1,000 in Switzerland and 500 in the United States. In short, between 1872 and 1870, the capital lost 180,000 inhabitants. It will never again be the epicenter of revolutions as in 1789, 1830, 1848. All the more so as the nascent proletariat, at the end of the XIXe and at the beginning of the XXe will settle in the inner suburbs, the “ little crown “Which will become the” red belt “. Little by little, the sociology of Paris will change, becoming more and more gentrified.
The fights, the bombardments of the Versaillais and the fires started by the Communards caused significant damage. The rebuilders will take the opportunity to modernize the capital. The Palais d’Orsay was rebuilt as a station and the former Ministry of Finance became the Continental Palace.
Architectural and administrative punishments
On May 16, 1871, the Communards decided to bring down the Vendôme column dedicated to the glory of the two Napoléons. The Versaillais accuse the painter of Ornans, Gustave Courbet, of being responsible for it when he was not even present during the vote of the direction of the Municipality on this destruction. He must therefore finance this reconstruction estimated at 323,000 francs out of his own funds. But he will only pay 12,000, dying in exile in Switzerland in 1877.
But at the symbolic level, there is worse: the construction of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre known as “ national wish »On the very spot where the Parisians had hidden a hundred cannons so that they could escape the Prussians. The parliament passed a law on July 24, 1873 to begin its construction in order to atone for the crimes of the Communards. During the laying of the first stone, during the official speech, Baron Hubert Rohault de Fleury (1828-1910), a small animal painter, reactionary, clerical and monarchist speaks of the Communards as “ drunken fanatics hostile to any religious idea “. The reconstruction will cost 46 million francs and will not be completed until 1923. At the start of the works, Communard prisoners will serve as diggers.
The status of the capital will also undergo changes. The single municipality was abolished in October 1795. With the law of February 17, 1800, Paris came under prefectural supervision. It is jointly managed by the Prefect of the Seine and the Prefect of Police. While in 1859, all the municipalities in France were led by mayors elected by their municipal councils, themselves elected by male citizens, Paris remained under the tutelage of power. The mayors of the 12 then 20 arrondissements are appointed by the two prefects.
The Commune will restore municipal democracy by a decree of September 7, 1870, only three days after the proclamation of the Republic on the ruins of the vanquished Empire. On March 26, 1871, a Commune of 90 members was elected by all Parisians, men and women. The law of April 14, 1871 reconstituted the Paris City Council with 80 members. As soon as they won, the Versaillais abolished the constitutional work of the Commune. Paris returns to its status quo ante until the law of December 31, 1975 and the election by universal suffrage of the mayor of Paris in the municipal elections of March 25, 1977 (Jacques Chirac). The ghosts of the Communards therefore hovered over the capital for more than a century. Proof that the fear was great and long among the wealthy.
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