The Siege of Paris 1870-71

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war and the social unrest that followed, as the French capital was cut off from the rest of the country and food was scarce. When the French government surrendered Paris to the Prussians, power gravitated to the National Guard in the city and to radical socialists, and a Commune established in March 1871 with the red flag replacing the trilcoleur. The French government sent in the army and, after bloody fighting, the Communards were defeated by the end of May 1871. The image above is from an engraving of the fire in the Tuileries Palace, May 23, 1871 With Karine Varley Lecturer in French and European History at the University of Strathclyde Robert Gildea Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford And Julia Nicholls Lecturer in French and European Studies at King’s College London Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.0	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.6	There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our
0:11.0	programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:14.9	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:17.1	Hello, in September 1870, the Prussian Army besieged Paris.
0:21.2	The French government surrendered in March and Parisians declared their own government,
0:25.3	the commune.
0:26.3	Only for the French army to take over the siege and at the end of May, kill the commune
0:30.2	ours in their thousands.
0:32.1	It was a bloody, traumatic nine months for the French capital and for France.
0:36.5	Karl Marx praised the commune ours as the first proletarian revolutionaries assigned
0:41.0	in what might be.
0:42.6	Others saw them as a warning of what must never be.
0:45.7	Meanwhile, boyd by victory, Bismarck declared German unification at Versailles and annexed
0:50.2	Alsace Lorraine for the new German Empire, prompting French longing for revenge on satisfied
0:55.2	until 1918.
0:56.9	With me to discuss the siege of Paris, are Carine Valle, Lecturer in French and European
1:01.8	history at the University of Strathclyde, Julian Nichols, Lecturer in French and European
1:06.2	studies at King's College London and Robert Guilde, Professor of Modern History at the University
1:11.2	of Oxford, Robert Guilde, why were Prussians and other German forces fighting for France
1:15.6	in 1870?
	...

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