A New Spectre of Europe - A Surviving Paris Commune Timeline
- Thread starter Reydan
- Start date
Praise be ! The muses has struck the @Reydan with the gift of inspiration!
That "feel good" (I read AH to feel good, so this is a compliment. If I wanted to feel bad, I would just go and watch news or read OTL history) socialist timeline I read a long time ago is back, and I know it only now ? Anyway, I enjoyed this in its first iteration, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens this time. I feel like I should react to your decision to make a more streamlined timeline. I did not feel this was a problem the first time around. That said, I prefer when the timeline is focused on one country. With certain shame, I admit that I have a tendency to skip updates about other countries. So I'm more than fine with this. Especially when you are writing about a country with a political system that did not really exist in practice.
This timeline's premise is definitely interesting, but one big issue I have with it is the lack of notes telling what exactly is different from OTL. I had to look up the generals' names in Wikipedia to learn what the POD was, for example. I suppose the Prussians are having a harder time besieging Paris ITTL?
Nevertheless, this TL is definitely worth watching. Good luck!
Nevertheless, this TL is definitely worth watching. Good luck!
Apksmartgang
Banned
I'm aware of a little concept called cut-off date in which OTL people stop being born after a certain amount of time. Does this timeline use this or not when it comes to people born two or more decades after the POD (Point of Divergence)?
Not the author, but from what I can gather the generals in charge of defending Paris from the Prussians are killed. This leads to a power vacuum in the city, and the Commune is born several months ahead of schedule to fill it.
Now that you mention it, I remember that I actually managed to infer that from the text itself without looking it up. Then I proceeded to forget about it... My memory issues aside, I still think this should be explicitly part of author's notes. Despite what one would perhaps assume, I often read TL's from periods and events that I know little about, like in this case. For me, this part of the fun with AH. So I think that some notes concerning the differences would be nice. This is another part of the fun with AH. Comparing how much (or little) was changed for stuff to happen.
EDIT: Except the part with the commune happening sooner, that is something I did not guess. Which kind proves why you want to make it clear what is different from OTL.
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The pod, as far as it matters, is General Trochu's death. He was the head of the provisional government that was set up after the Empire was declared dead on September 4th and a 'republic' was proclaimed, even if part of said government had escaped the siege of Paris, famously using balloons, to organize the resistance from provinces, chiefly under Gambetta's leadership.
Then, there is the October 31st uprising. That one did happen IOTL, but failed ultimately as loyalist battalions of the national guards put it down.
ITTL, the death of Trochu creates a power vacuum that enables said uprising to instead succeed. Hence getting a Commune of Paris months ahead of schedule. And that's a pretty big development.
Then, in a further divergence, the offensive of Faidherbe somewhat succeed in relieving Paris. And now, revolutionary socialist delegates are heading straigth to one of France's biggest industrial basins in the North...
Then, there is the October 31st uprising. That one did happen IOTL, but failed ultimately as loyalist battalions of the national guards put it down.
ITTL, the death of Trochu creates a power vacuum that enables said uprising to instead succeed. Hence getting a Commune of Paris months ahead of schedule. And that's a pretty big development.
Then, in a further divergence, the offensive of Faidherbe somewhat succeed in relieving Paris. And now, revolutionary socialist delegates are heading straigth to one of France's biggest industrial basins in the North...
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That's the thing I'm most excited for - here's hoping this will set off a chain of events that leads to an united Red France, rather than a divided one like in the original TL.
Chapter Five - The Three Frances
Chapter Five - The Three Frances
"I will end this Republican menace inside Paris and without"
Francois Achille Bazaine, Letter to German High Command, February 1871
"Ultimately there are three Frances - the Republican one, the Parisian one, and the Bonapartist one - none of which have the power to represent all of France at the negotiating table"
Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor, to Kaiser Wilhelm I, 11th February 1871.
February in 1871 was cold and bitter. The ground was iron-hard and dusted with snow. Throughout the occupied regions, German rear-guard soldiers fought running battles with partisans who took to raiding supply wagons and burning depots. On the frontlines, they still held the upper hand, having turned away a Republican Army around Orleans, and another near Dijon, but on 14th February a surprise thrust by General Bourbaki's Army of the East had relieved the besieged border fortress of Belfort to much rejoicing.
Prussian High Command had so far ignored the fracturing of French politics. As far as they had been concerned there was still an enemy to overcome, and a war to win, and it mattered little who was directing the armies against them. Behind the scenes, however, the politicians of this newly minted Germany, still at this point more of an alliance of states than a true nation, were more concerned. The longer this conflict dragged on, the more they risked the other powers of Europe intervening. Indeed, Britain was already putting out tentative feelers for a peace conference. Either negotiations needed to be entered into or a decisive blow needed to be struck.
The problem was, it was unclear exactly where to direct either choice. Who was in charge? The Republican Government currently in Bordeaux? Blanqui and his Committee of Public Safety in Paris? Or the remnants of the old Bonapartist regime. Napoleon III was currently held in comfortable house arrest, but the surrendered commander of Metz, General Francois Bazaine, an ambitious Bonapartist, had approached both his former Emperor and Bismarck with an offer - release him and his army from captivity and transport them south, where they could topple the Republicans. Up until now German High Command had viewed this offer as nothing short of silly, a flight of fancy from a desperate man, but faced with a tenacious French resistance and a two-headed opposition in Bordeaux and Paris, some lobbied Bismarck to change his mind.
A plan was hatched for early March which would see a double-strike. One arm would see Bazaine and some 80,000 of his men, about half of the Metz force captured when the fortress fell, sent south across the lines to foment disorder. The hope was that Bazaine could either decapitate the Republican Government and negotiate full peace himself, or render the situation so confused the effective French opposition collapsed. The other strike was a full-out assault on Paris. Four days of heavy artillery bombardment would be followed by an assault on the city, if it hadn't already surrendered. It would be a death-blow to the radicals and, at the same time, be a propaganda victory for the German forces.
Some raised questions about whether a full-assault against a defended city could be achieved without substantial artillery bombardment, but Bismarck was worried slamming the city with siege guns for longer would turn world opinion against the German cause given the scale of the collateral damage likely. Four days, he reasoned, would be enough time to weaken the defences without provoking outrage in the foreign press and giving other nations a reason to intervene.
The date of the assault was set for the last day of February and four days before, on 24th, the large siege guns began to fire.
"I will end this Republican menace inside Paris and without"
Francois Achille Bazaine, Letter to German High Command, February 1871
"Ultimately there are three Frances - the Republican one, the Parisian one, and the Bonapartist one - none of which have the power to represent all of France at the negotiating table"
Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor, to Kaiser Wilhelm I, 11th February 1871.
German artillery outside of Paris. Up until now smaller calibre guns like these had been used, but the new
plan from High Command called for the heavier siege pieces to pound the city.
plan from High Command called for the heavier siege pieces to pound the city.
February in 1871 was cold and bitter. The ground was iron-hard and dusted with snow. Throughout the occupied regions, German rear-guard soldiers fought running battles with partisans who took to raiding supply wagons and burning depots. On the frontlines, they still held the upper hand, having turned away a Republican Army around Orleans, and another near Dijon, but on 14th February a surprise thrust by General Bourbaki's Army of the East had relieved the besieged border fortress of Belfort to much rejoicing.
Prussian High Command had so far ignored the fracturing of French politics. As far as they had been concerned there was still an enemy to overcome, and a war to win, and it mattered little who was directing the armies against them. Behind the scenes, however, the politicians of this newly minted Germany, still at this point more of an alliance of states than a true nation, were more concerned. The longer this conflict dragged on, the more they risked the other powers of Europe intervening. Indeed, Britain was already putting out tentative feelers for a peace conference. Either negotiations needed to be entered into or a decisive blow needed to be struck.
The problem was, it was unclear exactly where to direct either choice. Who was in charge? The Republican Government currently in Bordeaux? Blanqui and his Committee of Public Safety in Paris? Or the remnants of the old Bonapartist regime. Napoleon III was currently held in comfortable house arrest, but the surrendered commander of Metz, General Francois Bazaine, an ambitious Bonapartist, had approached both his former Emperor and Bismarck with an offer - release him and his army from captivity and transport them south, where they could topple the Republicans. Up until now German High Command had viewed this offer as nothing short of silly, a flight of fancy from a desperate man, but faced with a tenacious French resistance and a two-headed opposition in Bordeaux and Paris, some lobbied Bismarck to change his mind.
A plan was hatched for early March which would see a double-strike. One arm would see Bazaine and some 80,000 of his men, about half of the Metz force captured when the fortress fell, sent south across the lines to foment disorder. The hope was that Bazaine could either decapitate the Republican Government and negotiate full peace himself, or render the situation so confused the effective French opposition collapsed. The other strike was a full-out assault on Paris. Four days of heavy artillery bombardment would be followed by an assault on the city, if it hadn't already surrendered. It would be a death-blow to the radicals and, at the same time, be a propaganda victory for the German forces.
Some raised questions about whether a full-assault against a defended city could be achieved without substantial artillery bombardment, but Bismarck was worried slamming the city with siege guns for longer would turn world opinion against the German cause given the scale of the collateral damage likely. Four days, he reasoned, would be enough time to weaken the defences without provoking outrage in the foreign press and giving other nations a reason to intervene.
The date of the assault was set for the last day of February and four days before, on 24th, the large siege guns began to fire.
I'm hoping to keep some of the global stories aspects from the original timeline, but a focused story is the only way I can make it manageable. Plus as fun as the original one was, I felt it got harder and harder to talk about what Communal France was actually like!
Hi all - sorry, that was my fault. I had author's notes on the PoD but for some reason they haven't copied across when I uploaded the first chapter. I'll add them in asap.
I would like to retract my statement here. It was based on my vague memories that did not include the "global" aspects. I remember only the commune. You are absolutely right.
Very interested to see how this Timeline will develop with an earlier POD.
Did the insurrection in other French cities happen as OTL, especially Lyon and Marseille ? The news from Paris, especially military victory by the besieged radicals would probably fire up some similar insurrection in most major french cities.
I’m also very doubtful of the Bonapartist plans here, Bazaine might be comitted but how would 80 000 frenchman react to being sent south to start a civil war for the benefits of a disgraced emperor and the german ? And how seriously would the guy that just surrendered the most important army still standing be taken by France, if i understand correctly, most of the press immediately called him a coward and a traitor after the surrender of Metz.
Did the insurrection in other French cities happen as OTL, especially Lyon and Marseille ? The news from Paris, especially military victory by the besieged radicals would probably fire up some similar insurrection in most major french cities.
I’m also very doubtful of the Bonapartist plans here, Bazaine might be comitted but how would 80 000 frenchman react to being sent south to start a civil war for the benefits of a disgraced emperor and the german ? And how seriously would the guy that just surrendered the most important army still standing be taken by France, if i understand correctly, most of the press immediately called him a coward and a traitor after the surrender of Metz.