Ya, I know. This is my first TL, so i didn't expect myself to do a good job (not that it is an excuse). Anyway, I hope I'm getting better, tell me what you think of the new chapter. At some point I'll probably go back and edit this TL.
Well, my main concern regarding the last chapter are the totally unrealistic numbers involved.
- 37, 000 armed Communards in Versailles (meaning you'd have even more in Paris) is definitely and fantastically inflated.
More plausible approach involve between 20 000 and at very best 30 000
gardes nationaux effectively armed. Keeping in mind that the arrondissement structure prevented to not only persuade them all to come, but to logistically take more than only a part of it.
- The description of gouvernementaux is as well unrealistic. We're talking of a better equipped and better commanded*. That's mean most likely fortified or at least entranched positions, artillery, etc.
* Which brings me to Blanqui. While certainly a respected and influential man among socialists (that, allow me to repeat myself, were the minority in Commune Council), there's hardly any indication of his military skills (actually, seeing his long history of failed insurrections, he may have sucked at it).
Would it be only becoming the actual leader of the Commune may be problematic, but turning him into some walking PoD definitely makes the chapter hard to swallow.
I could point other issues, such as the really weird stratégie of gouvernementaux, but basically the main problems are above.
None of which were major topics in France at the time. Sure, Bakounine is accessible to the public and had an interest, but mostly among the workers.
That said, it can be safely said he did have an important influence in Lyon. It's just the insurrections and the proclamations he edicted comically failed.
Which brings us to the next point. Land redistribution is not an issue in France at the time, nor had it been for centuries
Well, it was, admittedly, in northern France before the Revolution. But it clearly stopped to be so at least since the clerical properties being sold and the redistribution made during the
Directoire. At this point (and even today), Northern France countryside was a little property farmland.
Not to French peasants who had quite a good life for themselves.
Let's not get hasty, there. Metayage (admittedly reduced overall, but dominant in many SW départements) and
maitre-valet structured exploitations were still current.
At the time, France wasn't socialist. It wasn't even Republican. France was mostly royalist, the only reason a republic was proclaimed is because the pretendant to the throne was a shithead who wouldn't accept the tricolore.
That's far more of a historical legend than a act.
I tried to answer the point there if you're interested.
Long story short, monarchism itself had a very reduced audiance, and republicanism was overall more popular. The central question was about war or peace, less than royalism vs. republicanism.
You might try for a first an alliance between Gambetta and the Commune as he tries to gather an army.
The main problem is that Gambetta was very wary of the first leagues that appeared in southern France in 1870. These leagues were often left-republican or even socializing, more or less anticipating some aspects of the communalist movement.
You'd need a more open Gambetta for that.
The 'Black Terror' will be anarchist peasents murdering landowners for "their" land.
Well, that would mean peasants killing themselves eventually, and quite litteraly so.
It must be really important to understand : peasant did, in their crushing majority, owned their land since decades, if not centuries in many regions.