WI Paris Commune gains support?

What would happen if the Paris Commune gained the support of the majority of Metropolitan France? Can the Socialist State set up survive in the 1880s?

POD is that Prussia (soon to be Germany) demands colonial concessions from the French government after the Franco-Prussian War, let’s say Madagascar, parts of French Equatorial and West Africa and possibly Indochina as well. This causes increased resentment in France against the government for its catastrophic failure. The ordinary Frenchman sees hope in the Paris Commune, and declare the 'Commune of France'. A brief but bloody civil war results in a Communist victory and the Commune is properly established in European France.

Is this likely? Would the new communist government try to take the colonies in Africa, they would call it 'Liberating the working man in Africa'? Would Britain or Germany stand for the new revolutionary government in Paris, considering what happened the last time something like that happened? Basically, can the Commune of France survive into the 20th century?
 
I am pretty sure that the other European states shall not suffer its existence. I assume it would be crushed by a multinational expeditionary force.
 
The problem is that it is far from clear that the Commune was Communist. 'Commune de Paris' originally means something closer to 'the people of Paris', and most of its followers were more urban mob than internationalist revolutionaries. I don't see the ideological leadership or control structure in place at the tiome for the movement to be more than a series of localised disturbances.
 
The problem is that it is far from clear that the Commune was Communist. 'Commune de Paris' originally means something closer to 'the people of Paris', and most of its followers were more urban mob than internationalist revolutionaries. I don't see the ideological leadership or control structure in place at the time for the movement to be more than a series of localised disturbances.

I agree. I think they're reputation as revolutionaries was more because the Third Republic decided to legitimize the new regime by killing them.

What are the chances of the Prussian-led German Army trying to pacify Paris during the '71 war, and turning the Communards into nationalist martyrs? That could do some generally good things for French Left Radicalism, since any survivors would have a nationalist mythos to play on.
 
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