WI: Successful Paris Commune

What if the Paris Commune is successful in its goal and overthrows the French Government and puts a Socialist state up. Now I have a theory on how this would go about that can be tweaked for realism, Lets say that the Paris Commune takes over Paris and supports others to pop up across France and its African possessions (they had those then right?). The Army puts up a good fight but eventually the sheer numbers forces the French Government to flee to Britain, a Socialist government is put in its place.

Now how would this affect the world?
 
What if the Paris Commune is successful in its goal and overthrows the French Government and puts a Socialist state up. Now I have a theory on how this would go about that can be tweaked for realism, Lets say that the Paris Commune takes over Paris and supports others to pop up across France and its African possessions (they had those then right?). The Army puts up a good fight but eventually the sheer numbers forces the French Government to flee to Britain, a Socialist government is put in its place.

Now how would this affect the world?

Every country in Europe invades France to put the Commune down before it spreads, rots, and then a new Napoleon seizes control and tries to take over Europe. Again!
 
The commune likely couldn't have succeeded, the problem it was just too small and too immediate. It's a lot like the German Revolution in 1919-1920 in that way, the time just wasn't right in that second. You'd need to find some way for the communard sentiments to spread among the conscripted men, so that the soldiers returning from the front get behind the commune like they expected to happen. I'd expect from there things could go numerous directions though.
 
FWIW, Karl Marx wrote in 1881 (in a letter to the Dutch socialist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis):

"One thing you can at any rate be sure of: a socialist government does not come into power in a country unless conditions are so developed that it can above all take the necessary measures for intimidating the mass of the bourgeoisie sufficiently to gain time--the first desideratum [requisite]--for lasting action.

"Perhaps you will point to the Paris Commune; but apart from the fact that this was merely the rising of a town under exceptional conditions, the majority of the Commune was in no sense socialist, nor could it be. With a small amount of sound common sense, however, they could have reached a compromise with Versailles useful to the whole mass of the people -- the only thing that could be reached at the time...." http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/letters/81_02_22.htm
 
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