In spring 1871, in the aftermath of France's defeat by Prussia, radicals seized control of Paris and governed it as a revolutionary commune for some ten weeks. The episode unfolded in a city recently rebuilt by Haussmann's wide boulevards, which both aided troop movements and became sites of barricades. Government forces retook the city in the 'Bloody Week', killing thousands of Communards and burning landmark buildings including the Tuileries and the Hôtel de Ville.
The Commune fused urban insurrection with debates over who controls the city, and its suppression reinforced arguments that the modern boulevard was as much a tool of state order as of circulation.
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