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The Spark, Treaty of Tourraine 1923'[]
In the after math of the Great War, and the following capitulation of the defeated Continental Entente, the peace negotiations included harsh punishments and provisions for countries such as France and Russia, which were seen as the initiators of the conflict, and lay much of the blame for the engulfment of Europe into its biggest, most catastrophic and traumatic, decade-long bloodbath.
The defeated Empire of France, was to be disarmed.Reparations were to be paid to the victors.Additionally, an Allied Occupied authority, would be implemented as a provisional measure to oversee a peaceful and stable transition of power away from the Old French state, over to the new, pacified authority.
French resentment, humiliation, discontent[]
The French public was exhausted, after nearly a decade of a war of attrition, countless failed offensives against Germany, a stall at the Italian front, and a disaster at Amsterdam.War rations had run out, food supply had run out due to an international blockade, and occupation of the French colonies, a failure to secure a link between France and Russia in the East through Germany, And lastly, a disaster in the English Channel, resulting in a naval invasion of Normandy, France was on the brink of collapse.It was only due to an Allied intervention in Paris, that the Emperor, Jean III, was not lynched by an angry mob, as he had to make his way to the city of Tourraine, to be present in the peace negotiations.
However, what the Allies did not foresee, was that the unsecured and vacant French authority at Paris, would result in a complete overthrow of the Regime.As in the 2nd of September, 1922, the Empire's government in Paris would be overrun, and a sea of raging revolutionary waves would storm across Île-de-France.Occupying the region and throwing everything into chaos.
The Revolution begins[]
The Paris Commune uprising (Led by the reactionary, anti monarchist, anti occupation alliance) began with protests over rationing and bread shortages in Saint-Denis and Belleville. Returning veterans, disillusioned and embittered, joined in. By dawn, Workers’ militias, armed to the teeth with looted rifles from depots near Montreuil, marched toward central Paris, Right wing paramilitary Barricades sprang up along the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Marais, evoking the Spirit of National Vengeance, they proclaimed the Government of National Defense.
The garrison, undermanned and demoralized, surrendered by midday after some officers defected to the revolutionaries.the Imperial Prefecture and ministries were ablaze, the white banner of the Empire torn down from the Hôtel de Ville. In its place, revolutionaries raised a blue, white and red banner with the slogan: “Ni Empereur, ni Prêtres — La Nation au Peuple !” (Neither Emperor nor Priests — The Nation to the People!).
A Coalition of all colors and spectrums[]
The seizure of Paris triggered a chain reaction: Railway hubs at Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon were occupied, cutting Imperial troops from reaching the capital.Workers’ councils (comités de quartier) began organizing food distribution and ad hoc policing.The Bank of France was seized, its gold confiscated to fund the revolutionary guard.By the end of September, the Paris Metropolitan Area, nearly 4 million people, was effectively under revolutionary control, severed from the Emperor in Tourraine.
With the capital gone, the Emperor Jean III and his court in Tourraine tried to salvage legitimacy.The Emperor denounced the revolution as a “treason against the nation.”The Allied Occupation Authority, meeting in Lyon at the time, was stunned, they had been negotiating with a regime that no longer controlled its capital.The fall of Paris delegitimized the Empire in the eyes of both the Allies and the French people.
Factions of the French Revolution[]
Flag of the French Commune
Parisian Liberals (Jacobines): Middle-class intellectuals and lawyers who wanted a parliamentary republic to replace the monarchy.They had grown to be the largest and most organized force within the Parisian Core, but had little to no influence outside, and in the periphery of the Metropolitan Area, which greatly hindered their efforts at mediating, and being a moderate force that protected the interests of all citizens, without political affiliations.The governance was lead by the Force Publique, a clique of military officials that had rebelled against the Monarchy, with them they had a Veterans clique, the AFF (Association of Free France), a group that proposed peaceful resolution to the conflict, and for cooperation with the Imperial Powers to topple the Emperor and replace him with a Democratically elected regime.
Radical Socialists (Communards): Veterans and workers seeking a Parisian republic modeled on the virtues of Engellian socialism, and Anarcho-Collectivist ideals.They were spearheaded by a multitude of political organizations, including the FAA (French Anarchist Assembly), the Anti-Occupation Movement (A political coalition of all ideologies that opposed 3 main 'threats' to the nation: Imperialism, Ultra nationalism and Militarism), Finally, the largest and most prominent faction, that spearheaded the movement: the PPA (People's Popular Assembly), A collection of extreme and moderate socialists, opposing the French Empire, the Allied occupation, and to some extent, was wary of the rise of the Far right within Revolutionary Paris.
The Government of National Defense banner
The Government of National Defense (GNDF for short), and the Government of National Rejuvenation: Founded initially as the National Action League, it saw an evolution of prewar nationalist leagues, inspired by Maurrasian integral nationalism.Their Composition was made up by Middle-class professionals, veterans embittered by trench defeat, Catholic intellectuals and Young men, envisioning a future for a Greater France, without the Emperor, and without the humiliations brought on them by the Anglo-German conspiracy.Ideology varied widely within the Group, from Far-right populist, anti-liberal, anti-socialist, and Nationalist beliefs, to Anti-semitic, Germanophobic and Anglophobic, Inside the NAL, there were two base factions fighting for control: the Gaellic Roots movement, a neopagan group, and the Latin Quarter, ironically, they where right-wing students with neo-roman imperial aspirations.
They saw themselves as protectors of “order” against the chaos of workers’ councils.Street battles against socialist militias became more common, infiltration of unions to sow division, and paramilitary parades in defiance of revolutionary councils drove conflict and even threatened to shatter the Revolutionary coalition at times.
Croix de Sang and the Jeunesses Patriotes: The “Blood Cross”, originated as a secretive Catholic paramilitary, emerging from veterans of the Vendée and Brittany who marched to Paris during the chaos.Rural Catholic migrants, former gendarmes, and conservative clergy supporters.Fiercely reactionary, militant Catholic, anti-Masonic and anti-Semitic, seeking a theocratic monarchy.They slowly attracted a younger generation of wanna-be soldiers who did not have front line experience, They became attracted to the Nationalist, reactionary rhetoric and assembled cells all across the Metropolitan area, these 'Young Patriots', became a rising power within the ever changing balance of the tenuous French revolution. Churches of Montmartre and Notre-Dame became semi-fortified sanctuaries of the movement.
These were some of the most prominent, among a myriad of other, political formations and radical groups that made up the bulk of Paris' ideological struggle.Terrorist attacks, from both sides, became ever more often, bombings of socialist printers, lynchings of known political figures, agitators, and church-guard patrols. Paris 'A City of Factions'
Street Clashes[]
“Bloody December” (1923), The Croix de Sang and Young Patriots attempted to seize Montmartre, resulting in five days of barricade fighting before the communards pushed them back.January 1923: The GNDF staged a mass rally at Place de la Concorde, clashing with syndicalist workers. Nearly 200 were killed in running street battles.
Assassinations: Republican moderates were caught between left and right. Several key figures of the provisional council were murdered by far-left hit squads, destabilizing the revolution from within.
International Reaction[]
Alexandre Millerand in 1914
Britain and Italy: Shocked. Both feared France sliding into “another Russia” scenario. They debated whether to march on Paris to prevent an Anarchist-style government.Germany: Triumphant at first, seeing France tear itself apart. But Berlin worried that revolution could ruin their European reconciliation efforts.After the signing of the inevitable treaty, the Allies expected the Revolution to die down, However, things only grew increasingly hotter, as the revolutionaries urged for "no negotiation", and continued to put pressure on the Occupation armies, disrupting supply lines, and often sparking revolts outside the Metropole to the countryside.
After an Inter allied consultation, the Occupation government in France, and stationed in Lyon, would begin cooperation efforts with the French government, now a provisional Junta under Field Marshall Alexandre Millerand and Louis Franchet d'Espèrey.Who had good relations with diplomats from Britain, and were eager to cooperate with the English to hasten France's recovery, and reconstruction.The Operation to retake the capital would be assigned to an aspiring General, having been exonerated by his victories at the Iberian front, Charles de Gaulle.
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