The Paris Commune began on March 18, 1871, when the citizens of Paris – resentful of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the harsh peace terms – revolted against the French government and established a radical socialist administration in the capital

The Paris Commune governed for two tumultuous months, enacting progressive policies, before being brutally crushed by French government troops in May 1871 at the cost of thousands of lives. Though short-lived, the Commune became a legendary episode in leftist history, inspiring Marxists and anarchists (Marx called it the first example of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”).