Chapter 764: Paris Commune
Chapter 747 Paris Commune
On April 15, 1882, the same day as the International Conference, a number of French revolutionary organizations united in an uprising and publicly elected the socialist Blanqui as their leader.
The insurgents captured the police station, seized the arsenal of the city’s defense forces, took control of the embassy district, and swept through half of Paris.
When the fighting reached Versailles, Napoleon IV fled Paris in the night with his palace guards and took remote control of the army, which remained loyal to the emperor, to suppress the rebellion.
Receiving this news, Franz was directly stunned. After waking up, his first reaction was: when did the fighting strength of the revolutionaries become so strong? Is the French government made of paper?
No one could answer this question. Like the previous Paris revolutions, as long as the first shot succeeded, it was able to quickly sweep the city.
The revolutionary army occupied Paris, and the international conference became a joke.
During the day, they were discussing how to curb the spread of revolutionary ideas, but at night they fell into the hands of the revolutionaries, and it was estimated that the delegates attending the conference were now in a daze.
In the end, having experienced great storms, Franz quickly recovered and asked with concern: “How many troops can Napoleon IV still control, and is there any ability to suppress the rebellion?”
“Uncertain!” Foreign Minister Weissenberg shook his head and gave a negative answer. Then he explained, “Except for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 7th divisions, which are the direct troops that can be determined to be in support of the Emperor, the other troops’ positions are unknown for the time being.
The Paris Revolution has only just occurred, and everyone is not prepared for it, so it is estimated that many people will wait and see the situation first, and will not make their stance known for the time being.
Ignoring the troops who did not take a stand, the troops controlled by Napoleon IV still had the advantage, and the Paris Revolution was successful because the troops loyal to the Emperor were not in Paris.
The 7th Division was suppressing the Lyon rebellion, the 1st and 2nd Divisions were suppressing the Italian independence movement, and the 3rd Division was stationed outside Paris.
On the same day that the Paris revolution broke out, a rebellion broke out in the suburb of Gonesse, just five hours earlier, and the main body of the Third Division was sent out to suppress it.
The city guards that remained in Paris, mostly composed of native Parisians, were themselves sympathetic to the revolution, and the failure of the city guards to send troops to suppress the rebellion in time after its outbreak was a major reason for its expansion.
The success of this revolution in Paris was full of too many coincidences, as if it was as if someone was maneuvering behind the scenes, deliberately creating opportunities for the rebels.
It is said that the fire of war reached the Palace of Versailles before Napoleon IV was informed of the rebellion.
Those who had the ability to mobilize the army and intercept the news must have had considerable power in the government and the army.
The French Revolutionary Party has not been capable of penetrating to this point, and those who have the power, and the motive to do so, are most likely the restored forces of the Orleans and Bourbon dynasties.”
Franz rubbed his forehead and went to the window to look out into the distance; now he had to sweat for Napoleon IV.
With the revolutionaries ravaging the outside world, and the former royal restoration forces pulling the strings within the government, as well as the power of the syndicates that could fall on their sword at any moment.
In such a complicated situation, want to sit on the throne is not simple. It can be said that this is the world’s hottest throne, there is no one.
Prime Minister Felix: ”It’s not that serious, the Revolutionary Party is also internally conflicted, and there are at least more than ten power groups controlling Paris.
There are also many royalist restoration forces mixed in here, and on the issue of overthrowing the rule of the Bonaparte dynasty, they reached an agreement before they reluctantly united.
When it came to the political system and the distribution of benefits, the original allies became enemies.
Perhaps due to the pressure of government forces, they will not turn their backs on each other for the time being, but we can’t expect them to cooperate closely either.
Napoleon IV had now left Paris, and with the prestige of his father, Napoleon III, and the gold dollars he controlled in his hands, it was not difficult to gain the support of the military.
If nothing unexpected happens, I think it won’t take more than a month for the Paris revolution to end.”
“Optimists vs. Pessimists”, from Franz’s personal standpoint, naturally hoped that Napoleon IV would be able to suppress the rebellion as soon as possible.
As for the “covert manipulation, let the revolutionaries and the government keep on killing, stirring up France.” Just think about it, it’s not even remotely feasible.
This is the special situation of France, the three royal families split the most powerful royalist faction, which led to the government lost the ability to fight for a long time.
In other words: as long as Napoleon IV did not put down the rebellion in a short time, the Bonaparte dynasty was going to be finished.
It didn’t matter if it was a different dynasty, Franz didn’t care which one was in charge of France, but it would not do to let the French regime fall into the hands of the revolutionaries.
There is such a successful precedent in, the wave of revolutions in Europe shall not enter a new height, and then do not want to attack the Ottoman, busy to put out the fire is too late.
After a few moments of contemplation, Franz made a decision: “It is best, but we still have to prepare for the worst.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Britain and Russia to communicate, I think they do not want to see the situation in France out of control, if necessary, can be organized to intervene in the coalition.”
“Europe is the root”, until then Franz had never recognized it, now he had to admit that it still made sense.
As a European country, no matter what the core of the strategy is, it has to be affected by the situation in Europe.
On the surface, France broke out in civil unrest, and now Austria sent troops to unify the German region is the best choice.
However, so many politicians in the Vienna government did not propose this plan.
Obviously, things were not so simple. Now the German region was also in turmoil, with wave after wave of revolution.
Sending troops to unify the German region at this time is equivalent to introducing revolutionary waves into Austria, and for a long time to come, the Vienna government will have to sort out the internal conflicts.
Open the map to know, Austria’s strategic situation is not at all beautiful, can be said to be surrounded by strong enemies.
East is the greedy woolly bear, west of the bullish France, south of the Ottoman Empire, if the unification of the German region, the north will have to face the Nordic Confederation and Britain.
On the surface it looks like France is in civil unrest, the Russians are still licking their wounds, and Austria still has the ability to strike first and take care of the threat in advance.
However, France and Russia are both great powers, a one-time simply can not get dead, not dead, there will be a day of recovery. With the power of hate trending, everyone would still be in a long term confrontation.
Politics is not a simple distinction between friend and foe game, there is no eternal friend and foe between countries, in the face of interests, “friend and foe” relationship may be reversed at any time.
If a country blindly starts a war against its neighbors because of a potential threat to them, then the day when all the world is enemies is not far away.
The Vienna government chose the Ottoman Empire as a breakthrough, in addition to the strategic needs, a big reason is that they are relatively weak, can be slapped to death, can solve the problem once and for all.
……
Tours, the ancient city, became once again the political center of France following the Renaissance.
After fleeing Paris, Napoleon IV took a breath and ran to Tours, which became the temporary seat of the French imperial government.
Frankly speaking, the Bonaparte dynasty was still more popular. Napoleon was the pride of France, and Napoleon III was the hero of France.
Although Napoleon IV did not have any great achievements, but he also did not have any bad deeds, the general public did not have much ill feeling towards him as the emperor.
The endless rebellions in the country do not mean that people just want to rebel, many rebellions are the capitalist’s trouble.
In the economic crisis, people jumped out to rebel after they had fallen on hard times, hoarding and price gouging, forcing the underclass to live.
In the many rebellions that have occurred in France, a large part of them, are the people swarmed to grab food, robbed the people also scattered.
Revolutionary ideas are only strong in Paris, Tours, such as small and medium-sized cities, the people’s revolutionary enthusiasm is not very high.
The best proof of this is that Napoleon IV was warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of Tours. Of course, this had something to do with the fact that the news of the revolution in Paris did not come through.
“Have the Fifth and Sixth Divisions departed yet?” Napoleon IV asked
Minister of War Luskinia Hafiz replied, “The Fifth Division departed yesterday morning, and the Sixth Division departed this morning, in three days at the most they will arrive in Paris to put down the rebellion.”
Hearing this news, Napoleon IV breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that the army was willing to accept orders meant that the situation was not yet unmanageable.
(End of chapter)