The editors of PRISM has prepared this “Primer on the 1871 Paris Commune on its 150th Anniversary” as one of our contributions in commemorating the historic and world-shaking event.
This three-part primer starts in Part I with major events that shook Europe in the 19th century and set the stage for the war that broke out between France and Germany in 1870—the Franco-Prussian War. This war directly resulted in the fall of the Second French Empire and the rise of the Third Republic—which in turn triggered a rapid chain of events leading to the Paris Commune of 1871.
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