Commune of Paris, 1871, name generally applied to the revolutionary government established in France by the people of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). French Emperor Napoleon III surrendered to the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan in northeastern France on September 1, 1870. Two days later, the Republicans of Paris staged a bloodless revolution and proclaimed the establishment of the Third Republic. In January 1871 Paris capitulated to the Prussians after a four-month siege. By the terms of an armistice between the Prussians and the French signed later that month, the rest of France elected members to a National Assembly in February.

The assembly was to vote on whether to make peace with the Prussians. A majority of the members were Royalists who wanted to restore the monarchy. They favored acceptance of the peace terms dictated by the Prussian prime minister, Otto von Bismarck. However, the radical Republicans and socialists in Paris wanted to continue fighting and considered Bismarck's terms humiliating. On March 17 and 18, the Parisians led an uprising against the national government. They established a proletarian dictatorship in Paris, called the Central Committee of the National Guard, and set March 26 as the date for the election of a municipal council. This council became known as the Commune of 1871, and its members as Communards. A majority of the Communards were followers of Louis Auguste Blanqui, a revolutionist held prisoner in Versailles by the chief executive of the National Assembly, Adolphe Thiers. Other Communards supported the school of socialism expounded by the French philosopher Pierre Joseph Proudhon and members of the International Workingmen's Association, of which Karl Marx was then a corresponding secretary.