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The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1 introduced new military technologies, transformed the organisation of armies, and upset the continental balance of power, popularising new ideas of nationhood and conflict resolution more widely. However, the mass armies that became a new standard required mass mobilisation of working people, who exercised a new power through both a German social democracy and popular insurgent French movements. As in the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Paris Commune of 1871 grew directly from the discontent among radicalised soldiers and civilians pressed into armed service on behalf of institutions they learned to mistrust. This militarised class conflict, while the brutality of the Commune’s subsequent repression not only butchered tens of thousands of Parisians but slaughtered an old utopian faith that reason and morality could resolve social tensions. War among nations became linked to revolution and revolution became enmeshed in armed struggle.
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The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1 introduced new military technologies, transformed the organisation of armies, and upset the continental balance of power, popularising new ideas of nationhood and conflict resolution more widely. However, the mass armies that became a new standard required mass mobilisation of working people, who exercised a new power through both a German social democracy and popular insurgent French movements. As in the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Paris Commune of 1871 grew directly from the discontent among radicalised soldiers and civilians pressed into armed service on behalf of institutions they learned to mistrust. This militarised class conflict, while the brutality of the Commune’s subsequent repression not only butchered tens of thousands of Parisians but slaughtered an old utopian faith that reason and morality could resolve social tensions. War among nations became linked to revolution and revolution became enmeshed in armed struggle.
