ABSTRACT
Before daybreak on 18 M arch, several thousand F rench regular troops tru d g ed up the steep streets o f M ontm artre to cap tu re by surprise h u n d red s o f cannon parked on top o f the hill by dissident units o f the Paris N ational G uard, the citizen militia. To cap ture these heavy w eapons was to be the first step towards reim posing the national governm ent’s authority on the militarized and unruly capital. Since the beginning o f the war with G erm any the previous July, which had led to a four-m onth siege o f the city, the arm ing o f its popu la tion, hunger, b om bardm en t and finally capitu lation to the G erm ans in January, Parisians h ad becom e increasingly dissaffected from their rulers. T he en d o f the war had left Paris ungovernable, as m ost o f the regular army was dem obilized while the N ational G uard kept its guns. T he newly elected N ational Assembly was far away in Bordeaux. The governm ent it appo in ted , led by A dolphe Thiers, in ten d ed to assert its authority over Paris. T he M ontm artre expedition was the outcom e.
