Communards The Communards were members and supporters of the short - lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the Franco - Prussian War and France ' s defeat . Following the war ' s conclusion , according to historian Benedict Anderson , thousands fled abroad , roughly 20 , 000 Communards were executed during the " Semaine Sanglante " ( " Bloody Week " ) , and 7 , 500 were jailed or deported under arrangements which continued until a general amnesty during the 1880s ; this action by Adolphe Thiers forestalled the proto - communist movement in the French Third Republic ( 1871 – 1940 ) . The Franco - Prussian War and the Paris Commune . The working class of Paris were feeling ostracized after the decadence of the Second Empire and the Franco - Prussian War . The Prussians besieged Paris in September 1870 , causing suffering among Parisians . The poor ate cat or rat meat or went hungry . Out of resentment from this situation grew radical and socialist political clubs and newspapers . While Paris was occupied , socialist groups tried twice to overthrow the provisional government . In January 1871 , Otto von Bismarck and the French minister of foreign affairs , Jules Favre , decided that France would hold national elections . Adolphe Thiers , who had been loyal to the Second Empire , was elected head of the newly monarchist republic . During the war , the capital had moved from Paris to Bordeaux . When the war ended , the government declined to move back to Paris and instead moved to Versailles . In the early morning of March 18 , the government stationed in Versailles sent military forces into Paris to collect a reserve of cannons and machine guns . The detachment was still gathering the munitions when the Parisians awoke , and soon the soldiers were surrounded . In the chaos that followed , the soldiers killed two of their own , and by the end of the day , they were mainly sided with the Parisians . Insurgents now controlled the city , and they declared a new government called the Paris Commune , which lasted from March 18 to May 28 , 1871 . Thiers refused to bargain with the Communards , despite their attempts to do so . He taught newly released French soldiers the " evils " of the Communards as the government prepared for a battle . Starting on May 21 and continuing through May 28 , soldiers chased the National Guard members who sided with the Communards through the streets . Around 18 , 000 Parisians were killed , 25 , 000 were imprisoned , and thousands more were later executed . The outrageous violence of Bloody Week became a rallying cry for the working classes ; politicians would later proudly brag about their participation with the Commune . Deportation . After Bloody Week , the government asked for an inquest into the causes of the uprising . The inquest concluded that the main cause of the insurrection was a lack of belief in God , and that this problem had to be corrected immediately . It was decided that a moral revival was needed , and a key part of this was deporting 4 , 500 Communards to New Caledonia . There was a two - part goal in this , as the government also hoped that the Communards would civilize the native Kanak people on the island . The government hoped that being exposed to the order of nature would return the Communards to the side of " good . " New Caledonia had become a French colony in 1853 , but just ten years later it still only had 350 European colonists . After 1863 , New Caledonia became the principal destination of convicts transported from France after French Guiana was deemed too unhealthy for people of European descent . Thereafter , convicts from France made up the largest number of arriving residents . During the busiest time of deportation , there were estimated to be about 50 , 000 total people on the island . This included 30 , 000 Kanak , 2 , 750 civilian colonists , 3 , 030 military personnel , 4 , 000 " déportés " ( political criminal s , including the Communards ) , 6 , 000 " transportés " ( common - law criminal convicts ) , and 1 , 280 criminal convicts who had served their sentences but were still living on the island . There were four main penitentiary sites on the island , one of which , Isle of Pines ( 1870 – 1880 ) , was for the Communards deportees exclusively . Sentences . There were three sentences given out to the " déportés " : simple deportation , deportation to a fortified place , and deportation with forced labor . A simple deportation sentence was given to about two - thirds of the Communards . These people were sent to live in small villages on the Isle of Pines . Those sentenced to deportation to a fortified place were sent to the Ducos peninsula . About 300 Communards were sentenced to deportation with forced labor ; these were the people convicted of crimes such as arson in addition to their political crimes . They were sent to be with the criminal convicts on Nou . Some prisoners ’ sentences were changed by the local penal administrators , and some were changed by the French government after petitions for leniency . Life in New Caledonia . The government did not give out enough food , clothing , or shelter for all of the " déportés " . Some were assigned housing in rickety structures , but others had to find their own materials to build huts . Construction tools could be bought from the administration . Hunting for food became part of the daily routine . Some even traded their clothing for food with the Kanak . Not every part of life on the island was bad , however . Those living on the Isle of Pines and Ducos peninsula had freedom of movement , allowing them to live where they wanted and swim and fish at their leisure . They lived in simple wood huts that formed small , face - to - face communities that were intended to be self - governing . Those sentenced to forced labor often endured abuse at the hands of their jailers . They were habitually mistreated while imprisoned , with whippings and the use of thumbscrew s as common punishments for minor infractions . The National Assembly passed legislation that gave the wives and children of " déportés " freedom to go to New Caledonia . It also gave wives a much greater right to property than they had in France , giving them half the property rights over any grant given to their husbands . Through this legislation , 174 families making up 601 people were reunited by 1877 . Escape . The relatively laid back period of deportation ended when six déportés successfully escaped from the Ducos peninsula in 1874 . François Jourde was the main planner of the escape , which he developed while living in the port town of Nouméa . He had developed connections with a ship ’ s captain , John Law , who was paid for his participation . The escapees , who included Jourde , Henri Rochefort , Paschal Grousset , Olivier Pain , Achille Ballière , and Bastien Grandhille , boarded the boat under the cover of darkness and hid in the ship ’ s hold until they cleared the harbor . Law dropped them off in Sydney , Australia , where crowds gathered to see them . Reports of their escape and the strict conditions they had lived under were printed in newspapers in Australia , the United States , and Europe . While the escapees attempted to publicize the plight of those still on the island , the déportés who remained had to deal with the repercussions of the escape . New rules forbade the prisoners from approaching the sea without permission , subjected them to daily roll calls , and banned them from entering the forests , even to collect firewood . Relationships with the Kanak . There are clearly documented examples of friendships between the Communards and the Kanak . Achille Ballière and his friends visited the Kanak in their homes , shared meals with them , and played with their children . In the first few years of the deportation there were at least two marriages between the Kanak and Communards . However , the separation of the groups enforced after the 1874 escapes prevented any more such relationships from forming . During the eight - month long Kanak insurrection in 1878 , the Communards displayed a solidarity with their effort in the local press . This solidarity did not last long , however , as beliefs of racial differences soon took over . Louise Michel looked to the Kanak youth for guidance and inspiration , and offered them moral support when they joined the 1878 insurrection . She ran a school for the Kanak and encouraged a local theater to perform a Kanak drama . She fully expected the achievements of the Kanak to match those of the French , though she wrote about them in very paternalistic terms that were common for her time period . Famous Communards . Henri Rochefort gave a series of lectures that were published in the " New York Herald Tribune " while staying in the United States after his escape from New Caledonia . They were highly critical of the French government for denying its citizens " liberty . " His 1884 novel " L ’ Évadé : roman canaque " helped shaped the legend of the deportation . It offered a portrayal of the deportation and the policies of the government in New Caledonia that was different from what the governmental propaganda was promoting . Georges Eugene Raoul Pilotell ( 1845 - 1918 ) was the son of a Judge but pursued art and moved to Paris in 1862 . As a prolific political caricaturist he was frequently imprisoned and became an active member of the commune in which he appointed himself ‘ Directeur des Beaux Arts ’ but later properly appointed a ‘ commissaire special ’ . In 1874 he escaped a death sentence by fleeing to London . While he was well known for his caricatures in France , he gained a reputation in England as a fashion designer , society portrait painter and theatre costume designer . He has work in both the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum and The Victoria and Albert Museum . Amnesty . By the summer of 1878 , the concern of amnesty for the Communards had become a significant political issue for France . In January 1879 , the prime minister , Dufaure , granted mass pardons for the Communards in an attempt to stop the calls for amnesty . The pardons excused the convictions of the Communards . This was a problem for many people , however , because the men had never actually been convicted , only indicted . On January 16 , the government published a list of " déportés " whose sentences were pardoned . These people were allowed to return to France . More than one thousand Communards , however , were not included in this list . Men who had been convicted of crimes other than political or whose political opinions were considered too dangerous were left behind . After the announcement of the pardons , many people in France were hoping for a stronger declaration of total amnesty . Petitions were passed around in all Paris neighborhoods to try and influence the government . A bill calling for total amnesty was introduced into the Chamber of Deputies by Louis Blanc and into the senate by Victor Hugo . The legislation that was eventually pushed through ensured full civil rights to those not convicted of crimes beyond political , and officially ended the prosecution of Communards in military court s . In July 1880 , parliament finally voted for total amnesty . Nine ships brought the déportés back to France . The first arrived in August 1879 and the last arrived in July 1880 . Large crowds greeted the ships with celebrations . Donations of money were collected for the Communards and festivals were held to raise money . A committee of aid , headed by Louis Blanc and Victor Hugo , planned a dinner at which they dispersed a small amount of money to all who attended . Offers of employment were made , overcoats were given out , and temporary housing was offered . Aftermath . Some Communards chose never to come back to France after having built successful lives in New Caledonia or adopting other countries , such as Australia , as home . Many Communards who did come back returned to public life , such as Louise Michel . However , many found the adjustment to freedom difficult . Meetings between Communards and their former jailers occurred in the streets , at times leading to minor skirmishes . In December 1879 , an investigative committee was formed to look into charges of torture in New Caledonia . The inquiry lasted two years , collecting the results of previous government studies , more than forty depositions , and testimonials to parliament by the Communards . The Communards ’ memories of abuse then became public record , which helped to heal the relations between the former prisoners and the state .