Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Siege of Paris; first demonstrations ===
[[File:Varlin-eugene.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Eugène Varlin]] led several thousand National Guard soldiers to march to the Hôtel de Ville chanting "Long Live the Commune!"]]

As the Germans surrounded the city, radical groups saw that the Government of National Defence had few soldiers to defend itself, and launched the first demonstrations against it. On 19 September, National Guard units from the main working-class neighbourhoods—[[Belleville, Paris|Belleville]], [[Ménilmontant]], [[La Villette, Seine|La Villette]], [[Montrouge]], the [[Faubourg Saint-Antoine]], and the [[Square du Temple|Faubourg du Temple]]—marched to the centre of the city and demanded that a new government, a Commune, be elected. They were met by regular army units loyal to the Government of National Defence, and the demonstrators eventually dispersed peacefully. On 5 October, 5,000 protesters marched from Belleville to the [[Hôtel de Ville, Paris|Hôtel de Ville]], demanding immediate municipal elections and rifles. On 8 October, several thousand soldiers from the National Guard, led by [[Eugène Varlin]] of the First International, marched to the centre chanting 'Long Live the Commune!", but they also dispersed without incident.

Later in October, General [[Louis Jules Trochu]] launched a series of armed attacks to break the German siege, with heavy losses and no success. The [[Electrical telegraph|telegraph]] line connecting Paris with the rest of France had been cut by the Germans on 27 September. On 6 October, Defense Minister [[Léon Gambetta]] departed the city by [[Hot-air balloon|balloon]] to try to organise national resistance against the Germans.{{sfn|Milza|2009b|pp=143–165}}