Editing Paris Commune (section)

=== Uprising of 31 October ===
[[File:Le 31 octobre 1870.jpg|thumb|upright|Revolutionary units of the National Guard briefly seized the Hôtel de Ville on 31 October 1870, but the uprising failed.]]
{{main|1870 Paris uprising}}
On 28 October, the news arrived in Paris that the 160,000 soldiers of the French army at Metz, which had been [[Siege of Metz (1870)|surrounded by the Germans]] since August, had surrendered. The news arrived the same day of the failure of another attempt by the French army to break the siege of Paris at [[Battle of Le Bourget|Le Bourget]], with heavy losses. On 31 October, the leaders of the main revolutionary groups in Paris, including Blanqui, [[Félix Pyat]] and [[Louis Charles Delescluze]], called new demonstrations at the Hôtel de Ville against General Trochu and the government. Fifteen thousand demonstrators, some of them armed, gathered in front of the Hôtel de Ville in pouring rain, calling for the resignation of Trochu and the proclamation of a commune. Shots were fired from the Hôtel de Ville, one narrowly missing Trochu, and the demonstrators crowded into the building, demanding the creation of a new government, and making lists of its proposed members.{{sfn|Milza|2009b|pp=206–213}}

Blanqui, the leader of the most radical faction, established his own headquarters at the nearby [[Seine (department)|Prefecture of the Seine]], issuing orders and decrees to his followers, intent upon establishing his own government. While the formation of the new government was taking place inside the Hôtel de Ville, however, units of the National Guard and the Garde Mobile loyal to General Trochu arrived and recaptured the building without violence. By three o'clock, the demonstrators had been given safe passage and left, and the brief uprising was over.{{sfn|Milza|2009b|pp=206–213}}

On 3 November, city authorities organized a plebiscite of Parisian voters, asking if they had confidence in the Government of National Defence. "Yes" votes totalled 557,996, while 62,638 voted "no". Two days later, municipal councils in each of the twenty [[arrondissements of Paris]] voted to elect mayors; five councils elected radical opposition candidates, including Delescluze and a young [[Montmartre]]an doctor, [[Georges Clemenceau]].{{sfn|Milza|2009b|pp=212–213}}