Setting the Stage (1871-1880)

The cannons had fallen silent, but their echoes reverberated through every cobblestone street in Paris. In May 1871, as the last barricades of the Paris Commune burned and the bodies of the Communards were hastily buried in mass graves, France stood at a crossroads. The nation that had once proclaimed itself the beacon of European civilization lay humiliated by Prussia, torn by civil war, and uncertain of its future. Yet from these ashes would rise an era of unprecedented cultural brilliance, technological innovation, and social transformation that would captivate the world: the Belle Époque.