Mass social discontent in the aftermath of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War led to the creation of the short-lived Paris Commune of March 18 to May 28, 1871. The Commune was the seed of the French communist movement which would develop later in the Third Republic. It is estimated that 20,000 Communards were executed during the so-called Semaine Sanglante, and a further 7500 were jailed or deported to New Caledonia until a general amnesty was put in place over a decade later.
New Caledonia had been colonised by France in 1853, and from 1863 it replaced Guiana as the main destination of convicts transported from France. The convict population in New Caledonia accounted for the great majority of French residents there.
At the height of deportation, the islands’ population of 50,000 comprised around 30,000 Kanak, 6000 convicts, 4000 political exiles (including Communards), 3000 soldiers, 2750 civilians and 1250 freed convicts. Of the four principal penitentiaries, the Isle of Pines was designated for Communard deportees exclusively.
Roughly two-thirds of these Communards had received a simple deporation sentence, which meant they could live in small villages on the Isle of Pines. A smaller number were forced to serve out their deportation in a fortified place (usually the Ducos Peninsula), and about 300 were sent to Nou with a sentence of hard labour.
In 1874 six Communards – among them the high-profile Henri Rochefort – escaped from the Ducos peninsula and managed to reach Sydney, where they exposed the maltreatment of political prisoners in New Caledonia in the media. This, however, only resulted in a backlash from the French authorities, further restricting the prisoners’ privileges and largely preventing social interraction between the Communards and the Kanak population.
However, during the Kanak insurrection in 1878, the Communards expressed support for Kanak self-determination in their own newspapers.
With the weight of public sympathy in their favour, the question of an amnesty for the Communards became a political issue in France. In January 1879 mass pardons were granted which excused many of the convicted deportees in New Caledonia.
These men were allowed to return to France, but more than 1000 were forced to remain in exile because their sentences had been associated with crimes of violence. It was not until July 1880 that a total amnesty was ratified by the French parliament. Ultimately, a significant number of Communards chose not to return home and settled instead in New Caledonia, the Australian colonies, or New Zealand.
