Everything about P Troleuses totally explained
According to popular rumours at the time, the
pétroleuses were female supporters of the
Paris Commune, accused of burning down much of
Paris during the last days of the Commune in May
1871. During May, when Paris was being recaptured by loyalist
Versaillais troops, rumours circulated that lower-class women were committing
arson against private property and public buildings, using bottles full of
petroleum or
paraffin which they threw into cellar windows, in a deliberate act of
spite against the government. Many Parisian buildings, including the
Hôtel de Ville and the
Tuileries Palace, were burned down during the last days of the Commune, prompting government forces to blame the mythical
pétroleuses.
Recent research by historians of the
Paris Commune, such as Robert Tombs and Gay Gullickson, has revealed that there were in fact no proven incidents of deliberate
arson, and that no women were actually convicted as
pétroleuses. Of the thousands of suspected pro-Communard women tried in
Versailles after the Commune ended, only a handful were convicted of any crimes, and their convictions were based on activity such as shooting at loyalist troops, not
arson. Official trial records made by the Versaillais authorities, and kept classified until the
twentieth century, reveal that no women were ever convicted of arson, and that accusations of the crime were quickly shown to have no basis whatsoever. The buildings destroyed at the end of the Commune were not burned down by
pétroleuses. The
Hôtel de Ville was destroyed by bitter members of the
National Guard as they retreated. The buildings along the
Rue de Rivoli burned down during street-fighting between Communards and Versaillais troops, whilst other buildings were destroyed by
incendiary shells. Despite the popular myth of the
pétroleuses, no women were ever convicted of deliberate
arson. Gullickson suggests that instead, the myth of the
pétroleuses was part of a propaganda campaign by Versaillais politicians, who portrayed Parisian women in the Commune as unnnatural, destructive, and barbaric, giving loyalist forces a moral victory over the "unnatural" Communards.
Despite this, the myth of
pétroleuses was widely believed until the
twentieth century. In Paris itself, the sale of flammable liquids was banned for several months after the end of the Commune (a measure taken again during the
2005 riots).
Linguistics
Some might believe that in current
French,
pétroleuse is also a slang word for a moped/scooter.
In fact, the French term for moped/scooter is — or used to be, since it isn't much heard anymore nowadays — "pétrolette", not "pétroleuse." The latter thus remains distinctively referent for Communardes, and their worthy or unworthy female followers (1968 leftists, radicals, feminists, etc)
Further Information
Get more info on 'P Troleuses'.
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