THE FOUNDING OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC (_continued_) The seemingly suicidal energy shown in the civil strifes at Paris served still further to depress the fortunes of France.

On the very day when the Versailles troops entered the walls of Paris, Thiers and Favre signed the treaty of peace at Frankfurt.

The terms were substantially those agreed on in the preliminaries of February, but the terms of payment of the indemnity were harder than before.

Resistance was hopeless.

In truth, the Iron Chancellor had recently used very threatening language: he accused the French Government of bad faith in procuring the release of a large force of French prisoners, ostensibly for the overthrow of the Commune, but really in order to patch up matters with the "Reds" of Paris and renew the war with Germany.
Misrepresentations and threats like these induced Thiers and Favre to agree to the German demands, which took form in the Treaty of Frankfurt (May 10, 1871).
Peace having been duly ratified on the hard terms[65], it remained to build up France almost _de nova_.