Illustration of the fall of the Vendome Column, Paris, France, on 16th May 1871. The column was a monument to Napoleon Bonapartes Army in the victory over Austria and Russia in the Battle of Austerlitz (1805). The column was toppled during the uprising of the Paris Commune after France had lost the Franco-Prussian War (September 1870 to January 1871). Engraving by Gustave Courbet (1871).