Pétroleuses

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 (similar to modern-day Molotov cocktails) 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 unnatural, 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 is not much heard anymore nowadays — "pétrolette", not "pétroleuse."

References

* Robert Tombs, "The War Against Paris: 1871"
* Gay Gullickson, "Unruly Women of Paris"