Dreyfus Affair

1

• Dreyfus Affair
• World War I
• Between the wars
• World War II

2
Dreyfus Affair 1894-1906

3
Chronology

• 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus convicted by a
  military court for treason accused of spying
  for the Germans
• 1895-99 Sent to a prison island
• 1896 Bernard Lazare publishes book The Truth
  about the Dreyfus Affair
• 1898 Emile Zola writes JAccuse (I Accuse)
  article criticizing the governments actions
• 1899 Dreyfus retried and found guilty
• 1899 Pardoned by the President
• 1904 Supreme Court reviews the conviction
• 1906 Declared innocent

4
Consequences

• Profoundly divided France
• Anti-Dreyfus Monarchists, reactionary
  nationalists, Church, army
• Pro-Dreyfus republicans and socialists
• Strengthened the Republic
• Republican parties
• Socialists
• Republic associated with human rights, justice
• Weakened the Church
• Enabled the separation of Church and State in
  1905
• Shift in the nature of anti-Semitism from Church
  based to a right-wing political ideology
• LAction française right-wing political group
  under Charles Maurras
• Le Front National (political party)
• The press becomes an important tool in public
  opinion
• Still creates divisions

5
Rise of labor

• 1896 Confédération générale du travail (CGT)
  important union
• 1905 Unification of two majors socialist parties
  into the French Section of the Workers
  International (SFIO).
• SFIO becomes Socialist Party in 1969

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World War I (1914-1918)

• France, England, Russia (Allies) vs. Germany,
  Austria-Hungary (Central Powers)
• US declares war (1917) and Russia withdraws after
  Russian Revolution (1918)
• More deadly technology
• Machine guns
• Poison gas
• Airplanes
• Tanks
• Trench warfare
• Battle of Verdun nearly 1,000,000 deaths
  (Allies and German) over a small piece of
  territory
• Philippe Pétain victorious French general of
  Verdun
• Battle of the Somme (River) 1916 1.5 million
  causalities (both sides)

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Consequences of World War I

• CASUALITIES (French)
• 1.3 million soldiers killed
• 3 million disabled soldiers (1 million of them
  permanent invalids)
• 200,000 civilians killed
• DESTRUCTION
• 1 million buildings destroyed
• much agricultural land made infertile in eastern
  France
• loss of 1 million sheep, 1 million head of
  cattle, 500,000 horses
• ECONOMIC IMPACT - catastrophic currency
  devaluation
• FRENCH GAINS
• Alsace and Lorraine won back from Germany
• increased colonial possessions

8
After the war

• Treaty of Versailles 1919
• Return of Alsace-Lorraine
• Economic cost
• Demographic cost
• Influx of foreigners

9
French Demographics