The Dreyfus Affair In France

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The Dreyfus affair was a scandal which rocked France for 12 years. It comprised of a Jewish staff officer named Alfred Dreyfus who was falsely convicted of giving French military secrets to the Germans. This came about when a ripped up letter was found in a bin at the German Embassy in Paris which had similar handwriting to that of Dreyfus. He was sent to Devil’s Island to serve a life sentence. It became such a huge scandal due to all of the speculation surrounding Dreyfus’ guilt or innocence. In 1896, Georges Picquart, ‘uncovered evidence pointing to another French military officer, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, as the real traitor.’ Once Picquart reported his findings he was told to stop his investigation, sent to Tunisia and then imprisoned. …show more content…

‘The themes would not change: hatred of the Jew, hatred of Germany, love of the homeland and the Army which embodied it, and fear of treason.’ Unfortunately, anti-Dreyfusard media was more influential as it reached more people. They had six newspapers with 2,170,000 readers whereas the Dreyfusard’s only had two newspapers with 200,000 readers. The uses of media from left and right were polar opposite. ‘The right used it to fanaticise the anti-Semitic masses, while the left cunningly manoeuvred its articles to denounce the conspiracy the army was carrying out.’ This use of the press divided France and opinion resulting in confusion for many with regards to who they should support in the Dreyfus affair.
On the other hand, France saw many positive outcomes of the Dreyfus Affair. The corruption of the Anti-Dreyfusards was exposed which discredited their reputation. It was clear to see that the army were in agreement with the statement ‘better that one man should suffer than the prestige of the French Army should be undermined in the face of the nation’s enemy.’ This can be seen as a positive as the truth was revealed in the end, gave triumph to those that had fought righteously and France was cleansed of

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