Dreyfus Affair

The Dreyfus affair is a major political scandal that convulses France from 1894 until its resolution in 1906, and will then have reverberations for decades more.

The conduct of the affair will become a modern and universal symbol of injustice.

It remains one of the most striking examples of a complex miscarriage of justice in which a central role is played by the press and public opinion.

At issue is blatant anti-Semitism as practiced by the French Army and defended by conservatives and Catholic traditionalists against secular center-left, left and republican forces, including most Jews.

In the end, the latter will triumph.

The affair begins in November 1894 with the conviction for treason of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent.

He is sentenced to life imprisonment for communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris and sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island in French Guiana (nicknamed la guillotine sèche, the dry guillotine), where he will spend almost five years.

Two years later, evidence comes to light that identifies a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the real spy.

After high-ranking military officials suppress  the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquits Esterhazy.

In response, the Army brings up additional charges against Dreyfus based on false documents.

Word of the military court's attempts to frame Dreyfus begin to spread, chiefly owing to the polemic J'accuse, a vehement open letter published in a Paris newspaper in January 1898 by the notable writer Émile Zola.

Activists put pressure on the government to re-open the case.

In 1899, Dreyfus is returned to France for another trial.

The intense political and judicial scandal that ensues divides French society between those who support Dreyfus (now called "Dreyfusards"), such as Anatole France, Henri Poincaré and Georges Clemenceau, and those who condemn him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as Édouard Drumont, the director and publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper La Libre Parole.

The new trial results in another conviction and a ten-year sentence, but Dreyfus is given a pardon and set free.

Eventually all the accusations against him will be demonstrated to be baseless, and in 1906, Dreyfus will be exonerated and re-instated as a major in the French Army.

From 1894 to 1906, the scandal divides France deeply and lastingly into two opposing camps: the pro-Army "anti-Dreyfusards" composed of conservatives, Catholic traditionalists and monarchists who generally lose the initiative to the anti-clerical, pro-republican "Dreyfusards", with strong support from intellectuals and teachers.

It embitters French politics and facilitates the increasing influence of radical politicians on both sides of the political spectrum.

Atlantic West Europe (1888–1899): Industrial Peak, Social Reform, and Cultural Shifts

From 1888 to 1899, Atlantic West Europe—encompassing northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and regions along the Atlantic and English Channel coasts—experienced continued industrial growth, deepening colonial engagements, significant social reforms, and dynamic cultural shifts. This era was marked by the heightening of class tensions, major advances in science and technology, intensified colonial rivalries, and profound cultural innovation at the turn of the century.

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Political and Military Developments

Stability and Dreyfus Affair in France

• France’s Third Republic enjoyed relative stability under presidents Sadi Carnot (1887–1894) and Félix Faure(1895–1899), but internal divisions intensified dramatically with the Dreyfus Affair (1894–1899), which polarized French society, exacerbating political and social tensions between republicans, conservatives, and anti-Semitic factions.

Belgian Colonial Consolidation

• Under King Leopold II, Belgium intensified its exploitation of the Congo Free State, extracting vast resources (rubber, ivory, minerals) through brutal forced labor, leading to international criticism and humanitarian condemnation by the decade’s end.

• Domestically, Belgium maintained parliamentary stability, balancing liberal reforms with conservative interests amid growing demands for social change.

Continued Parliamentary Stability in the Netherlands and Luxembourg

• The Netherlands, under Queen Wilhelmina (from 1890), sustained political stability, with progressive social reforms gradually addressing labor conditions and expanding democratic participation.

• Luxembourg remained politically tranquil and economically prosperous, leveraging its strategic neutrality and banking sector to strengthen its economy.

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Economic Developments: Industrial Peak and Technological Innovation

Industrial Dominance and Technological Progress

• Northern France solidified its industrial leadership, particularly in textiles, coal, and metallurgy. Cities like Lille, Roubaix, and Dunkirk expanded significantly, driven by advances in steel manufacturing and chemical industries.

• Belgium’s coalfields in Wallonia, steel industries in Liège, and expanding infrastructure sustained rapid industrial growth, despite underlying social inequalities and labor tensions.

Expansion of Maritime Commerce

• The ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Dunkirk, and Le Havre flourished, dramatically expanding trade capacity. Rotterdam's harbor expansion notably established it as Europe's most significant maritime trade hub by the century's end.

• Maritime infrastructure improvements facilitated growing international trade, reinforcing Atlantic West Europe's economic integration within global markets.

Technological Innovations and Infrastructure

• Significant advancements in electricity, telecommunications, railways, and manufacturing technology boosted productivity. The Netherlands and Belgium notably pioneered electrical infrastructure projects, lighting urban centers and powering industrial expansion.

• Rapid railroad expansion facilitated internal trade, labor mobility, and urbanization across the region.

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Social Developments: Rising Labor Movements and Social Legislation

Labor Unrest and Socialist Advocacy

• Industrial workers in France and Belgium increasingly mobilized, demanding better working conditions, higher wages, and political rights. Significant strikes, notably the Belgian general strikes (1886, 1893), pressured governments into granting incremental reforms.

• Socialist parties in France (POF, led by Jules Guesde and Jean Jaurès), Belgium (Belgian Workers’ Party, founded in 1885), and the Netherlands gained political influence, pushing progressive agendas in national parliaments.

Expansion of Social Legislation

• Influenced by persistent labor unrest and socialist advocacy, Belgium and the Netherlands introduced significant social legislation: improved factory safety laws, reduced working hours, and early social insurance schemes for accidents and illness.

Women’s Rights Movements

• Growing feminist activism emerged prominently in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, advocating women's suffrage, education reform, and greater economic independence. Notable figures such as Hubertine Auclert (France) actively promoted women’s rights, laying foundations for later suffrage successes.

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Cultural and Intellectual Developments

Artistic Movements: Post-Impressionism and Symbolism

• The artistic scene transitioned from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism and Symbolism, profoundly reshaping European visual culture. Artists like Vincent van Gogh, active in France and the Netherlands during this decade, and Paul Gauguin transformed painting, exploring emotional depth, bold colors, and symbolic imagery.

• Belgium became a center of Symbolist art, particularly through artists like Fernand Khnopff and James Ensor, who captured modern anxieties and mystical themes.

Literary and Philosophical Innovations

• Literary movements reflected deeper psychological introspection and social critique. In France, writers such as Émile Zola and Guy de Maupassant produced works that vividly portrayed contemporary social realities, while Symbolist poets like Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine explored new literary aesthetics and emotional expression.

Advances in Science and Technology

• Scientific advancements flourished, notably the discoveries of Henri Becquerel in radioactivity (1896), followed by research from Marie and Pierre Curie, fundamentally reshaping physics and chemistry.

• Technological breakthroughs in electricity, communications (telephone and telegraph networks), and early automotive engineering positioned Atlantic West Europe at the forefront of innovation.

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Religious and Educational Developments

Secularization and Church-State Conflicts

• Secularization deepened, particularly in France, where ongoing struggles between the Catholic Church and secular republicans intensified with the Dreyfus Affair, fueling political polarization and reinforcing secular education and civil institutions.

Education and Literacy Expansion

• France, Belgium, and the Netherlands continued investing in universal primary education, significantly increasing literacy rates, promoting social mobility, and stimulating vibrant intellectual discourse.

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Urbanization and Social Dynamics

Rapid Urbanization and Infrastructure

• Major cities such as Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam rapidly expanded infrastructure, including transportation networks (tramways, railways), sanitation systems, and public services, reflecting significant municipal investment in urban planning and public health.

Persistent Social Inequalities

• Despite economic prosperity, stark inequalities persisted. Wealth concentrated among industrialists, merchants, and financial elites contrasted sharply with urban working-class poverty, fueling continued social activism and political tension.

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Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The period 1888–1899 represented a crucial phase in Atlantic West Europe’s transition to modernity:

• Politically, the Dreyfus Affair highlighted profound ideological and social divisions, foreshadowing future political and social conflicts within France.

• Economically, the region reached a peak in industrial and maritime expansion, integrating deeply into global trade networks, while technological innovation laid groundwork for 20th-century modernity.

• Socially, the growth of labor, socialist, and women’s movements fostered incremental social reforms, setting important precedents for the welfare states of the 20th century.

• Culturally, artistic and literary innovation significantly influenced European aesthetics, ushering in modernist sensibilities, while scientific discoveries established new paradigms in global thought.

By 1899, Atlantic West Europe stood as a culturally dynamic, economically prosperous, yet socially divided region—poised on the threshold of dramatic social, political, and technological transformations that would characterize the tumultuous early decades of the 20th century.

The turning point in Theodor Herzl's thinking on the Jewish question occurs during the 1894 Paris trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, on charges of treason.

Dreyfus is convicted on December 22 and sentenced to life imprisonment on the infamous penal colony of Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guiana.

Herzl had become aware of the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in French society while working as Paris correspondent for a Viennese newspaper.

He sees that emancipation, rather than dissipating anti-Semitism, has exacerbated popular animosity toward the Jews.

The tearing down of the ghetto walls places Jews in competition with non-Jews.

Moreover, the newly liberated Jew is blamed by much of non-Jewish French society for the socioeconomic upheaval caused by both emancipation and accelerated industrialization.

Herzl, born in Budapest on May 2, 1860, had grown up in an environment of assimilation.

He was educated in Vienna as a lawyer but instead became a journalist and playwright.

By the early 1890s, Herzl had achieved some recognition in Vienna and other major European cities, but is only identified peripherally with Jewish culture and politics.

He is unfamiliar with earlier Zionist writings (and he will later note in his diary that he would not have written his book had he known the contents of Leon Pinsker's Auto-Emancipation).

Edgar Degas visits Musée Ingres at Montaubon with Albert Bartholomé.

He also breaks off his long friendship with the Halévys over the Dreyfus Affair.

Maurice Barrés and Charles Maurras argue for the supremacy of the national State.

In 1890, Maurras had approved Cardinal Lavigerie's call for the rallying of Catholics to the Republic, thus making his opposition not to the Republic in itself, but to "sectarian Republicanism"

Beside this Orleanist affiliation, Maurras shared some traits with Bonapartism.

In December 1887, he had demonstrated to the cry of "Down with the robbers!" during the military decorations trafficking scandal, which had involved Daniel Wilson, the son-in-law of President Jules Grévy.

Despite this, he initially opposed the nationalist-populist Boulangist philosophy, but in 1889, after a visit to Maurice Barrès, Barrès voted for the Boulangist candidate; despite his "anti-Semitism of the heart" ("anti-sémitisme de coeur"), he decided to vote for a Jew.

During 1894–95 Maurras briefly worked for Barrès' newspaper La Cocarde (The Cockade), although he sometimes opposed Barrès' opinions concerning the French Revolution.

La Cocarde supported General Boulanger, who had become a threat to the parliamentary Republic in the late 1880s.

During a trip to Athens for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, Maurras came to criticize the Greek democratic system of the polis, which he considers doomed because of its internal divisions and its openness towards métèques (foreigners).

Maurras had become involved in politics at the time of the Dreyfus affair, becoming a well-known Anti-Dreyfusard.

He endorsed Colonel Henry's forgery blaming Dreyfus, as he considered that defending Dreyfus weakened the Army and the justice system.

According to Maurras, Dreyfus was to be sacrificed on the altar of national interest, but while the Republican nationalist thinker Barrès accused Dreyfus of being guilty because of his Jewishness, Maurras had gone a step further, vilifying the "Jewish Republic".

While Barrès' anti-Semitism originates both in pseudo-scientific racist contemporary theories and Biblical exegesis, Maurras decries "scientific racism" in favor of a more radical "state anti-Semitism."

Maurras assists with the foundation of the nationalist and anti-Dreyfusard Ligue de la patrie française at the end of 1898, along with Maurice Barrès, the geographer Marcel Dubois, the poet François Coppée and the critic and literature professor Jules Lemaître.