1. Dreyfus Affair
Not as hot as it sounds

2. Captain Alfred Dreyfus
• French intelligence
officer
• Jewish in an age of
anti-semitism
• Accused of treason in
passing on artillery
secrets to Germans in
1894

4. Devil’s Island
• Devil’s
Island was a
South
American
penal colony
• Dreyfus has
a life
sentence of
hard Labor

5. Questions of doubt
• Lt. Col. Piquart, new chief of Military
Intelligence, doubted Dreyfus’ guilt
• Instead suspected Major Ferdinand
Esterhazy
• When Piquart refused to keep quiet,
his career was ruined by being
stationed in disease-filled colonial
backwaters

6. Emil Zola gets involved
• Writes a blistering
criticism of the
establishment
• Accuses the
government of
being in league
with the military
and church in
anti-semitism and
anti-liberalism

7. New trial in 1898
• Esterhazy found innocent and
Dreyfus’s guilt reinforced
• Major Henry (a friend of Esterhazy’s)
was shown to have forged documents
incriminating Dreyfus but this
information was supressed at the trial

8. France Torn Asunder!
• Conservatives vs. Liberals
• Militarists vs. Arts Crowd
• Catholics vs. non-Catholics
• Patriots vs. Free-thinkers

9. Pardon Me?
• Pardoned by
President Emile
Loubet in 1899
• Massive public
opinion pressure
to pardon him,
especially from
Zola’s
supporters

10. Fully exonerated!
• Found innocent in 1906
• Reinstated to military rank
• Given the Legion of Honor
• Served in WWI