I think it’s about time I start blogging again, I
cannot believe it’s taken me this long to blog up these notes, I suppose
it will help towards revision, however, the Dreyfus affair will be my big
(mediocre) return to the stage... It’s kind of a stage alright, jeeze way to
rub that one in. Enjoy!
Background information: Picture it, The Franco-Prussian war and the growing
influence of Prussia under Bismarck who tried to unify Germany, they tempted
Napoleon III into war by using media propaganda and by provoking them – they
essentially humiliated the French into war, without any allies.
1871 – France suffered a savage defeat and their leader,
Napoleon was captured this was a very humiliating for the French as they were
very proud of their army. While all other places in France fell, Paris is the
only one to resist and would not surrender. Paris eventually fell in the siege
of Paris to the Germans/Prussians. There were roughly two million odd people in
Paris at this time and they were surrounded by German forces, they had a
massive problem feeding people and so if it wasn’t enough already the French
people left had to live off scraps from the trash and they even broke into the
Zoo and eat any animals they could find, the Germans really wanted to prove
their dominance it would seem and they definitely succeeded. Furthermore, the
people in Paris tried to reach out to other places but to no avail.
The Paris Commune: The people of Paris eventually gave in and the land lords
started to return to Paris and began to charge the poor people rent and
interest – the new government had a majority of royalists who wanted to restore
the monarchy. The people didn't want to have a monarchy because they didn’t
want a repeat of Napoleon III’s actions or to be charged while they had to
suffer and so they rose up and this is what is known as the Paris commune, it
was essentially what Marx spoke about – the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The commune was established March 18th – May
28th 1871 – Lenin called it the ‘festival of the oppressed’, the
people who joined the commune were radicals, they were highly socialist,
Marxist and anarchists, furthermore, women played an important role in the
commune and they were highly influential. The Commune introduced social reform,
nurseries so women could work and so on and they also improved working
conditions (so no night shifts). However, this was short lived because the
commune was pretty much obliterated in a cruelest way possible, thousands of
people were executed, women, children and men all killed for being part of the
commune.
The Dreyfus Affair: Even thought the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian
war in 1871 was still lingering, France managed to rebuild and consolidate its
safety but when this happened they randomly started hating bad on Jewish people
in France - blaming them for all the problems that France had encountered as
they were seen as the "money people" (good job France) this all flourished
from politicians being bribed to stay quiet about company's financial problems,
these bribes were organised by two Jewish people and this is believed to be
what sparked off anti-Semitism in France.
The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that divided
France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason
in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of
Jewish descent. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having
communicated French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, Dreyfus on
trail for a Court Martial and they found him guilty of treason and sent him to
Devil's Island for almost 5 years. They looked into the evidence of this case
some time down the road and found it to be wrong, the real culprit who leaked
military secrets was a man called Esterhazy - however the superiors decided to
leave it alone, they would better to blame it on a Jew (just cause everyone was
now doing it... followers) than have the French military be hilariously
humiliated yet again. However, they put Esterhazy on trial in a military court
but he was found innocent, this lead to the famous French Journalist, Emile
Zola to write his article "J'accuse". This article accused the
government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus. He pointed
out errors and lack of evidence. The letter was printed on the front page of
the newspaper, and was very controversial. Zola was prosecuted and found guilty
of libel so he fled to England.
That's all for now friends, however I have many more blog
posts to catch up on, just as well its before my exam as well cause lord knows I
could do with the revision :)
Stay classy, Winchester x (I've missed saying that)
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