Editing Dreyfus affair (section)

== Contexts ==

=== Political ===
In 1894, the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] was twenty-four years old. Although the [[Seize Mai|16 May Crisis]] in 1877 had crippled the political influence of both the [[Legitimists|Bourbon]] and [[Orléanist]] [[Monarchism in France|royalists]], its ministries continued to be short-lived as the country lurched from crisis to crisis: three years immediately preceding the Dreyfus affair were the [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|near-coup of Georges Boulanger]] in 1889, the [[Panama scandals]] in 1892, and the [[Anarchism|anarchist]] threat (reduced by the "[[Lois scélérates|villainous laws]]" of July 1894). The [[1893 French legislative election|elections of 1893]] were focused on the "social question" and resulted in a Republican victory (just under half the seats) against the conservative right, and the reinforcement of the Radicals (about 150 seats) and Socialists (about 50 seats).

The opposition of the Radicals and Socialists resulted in a centrist government with policies oriented towards economic protectionism, a certain indifference to social issues, a willingness to break international isolation, the Russian alliance, and development of the colonial empire. These centrist policies resulted in cabinet instability, with some Republican members of the government sometimes aligning with the radicals and some [[Orléanists]] aligning with the [[Legitimists]] in five successive governments from 1893 to 1896. This instability coincided with an equally unstable presidency: President [[Marie Francois Sadi Carnot|Sadi Carnot]] was assassinated on 24 June 1894; his moderate successor [[Jean Casimir-Perier]] resigned several months later on 15 January 1895 and was replaced by [[Félix Faure]].

Following the failure of the radical government of [[Léon Bourgeois]] in 1896, the president appointed [[Jules Méline]] as prime minister. His government faced the opposition of the left and of some Republicans (including the Progressive Union) and made sure to keep the support of the right. He sought to appease religious, social, and economic tensions and conducted a fairly conservative policy. He succeeded in improving stability, and it was under this stable government that the Dreyfus affair occurred.<ref>For these three paragraphs, cf. Jean-Marie Mayeur, ''The Beginnings of the Third Republic'', Éditions du Seuil, 1973, pp. 209–217. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

=== Military ===
[[File:Raoul de Boisdeffre - photo Eugène Pirou.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre|General Raoul Le Mouton de Boisdeffre]], architect of the military alliance with Russia]]

The Dreyfus affair occurred in the context of German annexation of [[Alsace]] and [[Moselle (department)|Moselle]], an event that fed the most extreme nationalism. The [[Franco-Prussian War|traumatic defeat]] of France in 1870 seemed far away, but a vengeful spirit remained. 

The military required considerable resources to prepare for the next conflict, and it was in this spirit that the [[Franco-Russian Alliance]] of 27 August 1892 was signed, although some opponents thought it "against nature".<ref group="Note">[[Auguste Scheurer-Kestner]] in a speech in the Senate.</ref> The army had recovered from the defeat, but many of its officers were aristocrats and monarchists. Cult of the flag and contempt for the parliamentary republic prevailed in the army.<ref>Duclert, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', p. 5. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> The Republic celebrated its army; the army ignored the Republic.

Over the previous ten years the army had undergone a significant shift resulting from its twofold aim to democratize and modernize. The graduates of the [[École Polytechnique]] now competed effectively with officers from the main career path of [[Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr|Saint-Cyr]], which caused strife, bitterness, and jealousy among junior officers expecting promotions. The period was also marked by an [[arms race]] that primarily affected artillery. There were improvements in heavy artillery (guns of 120&nbsp;mm and 155&nbsp;mm, [[Obusier de 120 mm C modèle 1890|Models 1890 Baquet]], new hydropneumatic brakes), but also, and especially, development of the ultra-secret [[Canon de 75 modèle 1897|75mm gun]].<ref>On the appearance of the 75&nbsp;mm gun see: Doise, ''A Secret well guarded'', p. 9. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

The operation of military counterintelligence, alias the "Statistics Section" (SR), should be noted. Spying as a tool for secret war was a novelty as an organised activity by governments in the late 19th century. The Statistics Section was created in 1871 but consisted of only a handful of officers and civilians. Its head in 1894 was Lieutenant-Colonel [[Jean Sandherr]], a graduate of [[Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr|Saint-Cyr]], an Alsatian from [[Mulhouse]], and a convinced antisemite. Its military mission was clear: to retrieve information about potential enemies of France and to feed them false information. The Statistics Section was supported by the "Secret Affairs" of the Quai d'Orsay at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was headed by a young diplomat, [[Maurice Paléologue]].

The arms race created an acute atmosphere of intrigue from 1890 in French [[Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage|counter-espionage]]. One of the missions of the section was to spy on the German Embassy at Rue de Lille in Paris to thwart any attempt by the French to transmit important information to the Germans. This was especially critical since several cases of [[espionage]] had already been featured in the headlines of newspapers, which were fond of [[sensationalism]]. In 1890, the archivist Boutonnet was convicted for selling plans of shells that used [[Picric acid|melinite]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chapentier |first1=Armand |title=The Dreyfus case |date=1935 |publisher=[[Geoffrey Bles]]|location=London |oclc=1171284758 |page=259|translator-last1= May|translator-first1=J. Lewis|author-link1=:fr:Armand Charpentier |translator-link1=:s:Author:James Lewis May}}</ref>

The German military attaché in Paris in 1894 was Count [[Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen]], who developed a policy of infiltration that appears to have been effective. In the 1880s Schwartzkoppen had begun an affair with an Italian military attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Count [[Alessandro Panizzardi]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/germany/berlin/gay-love-sheds-light-on-laffaire-dreyfus-9f3v8lcb9sx|title=Gay love sheds light on l'affaire Dreyfus {{!}} The Times|language=en-GB|access-date=17 August 2016|last1=Bremner|first1=Charles}}</ref> While neither had anything to do with Dreyfus, their intimate and erotic correspondence (e.g. "Don't exhaust yourself with too much buggery."),<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/28/trial-of-the-century|title=Trial of the Century|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=17 August 2016}}</ref> which was obtained by the authorities, lent an air of truth to other documents that were forged by prosecutors to lend retroactive credibility to Dreyfus's conviction as a spy. Some of these forgeries referred to the real affair between the two officers; in one, Alessandro supposedly informed his lover that if "Dreyfus is brought in for questioning", they must both claim that they "never had any dealings with that Jew.&nbsp;... Clearly, no one can ever know what happened with him."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-12/dreyfus-proust-and-the-crimes-of-the-belle-epoque|title=Dreyfus, Proust and the Crimes of the Belle Epoque|last=Weber|first=Caroline|author-link=Caroline Weber (author)|date=13 March 2013|newspaper=Bloomberg.com|access-date=17 August 2016|archive-date=2 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102022358/http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-03-12/dreyfus-proust-and-the-crimes-of-the-belle-epoque|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The letters, real and fake, provided a convenient excuse for placing the entire Dreyfus dossier under seal, given that exposure of the liaison would have 'dishonoured' Germany and Italy's military and compromised diplomatic relations. As homosexuality was, like Judaism, then often perceived as a sign of national degeneration, recent historians have suggested that combining them to inflate the scandal may have shaped the prosecution strategy.<ref name="Idier">{{Cite journal|last=Idier|first=Antoine|date=23 October 2012|title=Pierre Gervais, Pauline Peretz, Pierre Stutin, Le dossier secret de l'affaire Dreyfus|url=https://lectures.revues.org/9588|journal=Lectures|doi=10.4000/lectures.9588|language=fr|issn=2116-5289|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="mediapart.fr">{{cite web|url=https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-idees/070308/l-affaire-dreyfus-est-aussi-une-affaire-d-homophobie?onglet=full|title=L'affaire Dreyfus est aussi une affaire d'homophobie|date=26 March 2008|language=fr-FR|access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref>

Since early 1894, the Statistics Section had investigated traffic in master plans for Nice and the Meuse conducted by an officer whom the Germans and Italians nicknamed Dubois. This is what led to the origins of the Dreyfus affair.

=== Social ===
[[File:Amnistie populaire - Musée des Horreurs 35.jpg|thumb|''No. 35 Amnistie populaire'' of the ''Musée des Horreurs'' depicts the hanged corpse of an antisemitic caricature of Alfred Dreyfus.<ref name=":2" />]]
The social context was marked by the rise of nationalism and antisemitism. The growth of antisemitism, virulent since the publication of ''Jewish France'' by [[Édouard Drumont]] in 1886 (150,000 copies in the first year), went hand in hand with the rise of [[clericalism]]. Tensions were high in all strata of society, fueled by an influential press, which was virtually free to write and disseminate any information even if offensive or defamatory. Legal risks were limited if the target was a private person.

Antisemitism did not spare the military, which practised hidden discrimination with the "cote d'amour" (a subjective assessment of personal acceptability) system of irrational grading, encountered by Dreyfus in his application to the Bourges School.<ref>Bach, ''The Army of Dreyfus'', p. 534. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> However, while prejudices of this nature undoubtedly existed within the confines of the General Staff, the French Army as a whole was relatively open to individual talent. At the time of the Dreyfus affair there were an estimated 300 Jewish officers in the army (about 3 per cent of the total), of whom ten were generals.<ref>{{cite book|first=Piers Paul|last=Reid|page=83|title=The Dreyfus Affair|isbn=978-1-4088-3057-4|date=February 2013|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc }}</ref>

The popularity of the duel using sword or small pistol, sometimes causing death, bore witness to the tensions of the period. When a series of press articles in ''[[La Libre Parole]]''<ref>''The Jews in the army''</ref> accused Jewish officers of "betraying their birth", the officers challenged the editors. Captain Crémieu-Foa, a Jewish Alsatian graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique, fought unsuccessfully against Drumont<ref name=":0">Frederick Viey [https://web.archive.org/web/20120713022621/http://www.judaicultures.info/histoire-6/Dans-la-Modernite-du-XIXo-s-a-nos/article/l-antisemitisme-dans-l-armee-l ''Anti-Semitism in the Army: The Coblentz Affair at Fontainebleau''.] {{in lang|fr}}</ref> and against M. de Lamase, who was the author of the articles. Captain Mayer, another Jewish officer, was killed by the [[Marquis de Morès]], a friend of Drumont, in another duel.

Hatred of Jews was now public and violent, driven by a firebrand (Drumont) who demonized the Jewish presence in France. Jews in metropolitan France in 1895 numbered about 80,000 (40,000 in Paris alone), who were highly integrated into society; an additional 45,000 Jews lived in [[Algeria]]. The launch of ''La Libre Parole'' with a circulation estimated at 200,000 copies in 1892,<ref>Miquel, ''The Third Republic'', p. 391. {{in lang|fr}}</ref> allowed Drumont to expand his audience to a popular readership already enticed by the [[Georges Ernest Boulanger|boulangiste]] adventure in the past. The antisemitism circulated by ''La Libre Parole'', as well as by ''L'Éclair'', ''[[Le Petit Journal (newspaper)|Le Petit Journal]]'', ''La Patrie'', ''L'Intransigeant'' and ''[[La Croix (newspaper)|La Croix]]'', drew on antisemitic roots in certain Catholic circles.<ref>Duclert, ''The Dreyfus Affair'', p. 8. {{in lang|fr}}</ref>

Publications remarking on the Dreyfus affair often reinforced antisemitic sentiments, language and imagery. The ''{{ill|Musée des Horreurs|fr|Musée des horreurs}}'' was a collection of anti-Dreyfus posters illustrated by Victor Lenepveu during the Dreyfus affair. Lenepveu caricatured "prominent Jews, Dreyfus supporters, and Republican statesman".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Musée des Horreurs / Digital Collections / Duke Digital Repository |url=https://repository.duke.edu/dc/museedeshorreurs |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Duke Digital Collections |language=en}}</ref> ''No. 35 Amnistie populaire'' depicts the corpse of Dreyfus himself as it dangles from a noose. Large noses, money, and Lenepveu's general tendency to illustrate subjects with bodies of animals likely contributed to the dissemination of antisemitism in French popular culture.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=No. 35 Amnistie populaire / Musée des Horreurs / Duke Digital Repository |url=https://repository.duke.edu/dc/museedeshorreurs/mdhps01001039 |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Duke Digital Collections |language=en}}</ref>