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I. France: Travails of the Third Republic
1890s
a. 1890s: fragile Third Republic experienced another crisis, which was evidence of the renewed anti-Semitism of Europe
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1895
- a. 1895: Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew and a captain in thee French general staff, was found guilty by a secret military court of selling army secrets and condemned to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island= innocent
- i. Another officer, a Catholic aristocrat, was the traitor, but the Catholic refused new trial
- ii. The case pushed anti-Semitic views
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Republican leaders
- i. Republic leaders however, insisted on a new trial after public outrage
- 1. Although it failed to set aside the guilty verdict, the government pardoned Dreyfus and he was exonerated
- b. Impact of Dreyfus affair extended beyond France
- i. Convinced Theodor Herzl, who covered the trial for a Viennese newspaper, that assimilation didn’t protect Jews from anti-Semitism
- 1. He said jews needed a country of their ownà Zionist movement
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Dreyfus affair in France
- a. In France, the Dreyfus affair led to a change in government
- i. Moderate republicans lost control to radical republicans who were determined to make greater progress toward a more democratic society by breaking the power of the Republic’s enemies, especially the army and the Catholic Church
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Army
- 1. Army got rid of all antirepublical officers
- 2. Most Catholic religious orders that controlled Frenech schools were forced to eleave France
- a. Church and state separated in 1905à government seized church property and stopped paying clerical salaries
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These changes
- i. These changes ended the political threat from the right to the Third Republic, which commanded the loyalty of most French people
- 1. Problems remained
- a. Nation of small businessmen and farmers, the French were behind Great Britain, Germany, and the US in industrial activity
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Surge of industrialization
- i. Moreover, a surge of industrialization after 1896 left the nation with the realization that little had been done to appease the discontent of the French working classes and their abysmal working conditions
- ii. Since only ¼ French wage earners worked in industry, there was little pressure for labor legislation from the French parliament
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Use of strikes
- 1. Use of strikes more appealing to working classes
- a. The brutal government repression of labor walkouts in 1911 only further alientated the working classes
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