During 19th Century France, the Franco-Prussian war occurred due to the growing power and influence of Prussia under Bismack. Bismack was the chancellor who tempted Napoleon the 3rd into war through media manipulation. In 1871, the French suffered a great defeat and Napoleon was captured. Humiliation was the greatest word to describe the emotions of the French, they had lost a war of which they believed they should of won. Ultimately, the Prussians came into France and the French had to admit defeat. Yet quite nobaly Paris still fights.
After which, the Prussians forced the French to pay indemnity for a war they didn't want, therefore ending up in the French paying them a large amount of money to say 'sorry'. As people in Paris were still fighting, there was a sum of 2 million people in Paris, including the Germans who were surrounding them. An obvious worry was the fact that with all these people, feeding became quite an issue and people ended up having to slaughter animals such as Horses in order to eat. France during this time was quite a nightmare and the people of Paris were trying their hardest to save it as a country, they began to send out messages by using Pigeons but the Germans caught on and brought in Hawks to eat the Pigeons, brutal if you ask me.
Germany had created an extremely powerful nation and ultimately this was bad news for the French army who felt both defeated and humiliated.
Paris Commune
Landlords came over to Paris during this time and demanded rent and interest from the people. At this point there was a new national government which had a majority of royalists. Eventually Germany left France and once they did all of the rich came back and began to charge the poor who could never of afforded to leave.
All in all, the Paris Commune relates to how the people took over Paris and the French government were put out. This Commune was created on March 18th and lasted only until the 28th May 1971.
Karl Marx celebrated the Commune as 'the dictatorship of the'. During this time it introduced social reforms such as setting up nurseries so women could go to work, they improved working conditions doing things as abolishing night work and then there was female sufferage, allowing women to vote.
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The rulers in Europe were surprised by the Commune and in the end the Commune was ruthlessly destroyed due to the high potential it had. This potential was the fact that normal people could take control and over rule the rulers themselves. During this time, 20,0000 - 30,000 people were executed and when doing this they concentrated on the working class areas of Paris. These people were rounded up and shot. Ultimately, they believed that if you were in Paris, you were guilty.
Dreyfus Affair
France became extremely materialistic and their army was seen as a symbol of French identity. The French were worried about another war with the Germans. Due to this worry of war, there was a large increase of spying by all European countries. The Dreyfus Affair puts right against left.
The right = The Army, Church, Monarchists
The left = Republicans, Jews, Socialists.
Now for the story of the Dreyfus affair and how it came to light.
There was evidence of a secret and the French military found this in a waste basket in the German embassy. The army immediately implicated Captain Dreyfus for the reasons that he was bright, intelligent, from the alsace (where the Germans took over) and was a Jew. Dreyfus was framed for this and was sent to Devil's Island in 1894. The army held a secret court martial and find him guilty of treason. Ultimately, Dreyfus was convicted without evidence apart from the fact that his handwriting was similar to the one on the note. However, they would not show anyone this evidence and simply said it was a 'secret' and society had to trust them. This problem is very similar to that of terrorism in the 21st Century.
Later on, an officer took on the case and finds that a man named Esterhazy is actually guilty and Dreyfus was actually innocent. The reply he got was "Yes but he is a Jew." This portrays the way in which they didn't care who was actually convicted, as long as it was someone they believed to be guilty of something, and in this case they disliked Jew's therefore believed Dreyfus is worthy of being on Devil's Island for this reason.
The most important part of the Dreyfus affair for me as a Journalism student is Emile Zola. Zola was a French novelist and a Journalist. He see's what is happening to the Jew's and Dreyfus himself and decides to write an article called J'accuse; I accuse in English. The whole of his article is defamatory, naming and shaming all of the men that wrongly convicted Dreyfus. In this time it was an incredibly brave thing for Zola to do as there was a lot of hate around for Jews. Zola was then trialed and convicted for libel and was fined and sentenced to prison. He decides to flee to London, similarly to many other known philosophers before him. After Zola flee's, many Anti-Jewish riots occur all over France and right-wing papers call for Jews to lose their citizenship. The army recognise the weaknesses of the case happening with Zola and more documents are created (forged) by an officer named Henry. Later he was praised for his patriotic forgery even though it was wrong. In prison Henry feels so bad about what he did, he slit his own throat, but when he is discovered he was seen by the right side as a hero.
All in all, the Dreyfus Affair can be said as having great importance to the Journalism world we have now, and the way in which with people like Emile Zola, the truth can come out through courage and great reporting.
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