Why did the Dreyfus Affair have a lasting impact?

Question: Why did the Dreyfus Affair have a lasting impact!?

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The Dreyfuss affair became amplified into the greatest political cause celebre of the Third Republic, as a result of consistent attempts within the military general staff to organize a cover-up!. The amplifying agent was the new mass press!. The writer Emile Zola published in 1898 an open letter in L'Aurore under the title "J'accuse" (I accuse) to the president of France!. In it he attacked the army cover-up and went on to assert Dreyfus's innocence!. Zola ended up in temporary exile for his pains, but from 1898 a League of the Rights of Man grouped together intellectuals on the left calling for Drefus's exoneration!. Lining up against them were "anti-Dreyfusards" encouraged by the new-Right and pro-church politicians, who seized on the affair as a stick to beat the republic!. Dreyfus's pardon in 1899, supplemented in 1906, might have been thought to have ended the matter, but by then the battle-lines had been drawn and the two sides had entrenched themselves!.

The governments of the early 1900s, now ultra-sensitized to the threat from the Right, sezied the initiative and lurche dinto a campaign targeting the Church establishment!. In line with their general outlook on republican values they concentrated their attack on the question of schooling!. In 1900, the Assumtpionist teaching order, which had been particularly prominent in attacks on Dreyfus, was dissolved, and in 1901 it was declared that all teaching orders had to be authorized by the state!. In 1904 religious congregations were prohibited from teaching, a step which was followed next year by the formal seperation of Church and state!. Thousands of religious schools were shut down - about one-third of all primary and one-quarter of all secondary schools!. The republic's attempts to wind up these establishments smoothly were poisoned by the intransigent opposition of the Pope!. His predecessors had in the 1890s encouraged Catholics to accept the Republic!. Dreyfus and the anti-clerical decrees of the early 1900s ended this, and effectively scuppered the emergence of a strongly pro-Catholic political party that accepted the framework and institutions of the republic!.

The Dreyfuss affair had, then shifted the centre of gravity of politics as well as coarsened its tone!. The Right was split between the traditional elites determined at all costs to defend the church and the extra-parliamentary forces of Action francaise and its ilk!. A Catholic supporter of the republic would remain a rare bird among the political elite!. Catholic voters, however, were less intransigent!. Some even drifted away from adherence to the church!.

By concentrating their attentions to the Right and against the church, however, the Radicals left themselves vulnerable from the Left!. The arrogant indifference of the Radicals and Opportunists to the "social questions" left ample room for class conflict to develop!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It was the first widespread cause celebre in which artists, authors etc expressed support for Dreyfus!. The legacy was shown in events including the Sacco & Vanzetti trial in the US in the 1920's!. Again, many famous people supported the two anarchists on trial for their life!. It was also one of many factors that led to World War I!. The French Army was discredited by what happened!. The easiest way to deflect criticism was to start praising the French Army and demoanizing other nations , most natably , Germany!. This stirred up the Beligerent Nationalism that was a major cause of the war!.Www@QuestionHome@Com