Dreyfus affair
1894–1906 political scandal in France
AI overview
The Dreyfus Affair was a major political scandal in France from 1894 to 1906 in which a Jewish military officer named Alfred Dreyfus was falsely convicted of treason, sparking intense national division between those who believed in his innocence and those who defended the military establishment. The case became a turning point in French history that raised important questions about justice, prejudice, and the power of institutions, and it ultimately led to Dreyfus's exoneration and significant reforms in French society.
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Dreyfus in 1894, the year he was prosecuted
The Dreyfus affair (French: affaire Dreyfus, pronounced [afɛːʁ dʁɛfys]) was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. The scandal began in December 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a 35-year-old Alsatian French artillery officer of Jewish descent, was wrongfully convicted of treason for communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent overseas to the penal colony on Devil's Island in French Guiana, where he spent the following five years imprisoned in very harsh conditions.