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J'accuse

J'accuse

__NOTOC__ The "Dreyfus Affair" was a political scandal which divided France for many years during the late 19th century. It centered on the 1894 treason conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army. Dreyfus was charged with passing military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. Dreyfus was, in fact, innocent; the conviction rested on false documents, and when high-ranking officers realised this they attempted to cover up the mistakes. The writer Émile Zola exposed the affair to the general public in the literary newspaper L'Aurore (The Dawn) in a famous open letter to the Président de la République Félix Faure, titled J'accuse! (I Accuse!) on January 13, 1898. In the words of historian Barbara W. Tuchman, it was "one of the great commotions of history". The Dreyfus Affair split France between the dreyfusards (those supporting Alfred Dreyfus) and the antidreyfusards (those against him). The quarrel was especially violent since it involved many issues then highly controversial in a heated political climate. To some extent, these divisions followed those between a right wing often supporting a return to monarchy and clericalism—the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in public policy—on the antidreyfusard side; and a left wing supporting the republic, often with violent anti-clerical feelings, on the dreyfusard side. However, the distinctions were not that simple as some right-wingers supported Dreyfus, and some left-wingers opposed him for his bourgeois background. The virulence of the passions aroused by the case was to a large extent due to the anti-Semitism then existing in France, often related to Catholic, reactionary, anti-Republican feelings. This may have been due partly to the failure of the Union Générale—a Roman Catholic banking establishment which aimed at superseding Jewish finance—in 1885; it also may have been partly due to the publication of Edouard Drumont's book La France Juive in 1886. However, the affair would not have had that much importance if France had been solidly or even mostly anti-Semitic. The French Revolution had given Jews full equality of rights for the first time in Europe's history. Indeed, Alfred Dreyfus had been admitted to France's highest schools, had been made an army officer, and had been given access to military secrets. It is doubtful that any of the above would have been possible in a solidly anti-Semitic country such as Czarist Russia. The controversy that ensued was possible because a large share of the population was not anti-Semitic and was willing to fight for an innocent Jew, and conversely right-wingers conflated Jewish emancipation with the hated French Revolution. Jewish emancipation The case itself was more immediately the outcome of the continuous attack upon the presence of the Jews as officers in the French army, spearheaded by Drumont and others in the journal "La Libre Parole" (founded with the help of Jesuits in 1892). The articles of the "Libre Parole," which denounced French Jewish officers as being future traitors, led a Jewish captain of dragoons, Crémieu-Foa, to declare that he resented as a personal insult the slanderous assault made upon the body of Jewish officers. He fought a duel, first with Drumont, then with Lamase, under whose name the articles had appeared. It had been agreed that the report of the proceedings should not be made public. The brother of Crémieu-Foa, following the advice of Captain Esterhazy, one of the Jewish captain's seconds, communicated the information to the journal "Matin." The Marquis de Morès, who had been chief second of Lamase and was a well-known anti-Semite and famous duellist, held Captain Mayer, chief second of Crémieu-Foa, responsible for the breach of confidentiality. Though innocent of the matter, Mayer accepted a challenge from the marquis. The duel was fought on June 23, the Jewish captain being mortally wounded at the first attack; he died a few days after the duel. Owing to the sensation that was caused by this event, the "Libre Parole" thought it wise to stop the campaign against the Jewish officers until further orders.

Aftermath

Dreyfus was pardoned in 1899, readmitted into the army, and made a knight in the Legion of Honour. The factions in the Dreyfus affair remained in place for decades afterwards. The far right remained a potent force, as did the moderate liberals. The liberal victory played an important role in pushing the far right to the fringes of French politics. It also prompted legislation such as the 1905 enactment separating church and state. The coalition of partisan anti-Dreyfusards remained together, but turned to other causes. Groups like Maurras' Action Française that were created during the affair endured for decades. The right-wing Vichy regime was composed mostly of old anti-Dreyfusards or their descendants. It is now universally agreed that Dreyfus was innocent, but his statues and monuments are occasionally vandalised by far-right activists. An Austrian Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl was assigned to report on the trial and its aftermath. Herzl soon became the most important activist on behalf of Zionism in its foundational phase. For many years it was believed that the anti-Semitism and injustice revealed even in "enlightened" France by the conviction of Dreyfus had a radicalizing effect on Herzl, showing him that Jews could never hope for fair treatment in European society, thus orienting him toward Zionism. Herzl himself promoted this myth some years later. However, in the past few decades this view has been rejected by historians who have closely examined the chronology of events. They have shown that Herzl, like most contemporary observers, both Jewish and Gentile, initially believed in Dreyfus's guilt. While eventually convinced of Dreyfus's innocence and indeed upset by French anti-Semitism beyond the Affair, he seems to have been much more influenced by developments in his home city of Vienna, including the rise to power of the anti-Semitic Mayor Karl Lueger. It was this rather than the Dreyfus Affair which provided the chief stimulus for his turn to Zionism at a time (1895) when the pro-Dreyfus campaign had not really begun.

Films

- "L'Affaire Dreyfus", Georges Méliès, Stumm, France, 1899
- "Trial of Captain Dreyfus", Stumm, USA, 1899
- "Dreyfus", Richard Oswald, Germany, 1930
- "The Dreyfus Case", F.W. Kraemer, Milton Rosmer, USA, 1931
- "The Life of Emile Zola", USA, 1937
- "I Accuse!", José Ferrer, England, 1958
- "Die Affäre Dreyfus", Yves Boisset, 1995 An American television film of 1991, "Prisoner of Honor", focuses on the efforts of a Colonel Piquart to justify the sentence of Alfred Dreyfus. (Colonel Piquart was played by American actor Richard Dreyfuss, who claims to be a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus).

External links

- [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/J%27accuse Text of J'accuse! (in French)]
- [http://www.chameleon-translations.com/sample-Zola.shtml Text of J'accuse! (in English)]
- [http://www.dreyfuscase.com Complete Digital Bibliography on CD-ROM]
- [http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/his9_jaccuse.html Greatest Newspaper Article of all Time] (Journalistic retrospective of Zola's "J'accuse!")
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Political scandal

A political scandal is a scandal in which politicians engage in various illegal or unethical practices. A political scandal can involve the breaking of the nation's laws or plotting to do so. Some political scandals are sex scandals involving a politician.

Lists of political scandals by country

- American political scandals
- Australian political scandals
- British political scandals
- Canadian political scandals
- French political scandals
- German political scandals
- Italian political scandals
- South African political scandals Category:Political scandals

19th century

:Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) The 19th century lasted from 1801 to 1900 in the Gregorian calendar (using the Common Era system of year numbering). Historians sometimes define a "Nineteenth Century" historical era stretching from 1815 (The Congress of Vienna) to 1914 (The outbreak of the First World War).

Europe

For Europe, the period is marked with revolution, social upheaval, and the emergence of a united conservatism from the monarchs of Europe in response to the emerging republican firestorm spreading from revolutionary France. There were many revolutions in Europe in 1848. Furthermore, the later end of the century was dominated by what many call the New Imperialism, which was the rapid aquisition of colonies worldwide by European powers, most noteworthy is the Scramble for Africa. Many countries in Europe underwent an Industrial Revolution, especially Britain and Germany, that spread elsewhere by the end of the century, with factories and railway lines built all over the continent. The start of the 19th century there was a struggle between France and Britain and their allies for control of Europe and the world during the Napoleonic Wars, with Napoleon being finally defeated at Waterloo in 1815. During the rest of the century, the British empire became the largest and most powerful empire in history, during the period known as the Pax Britannica.

Americas

In the Americas, the United States slowly grew economically, militarily, and politically, but nevertheless faced dramatic changes domestically, best seen in the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the expansion across the American continent known as Manifest Destiny. Industrially, America will explode following the Civil War, and would eventually begin expansion outward across the Pacific Ocean and in Latin America.

Other countries

For the rest of the world, there were few places not influenced by the West in some fashion, whether through colonialism, imperialism, or war. European powers gained increasing influence in China, where Qing control had weakened, and wars were fought by the western powers against China, such as the first and the second Opium wars and Sino-French War. Japan, which was forcibly opened to Western trade, began a rapid industrialisation. Africa which was largely free from European control at the start of the century, was almost completely dominated by Europe at the end of it, with the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s and 1890s. Large European settlement, especially British, of colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and the Cape Colony continued during the nineteenth century.

Events

- 1801: The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1803: The United States buys out France's territorial claims in North America via the Louisiana Purchase.
- 1804-06: Americans Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead an expedition to the Pacific Coast and back.
- 1805-48: Muhammad Ali modernizes Egypt.
- 1806: Holy Roman Empire dissolved as a consequence of the Treaty of Lunéville.
- 1809: Napoleon strips the Teutonic Knights of their last holdings in Bad Mergentheim.
- 1813-1917: The contest between the British Empire and Imperial Russia for control of Central Asia is referred to as the Great Game.
- 1815: Congress of Vienna redraws the European map.
- 1815: Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo brings a conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars and marks the beginning of a Pax Britannica which lasts until 1870.
- 1816: Year Without a Summer
- 1816-28: Shaka's Zulu kingdom becomes the largest in Southern Africa.
- 1819: The modern city of Singapore is established by the British East India Company.
- 1820: Liberia founded by the American Colonization Society for freed American slaves.
- 1830: France invades and occupies Algeria.
- 1830: The Belgian Revolution in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands led to the creation of Belgium.
- 1833: Slavery Abolition Act bans slavery throughout the British Empire.
- 1834: Spanish Inquisition officially ends.
- 1835-36: The Texas Revolution in Mexico resulted in the short-lived Republic of Texas.
- 1837-1901: Queen Victoria's reign is considered the apex of the British Empire and is referred to as the Victorian era.
- 1845-49: Irish Potato Famine
- 1848: The Communist Manifesto published.
- 1848: Revolutions of 1848 in Europe
- 1848-58: California Gold Rush
- 1850: The Little Ice Age ends around this time.
- 1851-60s: Victorian gold rush in Australia
- 1851-64: The Taiping Rebellion in China
- 1854: The Convention of Kanagawa formally ends Japan's policy of Sakoku.
- 1855: Bessemer process enables steel to be mass produced.
- 1856: World's first oil refinery in Romania
- 1857-58: Indian rebellion of 1857
- 1859: The Origin of Species published.
- 1864-67: French intervention in Mexico
- 1865-77: Reconstruction in the United States
- 1866: Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858.
- 1866: Creation of the North German Confederation and the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy.
- 1866-69: Meiji Restoration in Japan
- 1867: The United States purchased Alaska from Russia.
- 1867: Canadian Confederation formed.
- 1869: First Transcontinental Railroad completed in United States.
- 1869: The Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
- 1870-71: Unifications of Germany and Italy.
- 1871-1914: Second Industrial Revolution
- 1870s-90s: Long Depression in Western Europe and North America
- 1872: Yellowstone National Park created.
- 1874: The British East India Company is dissolved.
- 1877: Great Railroad Strike in the United States may have been the world's first nationwide labor strike.
- 1877-78: The Balkans are freed from the Ottoman Empire after another Russo-Turkish War.
- 1878: First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1880-1902: Great Britain conquers Dutch settlers in South Africa in two Boer Wars.
- 1882: First electrical power plant and grid in Manhattan.
- 1884-85: The Berlin Conference signals the start of the European Scramble for Africa. Attending nations also agree to ban trade in slaves.
- 1885: Unification of Bulgaria
- 1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre is the last battle in the American Indian Wars.
- 1894-95: After the First Sino-Japanese War, China cedes Taiwan to Japan and grants Japan a free hand in Korea.
- 1895-1896: Ethiopia defeated Italy in the First Italo-Abyssinian War.
- 1896: Olympic games revived in Athens.
- 1896: Klondike Gold Rush in Canada
- 1898: The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.
- 1898-1900: The Boxer Rebellion in China is suppressed by an Eight-Nation Alliance.

Wars

List of wars 1800–1899
- 1799-1815: Napoleonic Wars.
- 1801-15: Barbary Wars between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa.
- 1806-12: Russo-Turkish War
- 1810-21: Mexican War of Independence.
- 1810s-20s: South American Wars of Independence.
- 1812-15: War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain.
- 1821-32: Greek War of Independence.
- 1828-29: Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829
- 1833-76: Carlist Wars in Spain.
- 1839-60: After two Opium Wars, Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia gain many concessions from China.
- 1854-56: Crimean War between Great Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
- 1861-65: American Civil War between the Union and seceding Confederacy.
- 1866: Austro-Prussian War.
- 1877-78: Russo-Turkish War.
- 1879: Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
- 1879-84: War of the Pacific between Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
- 1880-81: First Boer War.
- 1894-95: First Sino-Japanese War.
- 1895-96: First Italo-Abyssinian War.
- 1899-13: The Philippine-American War.

Significant people

- Gilbert and Sullivan, playwright, composer
- William Gilbert Grace, English cricketer
- Baron Haussmann, civic planner
- Sándor Körösi Csoma, explorer of the Tibetan culture
- Fitz Hugh Ludlow, writer and explorer
- Florence Nightingale, nursing pioneer
- Ignaz Semmelweis, founder of hygiene
- Dr. John Snow, the founder of epidemiology
- F R Spofforth, Australian cricketer

Science

- Henri Becquerel, physicist
- Charles Darwin, biologist
- Thomas Alva Edison, inventor
- Michael Faraday, scientist
- Gottlob Frege, mathematician, logician and philosopher
- Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician, physicist, astronomer
- James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist
- Gregor Mendel, biologist
- Louis Pasteur, biologist
- Nikola Tesla, inventor
- Amedeo Avogadro, physicist
- Johann Jakob Balmer, mathematician, physicist
- Pierre Curie, physicist
- Christian Doppler, physicist, mathematician

Philosophy and Religion

- Bahá'u'lláh, Persian religious leader and founder of Bahá'í Faith
- Báb, Persian prophet and founder of Bábísm
- Nikolai of Japan, religious leader who introduced Eastern Orthodoxy into Japan.
- Mikhail Bakunin, anarchist
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher
- Søren Kierkegaard, philosopher
- Karl Marx, political philosopher and economist
- John Stuart Mill, philosopher
- Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher
- Joseph Smith, Jr., religious leader, founder of Mormonism
- Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Hindu mystic
- Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher
- Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, founder of French socialism
- Brigham Young, Mormon religious leader
- William Morris, social reformer

Politics

- Otto von Bismarck, German chancellor
- Napoleon Bonaparte, French general, first consul and emperor
- Guiseppe Garibaldi, unifier of Italy and Piedmontese soldier
- Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. general and president
- Theodor Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism
- Andrew Jackson, U.S. general and president
- Thomas Jefferson, American statesman, philosopher, and president
- Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian governor; leader of the war of independence
- Hong Xiuquan, revolutionary, self-proclaimed Son of God
- Benjamin Disraeli, novelist and politician
- Libertadores, Latin American liberators
- Robert E. Lee, Confederate general
- Abraham Lincoln, U.S. president; led the nation during the Civil War
- Mutsuhito, Japanese emperor
- István Széchenyi, aristocrat, leader of the Hungarian reform movement
- Queen Victoria, British monarch
- Klemens von Metternich, Austrian Chancellor

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

List of 19th century inventions
- Department stores
- Electromagnetism
- Epidemiology
- Mail order businesses
- Philology
- Postage stamps
- Public busses
- Subway
- The invention of the telegraph connected the world like never before, leading to quicker communication and interaction.
- One of the more devestating technologies emerging from this period is the machine gun, first used during the Civil War (considered the first modern war)

Decades and years

Category:19th century Category:Centuries Category:Romanticism als:19. Jahrhundert zh-min-nan:19 sè-kí ko:19세기 ja:19世紀 simple:19th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 19

Alfred Dreyfus

Alfred Dreyfus (October 9, 1859–July 12, 1935) was a French military officer best known for being the focus of the Dreyfus affair. Born in Mulhouse, Alsace, France, Dreyfus was the youngest of seven children in the family of a Jewish textile manufacturer who stayed in France and kept French nationality when Germany annexed Alsace in 1871. The family had long been established in Alsace. He was accepted into the École Polytechnique for initial military training and thorough scientific studies in 1877 and graduated in 1880 as a sub-lieutenant. His entry into the military was influenced by the experience of seeing the Prussians enter his hometown in 1871 when he was eleven years old. From 1880 to 1882 he attended an academy at Fontainebleau for more specialized training as an artillery officer. On graduation he was attached to the first division of the 32nd cavalry regiment and promoted to lieutenant in 1885. In 1889 he was made adjutant to the director of the pyrotechnical school in Bourges, and promoted to captain. On April 18, 1891 he married Lucie Hadamard (1870-1945) who would later bear his son Pierre and daughter Jeanne. A mere three days later he received notice that he had been admitted to the Superior War College. Two years later he graduated ninth in his class with honourable mention, and was immediately designated as a trainee at army headquarters where he would be the only Jew. Raphaël, his father, died on December 13, 1893. At the college examination in 1892, his friends had expected him to do well and be attached to the general staff. However, one of the members of the jury, General Bonnefond, under the pretext that "Jews were not desired" on the staff, lowered the total of his marks by making a very bad report; he did the same thing for another Jewish candidate, Lieutenant Picard. Learning of this injustice, the two officers lodged a protest with the director of the school, Gen. Lebelin de Dionne, who expressed his regret for what had occurred, but was powerless to take any steps in the matter. The protest would later count against Dreyfus. In an article from the Académie de Poitiers [http://www.ac-poitiers.fr/hist_geo/doss/drey/dreufusard.htm] the author remarks that "Dreyfus was a profoundly patriotic man, and if he had not been the victim of this affair he would certainly have been anti-dreyfusard. He was a haughty, intransigent man, linking very little with his fellow officers. He was a pisse-froid as would then have been said in the army." In a report in 1891 on his admission to army headquarters a Colonel Fabre characterized him as "an incomplete officer, very intelligent and capable, but pretentious and whose character is not filling out, and with the conscience and manner required for fulfilling the conditions needed for being employed at army headquarters." This cold, aloof personality later proved a deterrent to some of his would-be defenders. Dreyfus was arrested for treason on October 15, 1894 and the events that follow until his eventual exoneration on July 12, 1906 are chronicled in the article on the Dreyfus affair concerning which he was best known. On January 5, 1895 Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. On September 19, 1899, Dreyfus was pardoned and left the prison. During that time he lived with one of his sisters at Carpentras, and later at Cologny. The day after his exoneration he was readmitted into the army with the rank of Squadron Chief. A week later he was made a Knight in the Legion of Honour, and subsequently named to the artillery command at Vincennes. On October 15, 1906 he was placed in command of the artillery unit at Saint-Denis. Dreyfus' time in prison, notably at Devil's Island, had been difficult on his health, and he was granted retirement in October 1907. He was remobilized during World War I when he held assignments in the Paris region. Dreyfus was present at the ceremony removing Emile Zola's ashes to the Pantheon in 1908 when he was wounded in the arm by a gunshot from a disgruntled journalist. Two days after Dreyfus's death in Paris in 1935 his funeral cortege passed the Place de la Concorde through the ranks of troops assembled for the Bastille Day National Holiday (July 14, 1935). He was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris. He is a distant relative of actor Richard Dreyfuss and of Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Writings of Dreyfus

- Lettres d'un innocent (Letters from an innocent man) (1898)
- Les lettres du capitaine Dreyfus à sa femme (Letters from capitaine Dreyfus to his wife) (1899), written at Devil's Island
- Cinq ans de ma vie (5 years of my life) (1901)
- Souvenirs et correspondance, posthumously in 1936

Cover-up

When a scandal breaks, the discovery of an attempt to cover up the evidence of wrongdoing is often regarded as even more scandalous than the original deeds. Typically, a cover-up draws an entire organization, or sometimes only its leadership, into complicity in covering up a crime that may have originally been committed by a few of its members. This is often regarded as tacit approval of that behaviour. Some cover-ups are successful (by the simple fact no one can confirm one). Most fail, however, due to the nature of cover-ups to entail more manpower, more resources, and thus leave too much evidence and too many dangling threads for investigators to find. The crime itself being covered is sometimes relatively minor, such as a 'third-rate burglary' as Watergate began, but the attempt of the cover-up adds so many additional crimes to it (Obstruction of justice, Perjury, payoffs and bribes, in some cases suspicious suicides or outright murder) that the cover-up supplants the original crime.

Reasons

As commentators note from time to time, "Why even cover-up a crime if the cover-up is going to make things worse?" There are reasons for this:
- As noted earlier, some cover-ups are successful. Those are the ones we never hear about, or are left to conspiracy theory advocates who find that without evidence their theories can be ignored by the mainstream.
- The people committing the crime and/or subsequent cover-up can be operating on the assumptions that "We're too smart to get caught," or otherwise believe in an arrogant fashion they are above the law.
- The people committing the cover-up may think they can control the investigation in some way.
- The crime committed may be linked somehow to other crimes, and the cover-up occurs in order to keep all those other crimes from being known. Some of the reasons behind the attempted Watergate cover-up were to hide other illegal covert activities.

Examples

- The Dreyfus Affair
- The Watergate scandal
- The Dutch Tessa-case
- The recent Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal
- The My Lai Massacre
- The Plame Affair Scandal
- The WebEx attempt to cover up incestuous child rape of his daughter Erin Zhu by its founder Min Zhu

Émile Zola

Émile Zola (April 2, 1840 – September 29, 1902) was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Born in Paris, France, the son of an Italian engineer, Émile Zola spent his childhood in Aix-en-Provence and was educated at the Collège Bourbon. At age 18 he returned to Paris where he studied at the Lycée Saint-Louis. After working at several low-level clerical jobs, he began to write a literary column for a newspaper. Controversial from the beginning, he did not hide his disdain for Napoleon III, who used the Second Republic as a vehicle to become Emperor. More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Set in France's Second Empire, it traces the hereditary influence of violence, alcoholism, and prostitution in two branches of a family, the respectable Rougons and the disreputable Macquarts, for five generations. As he described his plans for the series, "I want to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world." Zola and the painter Paul Cézanne were friends from childhood and in youth, but broke in later life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cézanne and the bohemian life of painters in his novel L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece, 1886). He risked his career and even his life on January 13, 1898, when his J'accuse ([http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/J%27accuse original French][http://www.chameleon-translations.com/sample-Zola.shtml English translation]) was published on the front page of the Paris daily, L'Aurore. The paper was run by Ernest Vaughan and Georges Clemenceau, who decided that the controversial story would be in the form of an open letter to the President, Félix Faure. J'accuse accused the French government of anti-Semitism and of wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail. Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse on February 7, 1898 and was convicted on February 23. Zola declared that the conviction and transportation to Devil's Island of the Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus came after a false accusation of espionage and was a miscarriage of justice. The case, known as the Dreyfus affair, had divided France deeply between the reactionary army and church and the more liberal commercial society. The ramifications continued for years, so much so that on the 100th anniversary of Émile Zola's article, France's Roman Catholic daily paper, "La Croix", apologized for its anti-Semitic editorials during the Dreyfus affair. anti-Semitic Zola was a leading light of France and his letter formed a major turning-point in the Dreyfus affair, causing the captain's case to be reopened, whereupon he was acquitted. In the course of events, Zola was convicted of libel, sentenced, and removed from the Legion of Honor. Rather than go to jail, he fled to England. Soon he was allowed to return in time to see the government fall. Dreyfus was convicted again, but was ultimately freed, in large part due to the moral force of Zola's arguments. Zola said "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it." In 1906, Dreyfus was completely exonerated by the Supreme Court. England Zola died in Paris on September 29, 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a stopped chimney. His enemies were blamed, but nothing was proved. He was initially buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris, but on June 4, 1908, almost six years after his death, his remains were moved to the Panthéon. On January of 1998 President Jacques Chirac held a memorial to honor the centenary of J'Accuse.

Quotes

"Let us never forget the courage of a great writer who, taking every risk, putting his tranquility, his fame, even his life in peril, dared to pick up his pen and place his talent in the service of truth." - Jacques Chirac "Zola descends into the sewer to bathe in it, I to cleanse it." - Henrik Ibsen "Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest." - Émile Zola

Bibliography

- La Confession de Claude (1865)
- Thérèse Raquin (1867)
- Madeleine Férat (1868)
- Le Roman Experimental (1880)
- Les Rougon-Macquart
- La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
- La Curée (1871-2)
- Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
- La Conquête de Plassans (1874)
- La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (1875)
- Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876)
- L'Assommoir (1877)
- Une Page d'amour(1878)
- Nana (1880)
- Pot-Bouille (1882)
- Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)
- La Joie de vivre (1884)
- Germinal (1885)
- L'Oeuvre (1886)
- La Terre (1887)
- Le Rêve (1888)
- La Bête Humaine (1890)
- L'Argent (1891)
- La Débâcle (1892)
- Le Docteur Pascal (1893)
- Les Trois Villes
- Lourdes (1894)
- Rome (1896)
- Paris (1898)
- Les Quatres Evangiles
- Fécondité (1899)
- Travail (1901)
- Vérité (1903, published posthumously)
- Justice (unfinished) Justice Motion Picture: The Life of Emile Zola, directed by William Dieterle:
- 1937 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Schildkraut), Best Screenplay;
- 1937 Academy Awards Nominations: Best Actor (Muni), Best Director (Dieterle), Best Interior Decoration, Best Sound, Best Story, Best Original Score.
- Featured Actors: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden.

External links

-
- [http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/his9_jaccuse.html J´accuse ...!] Emile Zola, Alfred Dreyfus, and the greatest newspaper article in history", by Donald E. Wilkes Jr. from Flagpole Magazine
- [http://chameleon-translations.com/sample-Zola.shtml J´accuse] by Emile Zola, In English and French
- [http://www.francealacarte.org.uk/education/enseigner/ressources/alevel/litterature/zola/arbre.html Family tree of the Rougon-Macquart families]
- [http://www.biblioweb.org/-ZOLA-Emile-.html Biography, bibliography] (in french) Zola, Emile Zola, Emile Zola, Emile Zola, Emile Zola, Emile ko:에밀 졸라 ja:エミール・ゾラ

President of France

The President of the French Republic (French: Président de la République française) colloquially referred to as President of France, is France's elected Head of State and also the ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the Légion d'honneur. Four of France's five republics have had presidents as their heads of state, making the French presidency the oldest presidency in Europe. In each of the republics' constitutions the president's powers, functions and duties, and their relation with French governments differed. The current President of the Republic is Jacques Chirac.

Presidential powers

Unlike many other European presidents, the office of the French President is quite a powerful one, especially in matters of foreign policy. Although it is the prime minister and parliament that oversee much of the nation's actual lawmaking, the French President wields significant influence, both formally and resulting from constitutional convention. The president holds the nation's most senior office, and he or she outranks all other politicians. Perhaps the president's greatest power is his or her ability to choose the prime minister. However, since only the French National Assembly has the power to dismiss the Prime Minister's gouvernement, the president is forced to name a prime minister that commands the support of the majority of this assembly.
- When the majority of the Assembly has opposite political views to that of the president, this leads to political cohabitation. In that case, the president's power is diminished, since much of the de facto power relies on a supportive prime minister and National Assembly, and is not directly attributed to the post of president. Still, the constitutional convention is that the president directs foreign policy, though he must work on that matter with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- When the majority of the Assembly sides with him, the President can take a more active role and may, in effect, direct government policy. The prime minister is then often a mere "fuse" — and can be replaced if the administration becomes unpopular. Among the formal powers of the president:
- The president promulgates laws.
- The president has a very limited form of suspensive veto: when presented with a law, he or she can request another reading of it by Parliament; the president does not have this option when presented with the bill a second time.
- The president may refer a law to the Constitutional Council prior to promulgation.
- The president may refer laws to popular referendum.
- The president names certain high officials (with the assent of the cabinet).
- The president names certain members of the Constitutional Council.
- The president receives foreign ambassadors.
- The president may grant a pardon (but not an amnesty) to convicted criminals; the president can also lessen or suppress criminal sentences. This was of crucial importance when France still operated the death penalty: criminals sentenced to death would generally request that the president commute their sentence to life imprisonment. There is a tradition of so-called "presidential amnesties", which are something of a misnomer: after the election of a president, and of a National Assembly of the same party, parliament traditionally votes a law granting amnesty for some petty crimes. This practice has been increasingly criticized, particularly because it is believed to incite people to commit traffic offences in the months preceding the election. Such an amnesty law may also authorize the president to designate individuals who have committed certain categories of crimes to be offered amnesty, if certain conditions are met. Such individual measures have been criticized for the political patronage that they allow. Still, it is argued that such amnesty laws help reduce prison overpopulation. An amnesty law was passed in 2002; it is unknown whether another will be passed in 2007. The difference between an amnesty and a presidential pardon is that the former clears all subsequent effects of the sentencing, as though the crime had not been committed, while pardon simply relieves the sentenced individual from part or all of the remaining of the sentence.

Election

Since 2000, the President of France has been directly elected to a five-year term by universal suffrage. (Prior to 2000, presidential terms lasted seven years, and the first election to a shorter term was held in 2002). President Chirac was first elected in 1995 and again in 2002. His current term will thus expire in 2007. There is no term limit, so Chirac could run again. François Mitterrand is the only President to date who has served a full two terms. The method of French presidential elections is run-off voting which ensures the elected President always obtains a majority of the vote. After the president is elected, he goes through a solemn investiture ceremony.[http://www.elysee.fr/junior/faq/faq.htm#5]

Current constitutional powers

The constitutional attributions of the president are defined in Title II of the Constitution of France. Article 5 The President of the Republic shall see that the Constitution is observed. He shall ensure, by his arbitration, the proper functioning of the public authorities and the continuity of the State. He shall be the guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity and observance of treaties. Article 8 The President of the Republic shall appoint the Prime Minister. He shall terminate the appointment of the Prime Minister when the latter tenders the resignation of the Government. On the proposal of the Prime Minister, he shall appoint the other members of the Government and terminate their appointments. Article 9 The President of the Republic shall preside over the Council of Ministers. Article 10 The President of the Republic shall promulgate Acts of Parliament within fifteen days following the final adoption of an Act and its transmission to the Government. He may, before the expiry of this time limit, ask Parliament to reconsider the Act or sections of the Act. Reconsideration shall not be refused. While the president has to sign all acts adopted by parliament into law, he cannot refuse to do so and exercise a kind of right of veto; his only power in that matter is to ask for a single reconsideration of the law by parliament. Article 11 [the president may submit laws to the citizens in a referendum] Article 12 The President of the Republic may, after consulting the Prime Minister and the Presidents of the assemblies, declare the National Assembly dissolved. A general election shall take place not less than twenty days and not more than forty days after the dissolution. The National Assembly shall convene as of right on the second Thursday following its election. Should it so convene outside the period prescribed for the ordinary session, a session shall be called by right for a fifteen-day period. No further dissolution shall take place within a year following this election. Article 13 The President of the Republic shall sign the ordinances and decrees deliberated upon in the Council of Ministers. He shall make appointments to the civil and military posts of the State. [...] Article 14 The President of the Republic shall accredit ambassadors and envoys extraordinary to foreign powers ; foreign ambassadors and envoys extraordinary shall be accredited to him. Article 15 The President of the Republic shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He shall preside over the higher national defence councils and committees. Article 16 Where the institutions of the Republic, the independence of the Nation, the integrity of its territory or the fulfilment of its international commitments are under serious and immediate threat, and where the proper functioning of the constitutional public authorities is interrupted, the President of the Republic shall take the measures required by these circumstances, after formally consulting the Prime Minister, the Presidents of the assemblies and the Constitutional Council. He shall inform the Nation of these measures in a message. The measures must stem from the desire to provide the constitutional public authorities, in the shortest possible time, with the means to carry out their duties. The Constitutional Council shall be consulted with regard to such measures. Parliament shall convene as of right. The National Assembly shall not be dissolved during the exercise of the emergency powers. Article 16, allowing the president a limited form of rule by decree for a limited period of time in exceptional circumstance, has been used only once, by Charles de Gaulle during the Algerian War, from April 23 to September 29, 1961. Article 17 The President of the Republic has the right to grant pardon. Article 18 The President of the Republic shall communicate with the two assemblies of Parliament by means of messages, which he shall cause to be read and which shall not be the occasion for any debate. Outside sessions, Parliament shall be convened especially for this purpose. Since 1875, the President is prohibited from entering the houses of Parliament. Article 19 Acts of the President of the Republic, other than those provided for under articles 8 (first paragraph), 11, 12, 16, 18, 54, 56 and 61, shall be countersigned by the Prime Minister and, where required, by the appropriate ministers.

Succession

Upon the death or resignation of the President, the President of the Senate becomes interim president. Alain Poher is the only person to have served this temporary position. In the case of the demise of the President of the Senate, the government (as in: the cabinet) assumes the President's powers. The government has to organize elections as soon as possible during the interim period.

Other information

The official residence and office of the president is the Élysée Palace in Paris. Other presidential residences include:
- the Fort de Bregançon, in southeastern France, is the current official presidential vacationing residence;
- the Hôtel de Marigny; standing next to the Élysée Palace, it houses foreign official guests;
- the Château de Rambouillet is normally open to visitors when not used for (rare) official meetings;
- the Domaine National de Marly is normally open to visitors when not used for (rare) official meetings;
- the Domaine de Souzy-la-Briche, not a historical monument, is a private residence.

History

Under the Third and Fourth Republic, which were parliamentary systems, the office of President of the Republic was a largely ceremonial and powerless one.

Presidents of France

The list below follows on from List of French monarchs.
- Second Republic
- Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, 1848-1852 (proclaimed himself Emperor in 1852, ruled until 1870 when republican rule was restored.)
- Interim President
- Louis Jules Trochu, 1870-1871
- Third Republic
- Adolphe Thiers, 1871-1873 (Thiers became president before the adoption of the Constitution of 1875 so his constitutional position was different from that of later presidents.)
- Patrice Mac-Mahon, duc de Magenta, 1873-1879
- Jules Grévy, 1879-1887
- Marie François Sadi Carnot, 1887-1894
- Jean Casimir-Périer, 1894-1895
- Félix Faure, 1895-1899
- Émile Loubet, 1899-1906
- Armand Fallières, 1906-1913
- Raymond Poincaré, 1913-1920
- Paul Deschanel, February 18 1920 - September 21 1920
- Alexandre Millerand, 1920-1924
- Gaston Doumergue, 1924-1931
- Paul Doumer, 1931-1932
- Albert Lebrun, 1932-1940
- Vichy France
- Henri Philippe Pétain, 1940-1944 ("Head of State", not President)
- Free France
- Charles de Gaulle, 1940-1944 ("Head of the Free French", not President)
- Provisional Government of the Republic ("Chairman of the Provisional Government", not President)
- Charles de Gaulle, 1944-1946
- Félix Gouin (SFIO), 1946
- Georges Bidault (MRP), 1946
- Léon Blum (SFIO), 1946-1947
- Fourth Republic
- Vincent Auriol (SFIO), 1947-1954
- René Coty, 1954-1959
- Fifth Republic
- Charles de Gaulle (UNR/UDR), 1959-1969
- Georges Pompidou (UDR), 1969-1974
- Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (UDF), 1974-1981
- François Mitterrand (Socialist), 1981-1995
- Jacques Chirac (RPR/UMP), from 1995
- Senate President Alain Poher twice acted as President for a few months immediately following de Gaulle's resignation (1969) and Pompidou's death (1974).

External link

- [http://www.elysee.fr/ang/index.shtm Web page of the President]

Félix Faure

François Félix Faure (30 January 1841–16 February 1899) was President of France from 1895 to his death in 1899. He was born in Paris, being the son of a small furniture maker. Having started as a tanner and merchant at Le Havre, he acquired considerable wealth, was elected to the National Assembly on the 21st of August 1881, and took his seat as a member of the Left, interesting himself chiefly in matters concerning economics, railways and the navy. In November 1882 he became under-secretary for the colonies in Ferry's ministry, and retained the post till 1885. He held the same post in Tirard's ministry in 1888, and in 1893 was made vice-president of the chamber. In 1894 he obtained cabinet rank as minister of marine in the administration of Charles Dupuy. In the January following he was unexpectedly elected President of the Republic upon the resignation of President Casimir-Périer. The principal cause of his elevation was the determination of the various sections of the moderate republican party to exclude Henri Brisson, who had had a majority of votes on the first ballot, but had failed to obtain an absolute majority. To accomplish this end it was necessary to unite among themselves, and union could only be secured by the nomination of some one who offended nobody. Faure answered perfectly to this description. His fine presence and his tact on ceremonial occasions rendered the state some service when in 1896 he received the Tsar of Russia at Paris, and in 1897 returned his visit, after which meeting the momentous Franco-Russian Alliance was publicly announced. Franco-Russian Alliance Franco-Russian Alliance The latter days of Faure's presidency were embittered by the Dreyfus affair, which he was determined to regard as chose jugée. But at a critical moment in the proceedings his death occurred suddenly, from apoplexy, on the 16th of February 1899. With all his faults, and in spite of no slight amount of personal vanity, President Faure was a shrewd political observer and a good man of business. After his death, some alleged extracts from his private journals, dealing with French policy, were published in the Paris press. He is rumoured for dying while receiving oral sex from Marguerite Steinheil. This incident was the theme of numerous jokes and rumours:
- The priest who came for Félix Faure's when he died allegedly asked a policeman whether the president still "had his consciousness", to which the policeman replied "no, she left through the backdoor" (this in French, connaissance means both "consciousness" and "acquaintance").
- An unconfirmed quotation by Clémenceau has him saying, alluding to Faure's taste for decorum: "He wanted to be Ceasar, alas he merely became Pompey (Il voulait être César, hélas, il ne fut que Pompée: in French, Pompée (Pompey) sounds like pompé (sucked)).
- Marguerite Steinheil came to be known as Pompe Funèbre (pun of "funeral industry" and "deadly sucker")

References

- Faure, Félix Faure, Félix Faure, Félix

1898

1898 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

- January 1 - New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island.
- January 13 - Emile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.

February

- February 7 - Emile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse
- February 12 - Henry Lindfield, dies in England. Lindfield was the first fatality from an automobile accident.
- February 15 - Spanish-American War: The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba for then unknown reasons killing more than 260. This event helped lead the United States to declare war on Spain.
- February 23 - Emile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse" which was a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail.

March

- March 24 - Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania becomes the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he buys a Winton automobile that was advertised in Scientific American.
- March 26 - The Sabi Game Reserve in South Africa, the first officially designated game reserve

April

- April 22 - Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
- April 25 - Spanish-American War: The United States declares war on Spain; the U.S. Congress announces that a state of war has existed since April 21 (later backdating one more day to April 20).

May

- May 7 - General Bava-Beccaris killed 80 demonstrants in Milan, Italy shooting on a rally; King of Italy Umberto I will be killed two years after to avenge this shooting.

June

Umberto I
- June 1 - The Trans-Mississippi Exposition world's fair opens in Omaha, Nebraska.
- June 12 - Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.
- June 13 - Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
- June 17 - The Navy Hospital Corps is established.

July

- July 3 - Joshua Slocum completes a 3-year solo circumnavigation
- July 7 - The United States annexes the Hawaiian Islands.
- July 17 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay - Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
- July 25 - Spanish-American War: The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with a landing at Guánica Bay.

August

- August 28- Caleb Bradham starts to use for his soft drink the name Pepsi-Cola.

September

- September 2 - Battle of Omdurman - British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat Sudanese tribesmen led by Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan.
- September 10 - Luigi Lucheni assassinates Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary
- September 21 - Empress Dowager Cixi of China engineered a coup d'etat and it marks the end of Hundred Days' Reform. Guangxu Emperor was arrested.

October

- October 1 - The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.

December

- December 10 - The Treaty of Peace ending the Spanish-American War is signed in Paris.
- December 26 ? Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium
- Fashoda incident -- diplomatic dispute between France and the United Kingdom.
- John Henry Patterson kills the man-eating lions of Tsavo which were delaying the building of the Uganda Railway as described in the book "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo"
- Exploits of Louis de Rougemont begin to appear in the Wide World Magazine
- North Petherton becomes the first town in England to install Acetylene lighting.
- John Jacob Abel isolates epinephrine (adrenaline).
- William Ramsay and Morris Travers discover neon

Births

January to March

- January 16 - Margaret Booth, American film editor (d. 2002)
- January 21 - Ahmad Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (d. 1930)
- January 23 - Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948)
- January 23 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)
- February 3 - Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
- February 10 - Bertolt Brecht, German writer (d. 1956)
- February 14 - Fritz Zwicky, Swiss physicist and astronomer (d. 1974)
- February 15 - Allen Woodring, American runner (d. 1982)
- February 17 - Thomas Coleman Lowry, New Zealand cricket captains (d. 1976)
- February 18 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and automobile manufacturer (d. 1988)
- February 18 - Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet, journalist, and politician (d. 1980)
- February 24 - Kurt Tank, German aeronautical engineer (d. 1983)
- February 28 - Hugh O'Flaherty, Irish Catholic priest (d. 1963)
- March 11 - Dorothy Gish, American actress (d. 1968)

April to June

- April 1 - William James Sidis, American mathematician (d. 1944)
- April 3 - George Jessel, American comedian (d. 1981)
- April 4 - Agnes Ayres, American actress (d. 1940)
- April 6 - Jeanne Hébuterne, French painter (d. 1920)
- April 26 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- April 26 - John Grierson, Scottish documentary filmmaker (d. 1972)
- May 3 - Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)
- May 15 - Arletty, French model and actress (d. 1992)
- May 17 - Alfred Joseph Casson, Canadian painter (d. 1992)
- May 21 - Armand Hammer, American entrepreneur and art collector (d. 1990)
- May 23 - Scott O'Dell, American author (d. 1989)
- May 31 - Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, American clergyman (d. 1993)
- June 4 - Harry Crosby, American publisher and poet (d. 1929)
- June 5 - Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet (d. 1936)
- June 17 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
- June 22 - Erich Maria Remarque, German writer (d. 1970)

July to September

- July 2 - Gen Paul, French artist (d. 1975)
- July 3 - Donald Healey, English motor engineer and race car driver (d. 1988)
- July 6 - Hanns Eisler, German composer (d. 1962)
- July 17 - Berenice Abbott, American photographer (d. 1991)
- July 22 - Stephen Vincent Benet, American writer (d. 1943)
- July 22 - Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976)
- July 29 - Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
- July 30 - Henry Moore, English sculptor (d. 1986)
- August 26 - Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (d. 1979)
- August 29 - Preston Sturges, American director and writer (d. 1959)
- September 13 - Roger Désormière, French conductor (d. 1963)
- September 22 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (d. 1981)
- September 24 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1968)
- September 25 - Robert Brackman American artist (d. 1980)
- September 26 - George Gershwin, American composer (d. 1937)
- September 30 - Renée Adorée, French actress (d. 1933)
- September 30 - Princess Charlotte of Monaco (d. 1977)

October to December

- October 10 - Lilly Daché, French milliner (d. 1989)
- October 10 - Marie Pierre Koenig, French general and politician (d. 1970)
- October 15 -

J'accuse

Aftermath

Films

See also

External links

Further reading

Political scandal

Lists of political scandals by country

19th century

Europe

Americas

Other countries

Events

Wars

Significant people

Anthropology

Painters

Music

Literature

Science

Philosophy and Religion

Politics

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Decades and years

Alfred Dreyfus

Writings of Dreyfus

See also

Cover-up

Reasons

Examples

See also

Émile Zola

Quotes

Bibliography

External links

President of France

Presidential powers

Election

Current constitutional powers

Succession

Other information

History

Presidents of France

External link

Félix Faure

References

1898

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

December

Births

January to March

April to June

July to September

October to December