ABSTRACT

The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 had brought humiliating defeat for France, hitherto regarded as the leading nation of continental Europe. Fear of Germany and regret for the two lost provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, marked the period that followed, sometimes called the Belle Epoque. France’s antagonistic relations with Germany lay at the centre of the Dreyfus case. The critical area connected with the Dreyfus Affair was the relationship between the Catholic Church and the republican state. The Third Republic was established rather precariously in the 1870s. The restoration of a monarchy, a Bonapartist Empire or even a military dictatorship seemed by no means impossible in the early days. In the past, the Church had sided with monarchy or Empire, so it was viewed by republicans as politically and socially conservative. France’s empire meanwhile had become a strong cultural presence during the 1920s and 1930s, with the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931 marking a high point of its visibility in France.