From 1893 to 1896 was a period of colonial expansion for France.  The Kingdom of Dahomey in Africa was proclaimed a French protectorate.  Madagascar was subjugated, and in 1895 the Province of Hiang-Hung was ceded by China.

In the year 1894 Sadi-Carnot was assassinated in the streets of Lyons by an anarchist, and M. Faure succeeded to the presidency.

A political alliance between France and Russia was formed at this time.  It was also during the presidency of M. Faure that the agitation commenced in consequence of what is known as the Affaire Dreyfus.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an Alsatian and an artillery officer upon the general staff, was accused of betraying military secrets to a foreign power (Germany).  He was tried by court-martial, convicted, sentenced to be publicly degraded, having all the insignia of rank torn from him, then to suffer perpetual solitary imprisonment on the Isle du Diable, off the coast of French Guiana.

The life of the French Republic was threatened by the profound agitation following this sentence, in which the entire civilized world joined; the impression prevailing that a punishment of almost unparalleled severity was being inflicted upon a man whose guilt had not been proven.

It was the general belief that the bitter enmity of the French army staff was on account of the Semitic origin of the accused officer, and that his being an Alsatian opened an easy path to the accusation of treasonable acts with Germany.

The trial of Captain Dreyfus was conducted with closed doors, and the sentence was rigorously carried out.

As time passed, the agitation became so profound, and the public demand for a revision of the case so imperative, that the French court of appeal finally took the matter under consideration.

The ground upon which this revision was claimed related to an alleged confession and to the authorship of the bordereau, the document which had been instrumental in procuring a conviction.  Upon these grounds it was claimed that the judgment pronounced in December, 1894, should be annulled.

The court was compelled to yield, and an order was issued for a second trial—­a trial which resulted in revelations so damaging to the heads of the French army that a revolution seemed imminent.

The accused man, wrecked by the five years on the Isle du Diable, again appeared before his accusers in the military court at Rennes.  His leading counsel, Labori, was shot while conducting his case, but, as it proved, not fatally.  The conduct of the trial was such that the dark secrets of this sinister affair were never brought from their murky depths.  And with neither the guilt nor the innocence of the victim proven, the amazing verdict was rendered, “Guilty, with extenuating circumstances.”

Such was the verdict of the French military court.  That of public opinion was different.  It was the unanimous belief among other nations that the case against this unfortunate man had completely collapsed.  But in order to protect the French army from the disgrace which was inseparable from a vindication of Dreyfus, he must be sacrificed.