In the age of absolutism, France had towered over European life and politics -- the only nation that was a major land power on the Continent and a colonial metropole with an overseas empire at the same time. Yet by 1900, tossed about by repeated revolutions and coups and torn asunder by often petty internal culture wars, France was falling behind its rivals to become almost a second-rate power. Once the Radical Party rode the Dreyfus Affair into government, they had to rush to reposition France to try to take advantage of the tensions and instability in the Balkans, and prepare the nation to possibly face off once more against their archrival across the Rhine -- Germany.

Image: illustration of the "degradation" ceremony of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, in Le Petit Journal, 1895.

Christopher Clark's lecture on "France and the Origins of the Great War": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_V4NAUuW8

Suggested further reading: Romier, "A History of France," Norwich, "A History of France," Maurois, "A History of France."

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