Transcript Biographies
Captain Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus was the son of a French Jewish textile manufacturer and entered the French Army and rose to the rank of Captain in 1889. In 1894 a fellow officer accused him of selling military secrets to Germany. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on the dreaded Devil’s Island. The legal proceedings based on insufficient evidence, were higly irregular, but public opinion and the French press, led by its virulently anti-Semitic section, welcomed the verdict. In 1896 new evidence surfaced that seemed to exonerate Dreyfus. The military tried to suppress the information and failed, and the case became a political firestorm. On the anti-Dreyfus side were royalists, militarists and Roman Catholics. Those defending Dreyfus were republicans, socialists and anti-clerics, including famed author Emile Zola, who was sentenced to jail for criticizing the government's role. A new court-martial (1899) again found Dreyfus guilty and although under heavy public pressure the military would not acknowledge any injustice. In 1906 a civilian court of appeals cleared Dreyfus and reversed all previous convictions. The French President pardoned him and formally reinstated him to the rank of Captain and decorated him with the Legion of Honour. The affair revealed an institutionalized anti-Semitism in the army and helped unite the French left, eventually leading to the separation of church and state. Sources: http://www.answers.com/topic/alfred-dreyfus#ixzz1Eb2XOQ6P 1. 2. 3. http://www.answers.com/topic/alfred-dreyfus#ixzz1Eb2c1zCx Why was Alfred Dreyfus arrested and convicted? What main underlying issue was the real reason Dreyfus was put on trial? What positive outcomes came of this situation? Queen Victoria Born: 24 May 1819 Birthplace: London Reign: 1837-1901 Died: 22 January 1901 Best Known As: Longest reigning queen 64 yrs Life - Victoria was only 18 when she became queen upon the death of her uncle, King William IV. In 1840 she married her first cousin Albert. They had 9 children and 42 grandchildren, most of whom married into royal and noble families throughout Europe. Victoria was shattered by Albert’s untimely death at the age of 42, and she went into a prolonged period of mourning. (She never stopped mourning entirely, wearing black the rest of her life.) After her death in 1901 she was succeeded by her son Prince Albert, who became King Edward VII. 1. Why is Queen Victoria seen as the mother of Europe? 2. What character traits do you think she possessed? 3. How is the modern world impacted by her today? Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/queen-victoria#ixzz1Ecfu0dj4 The Victorian Era: She presided over a period of British industrial progress, artistic successes, political empire-building, and prescribed gender roles which became known as the Victorian Era. She was committed to seeing Great Britain become a dominating world power that had no match. Odd Facts: •In 1842 Victoria became the first monarch to ride in a railway train •The precise length of her reign was 63 years, 216 days •She is the great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, and the great-greatgreat-great-grandmother of princes William and Harry. Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) Prussian statesman, founder of the German Empire, German chancellor Born into the Prussian landowning elite, Bismarck studied law and was elected to the Prussian Diet in 1849. In 1851 he was appointed Prussian representative to the federal Diet in Frankfurt. After serving as ambassador to Russia (1859 – 62) and France (1862), he became prime minister and foreign minister of Prussia (1862 – 71). When he took office, Prussia was widely considered the weakest of the five European powers, but under his leadership Prussia won Denmark (1864), Austria in the Seven Weeks' War (1866), and France in the a war against Franco-Prussian War (1870 – 71). Through these wars he achieved his goal of a politically unified Prussian-dominated German Empire of Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Saxony & Hanover. Once the empire was established, he became its chancellor. The "Iron Chancellor" skillfully preserved the peace in Europe through diplomatic alliances against France. Domestically, he introduced administrative and economic reforms but sought to preserve the status quo, opposing the Social Democratic Party and the Catholic church. When Bismarck left office in 1890, the map of Europe had been changed immeasurably. However, the German Empire, his greatest achievement, survived him by only 20 years because he had failed to create an internally unified people. 1) Why is Bismarck seen as the founder of modern Germany? 2) How did he politically unify the Germanic peoples? 3) Why did he struggle to unify the Germanic people socially? Bellwork Day 4 Red Textbook 1. Pg 634 – Guiseppe Garibaldi – History Maker 2. Pg 636 – Map Italian Unification 3. Pg 651 – Map Russian Empire