Exam question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exam question - Essay Example Furthermore, overseas empires were created for the sake of prestige since during this period; most of the main European powers rivaled one another on the continent. The main European powers, such as Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands, as a result of their rivalry on the European continent, sought to show their superiority overseas and this is the reason why such nations as Spain developed huge empires in the Americas and in Asia. Anti-Semitism had a long history in Europe and it had developed over the centuries to become one of the bases upon which most of the views concerning Jews in European society were made. The Dreyfus Affair was one of the most blatant shows of anti-Semitism to be displayed in nineteenth century Europe and this is mainly because of the fact that most of the accusations made against Dreyfus were false. The Dreyfus Affair was mainly driven by the feelings of humiliation that France still felt over the loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany in 1871 and it is for this reason that Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army, came to serve as a useful scapegoat. One of the main reasons for the development of the accusations of treason against him was because he was a Jew from Alsace and his Jewishness alone made him a culprit in the eyes of the law and the state. The belief that Jews were a treacherous people made it people for a significant part of the French public to believe the a ccusations against him. Many European nations can be blamed for the occurrence of World War I and this is because of their tendency several years before the war to form alliances which were based on protecting one another from attacks from countries which were not members of their alliances. For instance, Britain, France, and Russia formed the Triple Entente and this was an alliance based on mutual protection so that if any of the countries named above was attacked, the other