Why did the dreyfus affair divide french society

The Dreyfus Affair had as its origin a judicial sentence of clear anti-Semitic style in which the victim was Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), of Jewish-Alsatian origin, and which for twelve years, from 1894 to 1906, shocked the French society of the time, marking a milestone in the history of anti-Semitism.

The revelation of the scandal in "I accuse" (J'accuse), an article by Emile Zola of 1898, provoked a succession of unprecedented political and social crises in France that, at the time of its apogee in 1899, revealed the pronounced fractures that underlay the Third French Republic. It deeply and durably divided the French into two opposing camps, the dreyfusards (supporters of Dreyfus) and the antidreyfusards (opponents of Dreyfus). It also revealed the existence in French society of a core of violent nationalism and anti-Semitism spread by a highly influential press. The case became a modern and universal symbol of iniquity in the name of reason of State.

nothing certain is known about what happened, but it seems that the country declined gradually, perhaps due to bad government, or, more likely, due to a series of bad harvests, which resulted in widespread and recurrent famine.

no every country is held to the same degree as others just some member countries such as the usa and germany are more economically sound so the need to show there support to all others