A French Captain Unjustly Accused in France Caused Founding of Israeli State

The Flutter of a butterfly’s wings in China might cause a tornado in the USA or it might delay the tornado somewhere. It means that any incident, it does not matter small or big can cause or do can delay some events. This theory is called the 'Butterfly Effect'. Just like in the Dreyfus case.

Alfred Dreyfus was a French captain. He came from a rich Jewish family. His Jewish identity was at the forefront more than enough even though he was not at the stage with his Jewish identity.

Although he had been innocent, he was accused by to betray his homeland many times and he was declared guilty by the press before his trial. 

Nationalists in Europe thought that European Jewish do not belong to their countries at that time. For instance, French nationalists thought that Alfred Dreyfus 'is not French enough' because he is Jewish. Because of that French nationalists started to use "Death to Jews!” as a slogan in their protests.

As I mentioned before, antisemitism was at the top in Europe. What was the reason for that? After the Industrial Revolution, Jews in Europe started to be rich. With this development, if there is any problem exists in the economic sphere, Jews were shown as a source of the problem. So in a way, they were being targeted.

Alfred Dreyfus was arrested with the vindication of spying on the German Empire. Even though the trial was started in 1894, it took 12 years to prove Dreyfus’ innocence. The trial was opened and concluded with the same conclusion again for 12 years. It means that judging and punishing Dreyfus is a loop for 12 years. The reason for the trial of being looped is that Dreyfus is a Jew. Therefore this incident is known still one of the biggest antisemitism incidents and political scandals. 

Theodor Herzl, an Austrian Jew who worked as a reporter for the Neue Freie Presse, was one of those who followed the trial closely. He was highly affected negatively by the slogans from the French protests and he started to hate antisemitism. This caused him to start to think Jews should have their own state, Jews just can be secure in that way. He started to publish articles in the newspaper where he worked in. These articles are about Zionism. Studies and thoughts of Herlz caused the demand for the founding of Israel formally even though, the idea of the founding of the Jewish state exist before.

To sum up, maybe the allegory of the flutter of a butterfly’s wings in China did not cause a tornado in the USA can not be sensible to people but, a French captain repeatedly unjustly accused and punished in France caused the founding of the Israeli state in the Middle East and this is an example for butterfly effect.