28. Accomplishments Eclipsed by Dying While Doing the Deed
Felix Faure’s presidency was marked by colonial expansion, a rapprochement with Russia, conflict with Britain, and the running sore of the Dreyfus Affair. He approved the French conquest of Madagascar, and exchanged state visits with Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, which eventually led to an alliance. As to Britain, France almost went to war with the British in 1898 over the Fashoda Incident – a colonial confrontation in Sudan. France was forced to back down, which diminished Faure’s popularity at home. Along the way, he also survived an assassination attempt on his life in 1896.
Most salient, however, was the Dreyfus Affair, which polarized France over a Jewish officer framed by higher-ups in the French Army for treason, and unjustly convicted and imprisoned. Even after it became clear that Dreyfus was innocent and that the culprit was another officer, Faure resisted a reopening of the investigation. Another thing that marked Faure’s presidency was the manner of its ending: death during coitus with his mistress, Marguerite Steinheil.