France, Algeria, Assassination
Upon his return, he would be embroiled in political controversies for the remainder of his life.
He started by attacking Constans, enlisting the aid of Georges Clemenceau, but failed to unseat him in the next election. His politics became overtly anti-Semitic, and he challenged Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus, a Jewish member of the Chamber of Deputies, to a duel after Dreyfus wrote an article attacking him. De Morès said he wanted Gaul for the Gauls, and Dreyfus replied by writing that de Morès had a Spanish title, a father with an Italian title, and an American wife who was neither Christian nor French. At the duel Dreyfus fired first and missed, and the Marquis wounded his opponent in the arm.
In 1889 de Morès joined La Ligue antisémitique de France (Antisemitic League of France) founded by Edouard Drumont. After more verbal attacks on Jews, he went to Algeria to strengthen the French hold there and stop British advances into the interior of Africa. He used anti-Semitic rhetoric to his advantage in Algeria, giving speeches claiming that French and African Jews and the British were conspiring to conquer the entire Sahara Desert. With the British in difficult position in the Sudan after the death of General Charles George Gordon in the siege of Khartoum, De Morès planned a trip there to meet with the Mahdi, a powerful Muslim leader who was intent on undermining British hegemony in the region.
Before the Marquis could complete his journey, his caravan was infiltrated by Tuareg tribesmen who were enemies of the French. De Morès was surrounded, attacked by a man wielding a saber and then killed with rifles. The investigation that followed revealed that his enemies in the French government may have taken part in the assassination. His widow, the Marquise, sought to expose the conspirators, but no government official was ever convicted.
Read more about this topic: Marquis De Mores