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[[File:4089186399 10e8826a8e z.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Figure 1. Louise Renée de Penancoët helped spy for Louis XIV.]]
Espionage, in the French monarchy period, has become notorious in suppressing aspirations of those who sought to loosen the bonds of the monarchy in the late 18th century. The history of spying in France, similar to other European powers, started because of interests in security and developed to both external and internal espionage. This has also shaped subsequent periods after the French Revolution. World War II also set the stage for modern French Espionage.
====Recent Periods====
[[File:Margaretha Zelle, alias Mata Hari.jpg|thumbnail|left|250px|Figure 2. Mata Hari (or Margaretha Geertruida "Margreet" MacLeod) was a famous double agent in World War I who ultimately was executed.]]
After the turbulent years of the Napoleonic wars, French spying became more professionalized. The need for foreign intelligence became apparent after the French defeat in the Fanco-Prussian war in 1870-1871. The development of military intelligence was a result of this. This became known as the Deuxième Bureau, the agency in charge of French military spying and intelligence. The spy agency continued until 1940, when France fell to Germany. Notable success included early cryptanalytical work that helped in breaking foreign codes and communications. However, the agency suffered in the Dreyfus Affair, where notable military officers were accused or convicted of spying for Germany in the 1890s and injustice for a junior officer, Alfred Dreyfus, in being accused of being a spy proved to make the French military and its spying networks suffer in their reputation.<ref>For more on the Dryfus Affair and the Deuxième Bureau, see: Porch, D. (1995) <i>The French secret services: from the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War</i>. London, Macmillan, pg. 19.</ref>
