Introduction: Who is Mata Hari and How Did She Impact History?
mata hari
Mata Hari would have been simply another exotic dancer, likely forgotten in the annals of history, except for the fact that she was convicted of being a German spy and executed by the French in 1917. She became the femme fatale of World War I, inspiring writers and playwrights and setting the model for this idea of the “honeypot” spy – a beautiful woman who seduces men to extract their country’s secrets. Famous for her dancing and then infamous for her alleged spying.
the most radical events of Mata Hari’s life would be compressed into a period of just under thirteen years. Many myths and legends surround such an enticing figure, and the purposeful sealing of several documents about her life made it difficult to determine what was actually true for quite a while. Luckily, a series of historians worked hard to separate her life from the absurd or overly sensationalized and boiled down the events of her life to what could truly be accounted for.
Mata Hari’s Early Life and Rise as an Exotic Dancer
On August 7, 1876, the girl who would become Mata Hari, Margaretha Geertruida, was born in Leeuwarden, Holland.
married life
On July 11, 1895, the two Rudolph MacLeod and mata hari were married in a civil ceremony at the Amsterdam City Hall with a few friends and Margaretha’s father – who was meeting Rudolph for the first time – present. Rudolph was thirty-nine and Margaretha nineteen. In order for them to marry, she had to receive approval from Rudolph’s aristocratic family, who determined she was “young but good looking” (though some of his relatives around his own age cautioned him against the match.
Rise as an Exotic Dancer
In 1906, Mata Hari made her first debut abroad in Madrid. ,She was a hit and soon got word that for the first time she had been contracted to perform in a ballet production of Le Roi de Lahore back in France.
This would be the first time she was performing someone’s dances other than her own.
The Trial and Execution of Mata Hari
Trial & Death
“Mata Hari was an independent woman, a divorcee, a citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan and a dancer, which made her a perfect scapegoat for the French, who were then losing the war. She was…held up as an example of what might happen if your morals were too loose.”
– Wheelwright So, what was actually going
Mata Hari was sentenced to death for acts of espionage and un-neutral acts. The Court of Appeals, her last hope, rejected her case altogether. What followed were eighteen days of waiting to discover when she would be executed. The only days during this time she reported being able to sleep peacefully were Saturday nights, as no executions took place on Sundays. Cruelly, they only informed her that her appeal had been rejected on the morning of her execution, October 15, 1917.
She wore “a pearl-gray dress, a straw hat and veil, a coat loosely on her shoulders, and her best shoes…She wore no jewelry.” Hari asked permission to write either two or three letters, one which was addressed to her daughter. Nothing is known of what happened to these letters, as they were never delivered and never located. She refused to be blindfolded. A man present recorded her death after the twelve soldiers fired: “Slowly, inertly, she settled to her knees, her head up always, and without the slightest change of expression on her face. For the fraction of a second it seemed she tottered there…gazing directly at those who had taken her life. Then she fell backward, bending at the waist, with her legs doubled up beneath her.” A soldier approached and fired off one more shot to make sure she was dead.”
Conclusion: Mata Hari is a perfect example of a female spy who used her physical charms to achieve her missions. However her legacy is still a matter of debate among historians.
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