History Commons^™

"They Will Change The Situation Immediately": Perpetrator Subgroups And Germany's Genocidal Practices In Southwest Africa, James Michael Thaxton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The genocide of the Herero tribe in German Southwest Africa illuminates the horrors of colonialism broadly and of German settler colonialism more specifically. I contend that the perpetrators of this event can be separated into two broad subgroups, the Old Africans and the Metropole Soldiers, distinguished by their intentions, exploitative and exterminatory respectively, concerning the indigenous tribes. Those intentions were formed over varying lengths of time but are the result of either firsthand experience with the racial hierarchy in the colony or relying on information and misinformation relayed to the metropole. Utilizing primarily letters, diaries, journals, and postcards, I argue …

The Common Man And The Rise Of The Anabaptist Kingdom Of Munster, 1534-1535, Andrew Roebuck

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This essay studies the causes of the rise of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster, with special emphasis on the actions and agency of the common people. The analysis begins with the two main primary sources, Hermann von Kerssenbrock and Henry Gresbeck, whose accounts provide firsthand knowledge of how events in Munster led to the Anabaptist takeover. Care is taken to read beyond some of the biases and assumptions made by those authors to gain the clearest insight for what really happened.

The essay looks at Anabaptism itself, including what it meant to be Anabaptist from the perspectives of participants and …

Forgotten Mistakes: Crossing The Rhine Gorge, 1945, Michael Duncan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In the years following World War II, official military records along with news reports and personal accounts of senior military leaders formed a narrative that emphasized American exceptionalism and focused on the success of the United States military. That original narrative became a foundation for foreign policy and military doctrine, and its characterization of the tactical and operational decisions made by American military leaders has remained almost entirely unchallenged. This thesis seeks to reverse that trend by carefully analyzing the tactical and operational aspects of one specific event, the crossing of the Rhine Gorge by the 89th Infantry Division.

The …

The Broad, Toiling Masses In All The Continents: Anticolonial Activists And The Atlantic Charter, Mark Reeves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The 1941 Atlantic Charter’s references to self-determination galvanized anticolonial nationalists during the Second World War. These activists used the principles enumerated in the Atlantic Charter to frame their demands. This thesis examines three cases in the broader global context during the war, from vastly different colonial and wartime situations: British-ruled India, French-ruled Syria, and the U.S.- ruled Philippines. Across these different situations, anticolonial nationalists used the Atlantic Charter in an attempt to legitimate their own projects. This thesis shows that the elite nationalist movements examined here used a common rhetoric from the Charter, but in variable ways. Each case study …

The Great Men Of Christendom: The Failure Of The Third Crusade, Justin Lee Mathews

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is a study of the reasons for the failure of the Third Crusade to achieve its stated objectives, despite the many advantages with which the venture began. It is proposed herein that the Third Crusade—and by extension all of the previous and subsequent Crusades—were destined to fail because of structural disadvantages which plagued the expeditions to the Holy Land. The Christians in the Holy Land were not selfsufficient, and they depended on an extensive amount of aid from Europe for their existence, but the Christians of Europe had their own goals and concerns which did not allow them …

The Wehrmarcht: Soldiers And Germans During The Second World War, Neil Varble

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The German Army, also known as the Wehrmacht, fought a brutal war on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. These soldiers, under the command of military officials of the Nazi state, vowed to destroy Bolshevism and Jewish populations. By examining letters from soldiers to family members on the German home front as well as letters from families to the men on the front lines, a better understanding of the motivations of war is revealed. Letters of these men and family members present insight into a vast area of research in German twentieth century history. An estimated 20 to …

Revolution Of Reforms: The Kingdom Of Bavaria In The Napoleonic Era, 1799-1815, Scott Anderson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For many years, scholarship covering the Napoleonic satellite kingdoms has centered on the overriding presence of Napoleon Bonaparte without looking a great deal at the kingdoms that supported him. Since the recent publication of Stuart Woolf's Napoleon's Integration of Europe the focus of study on these satellite kingdoms will change. Bavaria's history in particular needs to be examined, especially since a clear study will reveal much of Bavaria's modernization during these years was already underway before Napoleon assimilated it into his empire. However, much of that progressive policy would not have been enacted without Napoleon's protection. This project therefore will …

Women Writers In Revolution: Feminism In Germaine De Staël And Ding Ling, Sara Powell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this essay, the concern is feminism in the writings of the two revolutionary women, Germaine de Stael, who lived and wrote during the French revolutionary era, and Ding Ling, who lived and wrote during the Chinese Communist revolutionary era. The main theme of the essay is to determine whether the feminism in their work is of a similar nature despite the vast differences in the times and places in which they each lived. Concomitantly, the theme is also an attempt to discover through such similarities if feminism is of a universal nature. Through biographical sketches and analysis of selected …

German Foreign Policy & Diplomacy 1890-1906, Lee Button

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

From 1871 to 1914, Germany experienced its first taste of world power and the failure of controlling and retaining that power. German power after 1871 had sought only a dominance of continental politics and a maintenance of a status quo in Europe favorable to Germany. Following 1890, however, the German course deviated to include a vision of world power. German foreign policy until 1890 was based on two things: hegemonic control of the heart of Europe and the force of will of one man, Otto von Bismarck. Yet despite relative control of the European situation and a cautious and able …

The Married Women's Property Act, 1882: A Study Of Victorian Reform, Charles Norbert

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The major purpose of this thesis was to analyze and evaluate the development of the Married Women's Property Act of 1882. This Act exemplified the effort to improve the rights of women in nineteenth century Britain. Similar to the series of Reform Acts, the series of Married Women's Property Acts (1870, 1874, 1882 and 1893) represented the gradual extension of the tenets of Victorian liberalism to a broader portion of the English population. The unique feature of these Acts was that they marked the transcendence of liberalism over sexual barriers.

In order to understand the significance of these Acts it …

Samuel Butler’S Way Of All Flesh As A Sociological Novel, David Carter

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

To scholars of Victorian literature, Samuel Butler has always been a rebel who strikes out at society with wide-ranging criticism. After years of studying subjects as varied as music, art, biology, literature, and theology, Butler felt (like many Victorian writers) that he could make valuable social comments with his satires, travelogues, biological studies and one novel.

Critical studies of Butler have tended to treat in broad outline all facets of his life and work. This study, however, examines in depth Butler’s novel The Way of All Flesh, as the focal point of his critical analysis of Victorian society. It treats …

Jeremy Bentham: Syncretistic Utilitarian, William Day

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

During the period of reaction in England after the Napoleonic wars, a new generation of reformers developed, who abjured the belief in natural rights already discredited by the Jacobin excesses.¹ These individuals sought a personality around whom they could center their program. Jeremy Bentham, a seemingly apolitical man, gradually became the personification of the new methodology. Crane Brinton has written, "scarcely has an English thinker left a more definite trice upon English legislation than Jeremy Bentham."² So involved are the implications of the system and the man who introduced the new science" that interest is produced by the …

United States-Russian Relations, 1917-1933, Raymond L. Cravens

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

“One should doff one’s cap to the statue of Jupiter, in case he returned to power.” – Lord Byron

Our task in this study is to determine whether the words of Lord Byron are true in the realm of International Power Politics. This is a study of the application of the principle of non-recognition – the refusal of acknowledgement – to Russo-American relations during the period from 1917 to 1933.

The year was 1917, and the Gladiator of Capitalism stood over the prostrate form of Russian Bolshevism and appealed for the decision of “life” or “death” to be meted out …

The Origin, Development & Present Status Of County Government In Kentucky, Walton Reynolds

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It is the purpose of this study to investigate the origin and development of our present county government and to give the essentials of the present status. It is intended to present a brief outline history of the growth and changes in the administrative organization of the county from the days of the shire and the Norman Invasion of England to the reign of the Stuarts; and then to transplant that form of local government into the forested wastes of James River, and there watch it adapt itself to the frontier environment of a new world. In the process of …