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Full-Text Articles in History

Catherine De’ Médicis: Seeking Strength In Schism?, Melissa E. Cuzzo Jan 2024

Catherine De’ Médicis: Seeking Strength In Schism?, Melissa E. Cuzzo

Honors College Theses

Throughout history Catherine de’ Médicis has been seen as Machiavellian and deceitful. However, what has been largely ignored is that her style of governance has been based on that of male sovereigns before her. Her goal was to keep the Valois line intact in a time of upheaval. The actions in which the queen mother participated in were an attempt to quell dissent within France and to reinforce the social order of the Ancien Régime. This paper will argue that while Catherine de’ Médicis governmental strategies were not dissimilar to previous years, her authority was undermined by her gender, alien …


Between Faith And Nation: The Complexities Of Jewish Identity In Interwar Austria, Sarah E. Townsend Apr 2023

Between Faith And Nation: The Complexities Of Jewish Identity In Interwar Austria, Sarah E. Townsend

Honors College Theses

During the period between the First and Second World Wars, the people of the newly established Austrian Republic faced many changes: the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Habsburg Monarchy, economic hardships during and following the First World War, and the question of German ethnic nationalism and unification with Germany. The question of national identity was relevant to the entire Austrian population and Austrians had to make an important decision about their nationality: Austrian or German? For Austrian Jews, the dilemma was more complicated. Zionism promoted the idea of Jewish statehood and a solely Jewish identity. This thesis explores the …


A Persecuted Minority To Wealthy Merchants And Planters: A Study Of A Huguenot Family And Shifts In Identity, Garrett Gay Nov 2022

A Persecuted Minority To Wealthy Merchants And Planters: A Study Of A Huguenot Family And Shifts In Identity, Garrett Gay

Honors College Theses

This project takes a look at an interwoven system of familial, religious, social, and economic ties known as the Protestant International. By analyzing genealogies, correspondence, business records, and transactions of the Mazyck Family from the early eighteenth century, it is seen that these international connections often led to the further material success of these families. This project also takes a look at how the Protestant International aided in shifting the vast majority of Huguenots’ identity from being religiously persecuted refugees to being wealthy merchants and planters who formed trade relations both domestically and internationally.


Irish Rock Music Amid A Time Of Troubles: Thin Lizzy And U2 As A Bridge During A Time Of Division, Jacey L. Thomas Apr 2021

Irish Rock Music Amid A Time Of Troubles: Thin Lizzy And U2 As A Bridge During A Time Of Division, Jacey L. Thomas

Honors College Theses

The Troubles were a period of crisis and violence in Ireland in the latter half of the twentieth century. Loyalists, Unionists, Republicans, and Nationalists brutally fought against each other over the issue of whether or not Northern Ireland should remain in the United Kingdom or join the Republic of Ireland to form one united country. The conflict also resulted in ethnic and religious tensions for many Protestants and Catholics who were compelled to choose sides over this issue, owing to their ties to the deep-rooted history of animosity between the two Christian populations. As a result, the Troubles, which lasted …


The Clean Wehrmacht: Myths About German War Crimes Then And Now, Narayan J. Saviskas Jr. Apr 2020

The Clean Wehrmacht: Myths About German War Crimes Then And Now, Narayan J. Saviskas Jr.

Honors College Theses

On October 1st, 1946, the Nuremberg high command trails ended. The executions and life sentences of representatives of the German military and political elite were carried out by the Allied powers. At the time, the Soviet Union posed a greater threat than the Germans tried at Nuremberg. Years later, on October 9th, 1950, former officers of the German military gathered in Himmerod Abbey. Together they wrote the Himmerod Memorandum, which laid the foundation of the German rearmament and called for the release of German soldiers (Wehrmacht) and Schutzstaffel (SS) members convicted of war crimes. The Allies, desperate for another line …


A Question Of G-D: Jewish Theology And Memoirs Of The Holocaust, Rebecca Mcclellan Apr 2019

A Question Of G-D: Jewish Theology And Memoirs Of The Holocaust, Rebecca Mcclellan

Honors College Theses

The Holocaust, the systematic murder of the European Jews by the Germans, had massive impacts on the religious beliefs of those Jews who survived it. Nazi authorities and their accomplices stripped Jews away from their homes, their families, and everything they knew. Forced to work under inhumane conditions, many came to question the God they had followed and the religion they had practiced. This thesis investigates the memoirs of five Jewish survivors to analyze the impact the Holocaust had on their faith.


Jewish Resistance In World War Ii & Zionism: Making Aliyah In The Death Camps, Cierra Tomaso Jan 2017

Jewish Resistance In World War Ii & Zionism: Making Aliyah In The Death Camps, Cierra Tomaso

Honors College Theses

My thesis examines the contributions of Jewish resistance fighters in Europe during World War II. The sources used are primarily memoirs of resistance fighters, primary documents from resistance groups, and secondary articles related to Zionism during that time period. The resistance movement began because there was a need for dismantling the Third Reich from within the bounds of the ghettos, the death camps, and the killing fields. This thesis will show that Zionism played a key role in the motivations of the Jewish resistance fighters in World War II. Additionally, it will examine how as Jews found that their home …


A Case Study Of The Underlying Causes And Implications Of The 2014 Landmark Gm-Opel Automobile Plant Closure In Bochum, Germany, Jennifer P. Shaffer Jan 2017

A Case Study Of The Underlying Causes And Implications Of The 2014 Landmark Gm-Opel Automobile Plant Closure In Bochum, Germany, Jennifer P. Shaffer

Honors College Theses

In December 2014, General Motors closed its flagship Opel plant in Bochum after 52 years of operation amidst years of economic struggles in the industrial Ruhr-valley region of northwestern Germany, marking the first closure of a major German automobile plant since 1945. This study examines the primary underlying causes of the landmark closure, such as the insolvency of GM-Opel and tense employer-employee relations compounded by unsatisfactory trade union negotiations between GM-Opel and IG Metall. Subsequent social and economic reactions to the closure are also examined, including the yearlong “This is not Detroit” campaign launched by local Bochum artists to inspire …


Breaching The Citadel Of Slavery: Condorcet, The Abbé Grégoire, And The Assault On Racial Hierarchy In The Colonial Disputes (1788-1791), Jeffrey D. Waller Jan 2017

Breaching The Citadel Of Slavery: Condorcet, The Abbé Grégoire, And The Assault On Racial Hierarchy In The Colonial Disputes (1788-1791), Jeffrey D. Waller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Issues affecting France’s colonies came to the fore through critiques of social, political, and economic matters during the Late Enlightenment and French Revolutionary era of the late 1780s and early 1790s. Of all the questions France faced during this period, the colonial issues of slavery’s abolition and civil equality for the free people of color in the French Caribbean were among the most contentious. These two matters are most often characterized in the historiography of French abolitionism as separate issues. However, while the analysis of works by Condorcet and Grégoire on slavery and civil equality for the free people of …


The Orthodox Betrayal: How German Christians Embraced And Taught Nazism And Sparked A Christian Battle., William D. Wilson Apr 2016

The Orthodox Betrayal: How German Christians Embraced And Taught Nazism And Sparked A Christian Battle., William D. Wilson

Honors College Theses

During the years of the Nazi regime in Germany, the government introduced a doctrine known as Gleichschaltung (coordination). Gleichschaltung attempted to force the German people to conform to Nazi ideology. As a result of Gleichschaltung the Deutsche Christens (German Christians) diminished the importance of the Old Testament, rejected the biblical Jesus, and propagated proper Nazi gender roles. This thesis will argue that Deutsche Christen movement became the driving force of Nazi ideology within the Protestant Church and quickly dissented from orthodox Christian theology becoming heretical. The Deutsche Christen heresy was unique to Germany and could have only been formed within …


Flight Of The White Feather: The Expansion Of The White Feather Movement Throughout The World War One British Commonwealth, Kimberly Elisa Stevens Jan 2016

Flight Of The White Feather: The Expansion Of The White Feather Movement Throughout The World War One British Commonwealth, Kimberly Elisa Stevens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historiography of the First World War in Great Britain has focused mainly on military matters, leaving home front experiences temporarily unexplored. While the soldier’s experience remains invaluable to historians, studies of women and the home front are significant. The White Feather Campaign, which called for women to give white feathers denoting cowardice to men in civilian dress, who allegedly had not enlisted, remains vivid in British historical memory, but few scholarly works have examined it thoroughly. Historians such as Nicoletta F. Gullace and Susan R. Grayzel have shed light on British women in the war, but there remains further …


Hidden From Memory: Remembrance And Commemoration Of The Sherwood Foresters’ Involvement In Easter, 1916, Amanda S. Kinchen Jan 2014

Hidden From Memory: Remembrance And Commemoration Of The Sherwood Foresters’ Involvement In Easter, 1916, Amanda S. Kinchen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the level at which the Sherwood Foresters are commemorated for their service during the Easter Rising of 1916. The Sherwood Foresters, known officially as the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment, were created in 1881 in England after combining the 45th (Nottinghamshire) and 95th (Derbyshire) Regiments of Foot and had previously served as part of the guard to the royal family. Four battalions were sent to Dublin to quell the rebellion, yet their efforts go largely unnoticed in the annals of the history of World War I. These men are not considered …


The Council Of The Indies And Religion In The Spanish New World, Ashley D. Ellington Jan 2014

The Council Of The Indies And Religion In The Spanish New World, Ashley D. Ellington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Council of the Indies was responsible for the governing of the Spanish Empire, including issues of religion. During the reign of Philip II, the Council gained independence from the Council of Castile and was able to take more control of the Spanish territories. In response to outside factors, the Council codified its laws regarding the spread of the Catholic faith, which became the basis for Council control of religion under the authority of the king. A review of the Council during this time led to many changes in an effort to make the Council less corrupt and more efficient. …


Nazi Ideology And The Pursuit Of War Aim: 1941-45, Kenneth Burgess Jan 2014

Nazi Ideology And The Pursuit Of War Aim: 1941-45, Kenneth Burgess

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine what can be considered a military blunder on the part of the Nazi Germans. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched a massive invasion into the Soviet Union and Soviet territories. The political goals of Operation Barbarossa were to seize hold of the expanses of land belonging to the Soviet Union. This would serve as the foundation for increased agricultural production and the enslavement of any remaining Slavic people for the supposed greater good Germany. Additionally, the Nazis desired to erase the presence of all Jews living within the Soviet Union and …


Drugi Potop: The Fall Of The Second Polish Republic, Wesley Kent Jan 2013

Drugi Potop: The Fall Of The Second Polish Republic, Wesley Kent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to examine the factors that resulted in the fall of the Second Polish Republic and track its downward trajectory. Examining the Second Republic, from its creation in 1918 to its loss of recognition in 1945, reveals that its demise began long before German tanks violated Poland’s frontiers on 1 September, 1939. Commencing with the competing ideas of what a Polish state would be and continuing through the political and foreign policy developments of the inter-war years, a pattern begins to emerge -that of the Poles’ search for their place in modern Europe. The lead up to the …