European History Commons^™

The Hopes And The Realities Of Aviation In French Indochina, 1919-1940, Gregory Charles Seltzer

Theses and Dissertations--History

My dissertation examines how and why the French employed aviation in the five constituent parts of French Indochina (Annam, Cambodia, Cochinchina, Laos, and Tonkin) during the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s. I argue that the French, believing that the modern technology of powered flight possessed seemingly endless potential, saw aviation as a vehicle for extending, consolidating, developing, and protecting their interests both within the colony and around Southeast and East Asia. Aircraft, whether civil or military, were viewed and used as a multi-purpose tool of empire. Indeed, planes were employed for a variety of tasks in Indochina: transportation …

How The Willowbrook Consent Decree Has Influenced Contemporary Advocacy Of Individuals With Disabilities, Kristen S. Addessi

Student Theses

The existence of the Willowbrook State School was a culmination, of over a one-hundred-year history of Western society’s attempts to provide adequate care, and treatment for individuals with disabilities. The residents housed there, suffered violations of their human and civil rights in various forms of severe abuse, neglect, and violence. Following a three-year legal battle in 1975, as a result of the travesties that occurred, the legal doctrine known as the Willowbrook Consent Decree was written. The Consent Decree was implemented to ensure that the residents’ human and civil rights are met and protected. The Willowbrook State School and the …

An Examination Of The Integral Support Of His Father’S Family For The Royal Aspirations And Maintenance Of The Crown Of King Henry Vii, Kyle W. Rea

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This work represents an extensive study made into the impact which the Welsh heritage through his father's family helped Henry Tudor to both acquire and maintain the throne of England. It illustrates to the reader how from Henry Tudor's childhood, through his early reign up until the Battle of Stoke, how integral his Welsh connections through his father's family were to his success. It draws from extensive primary sources to illustrate the point and presents a clear presentation of the extreme extent to which these connections impacted Henry Tudor's both his acquisition and his ability to maintain the throne of …

British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate Between Parliament And The Public, Kylie D. Johnson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

While it is now clear that appeasement of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler did not prevent another war, there is a historical debate on whether British appeasement policies were shameful, a set of well-intentioned blunders, an attempt at keeping peace internationally, or a strategy to keep domestic resources focused on Britain. Within the debate between historians, lies a debate between the British public and Parliament, and even within Parliament itself. An important factor in the British decision to implement appeasement policy in the 1930s often underemphasized in the literature is the governmental prioritizing of domestic issues and national security over …

Cold War By “Other Means”: Canada’S Foreign Relations With Communist Eastern Europe, 1957-1963, Cory Scurr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Following Joseph Stalin’s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became leader of the Soviet Union and ushered in a liberalization campaign that reverberated outward to certain Eastern European nations. Canadian officials recognized that limited freedom of maneuver was conceded to certain Eastern European nations, in addition to Yugoslavia’s existing independent position. This proved important, as Communist Eastern Europe became a deliberate and considered factor in Canada’s foreign policy. Canadian Soviet policy thus evolved into a Canadian policy towards Communist Eastern Europe, equipped with various nuances. Specifically, this project examines Canadian policy with Yugoslavia, Poland, and the Soviet Union.

By the mid …

Britain's Green Fascists: Understanding The Relationship Between Fascism, Farming, And Ecological Concerns In Britain, 1919-1951, Alec J. Warren

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between fascism, fascist ideas, and environmental consciousness in Britain during the pre- and post-World War II decades. In examining this topic, two main questions arise. First, why did fascist intellectuals support environmentally conscious ideas, and how did they relate these positions to their political ideologies? Second, why were many environmentally conscious thinkers during this period attracted to fascism? This thesis will also address several related issues regarding fascism and environmental consciousness. These issues include what role environmental concerns played in the British Union of Fascist’s platforms and in fascism’s public appeal, and how that role …

Warlord: The Political And Military Ambitions Of Nazi Germany, William R. Underhill

Senior Theses

There are so many important stories to consider when thinking about World War II. It is easy to think about the popular aspects of the war: the causes, the major figures, the battles, and, of course, the lasting consequences. Yet there are other, lesser known storylines to consider, ones that have taken a backseat to the more popular narratives of the time. It is commonly understood that Nazi Germany was evil and that they had nothing but ill intentions for the rest of Europe and the world. However, it is vital to understand that Germany’s pre-war intentions are notably different …

French Women In Art: Reclaiming The Body Through Creation/Les Femmes Artistes Françaises : La Réclamation Du Corps À Travers La Création, Liatris Hethcoat

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The research I have conducted for my French Major Senior Thesis is a culmination of my passion for and studies of both French language and culture and the history and practice of Visual Arts. I have examined, across the history of art, the representation of women, and concluded that until the 20^th century, these representations have been tools employed by the makers of history and those at the top of the patriarchal system, used to control women’s images and thus women themselves. I survey these representations, which are largely created by men—until the 20^th century. I discuss pre-historical …

The Failure Of Westphalia: A Constructivist Examination Of Western And Middle Eastern Relations, Jayson Warren

Masters Theses

This thesis is not intended to be a dogmatic or pedantic endorsement of any one religion, ethic, or culture. To the contrary, it is the intent of the author to examine a number of competing ideas, philosophies, and belief systems in order to extrapolate their geopolitical implications and to pursue them to their logical (albeit sometimes inevitable) conclusions. Too often, any number of presuppositions at work within a given situation go overlooked and subsequently skew geopolitical analysis and resulting policy decisions. This thesis seeks to transcend mere opinion or speculation and achieve instead a framework of Constructivism for pragmatic comprehension …

Interpretations Of Revolution In Partitioned Poland, Jonathan Dean

Research Papers

The nineteenth century was a time of chaotic politics in Europe, a time that saw Poland broken into pieces and partitioned out to its neighbors. This article examines three different works on Polish history, using their authors' contexts to illustrate how the partitioning of Poland has been interpreted by historians throughout time, and how the status of Poland at the time these histories were written affects that interpretation.

Bethlehem Chapel: How A Place Can Be Reinterpreted By Government, Maya Lemaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

An important source of legitimacy for all types of government is the creation of or building up of a sense of nationhood for the citizens of the state. This can be achieved in many ways, including through the use of physical nationalist symbols. In my paper, I address this topic by exploring how the Communist government of Czechoslovakia reinterpreted and changed the traditional meaning of the historical Bethlehem Chapel in Prague in order to fit their own ideology. I found that the Communist government emphasized the communal aspects of the Hussite movement and ignored religious associations. My research is primarily …

Soviet Kitsch During Stalin's Purges, Jenna Marco

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

This article explores the applications of Modris Eksteins' concept of kitsch to Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union, particularly the period of the Party purges in the 1930s. It traces the construction and development of Soviet kitsch under Stalin in the political, social, cultural, and artistic spheres. Overall, the article argues that the presence of kitsch was ultimately harmful to Soviet politics and culture. In conclusion, the article briefly poses the question of whether or not kitsch fully died out in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin, and if kitsch is still present in current Russian politics and …

Book Review: Genocide On The Drina River, Iva Vukušić

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The French Revolution In The French-Algerian War (1954-1962): Historical Analogy And The Limits Of French Historical Reason, Timothy Scott Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the use of the French Revolution as an explanatory device for discussing the French-Algerian War (1954-1962). Anticolonial intellectuals in France invoked the French Revolution to explain their reasons for supporting colonial reform as well as their solidarity with Algerian nationalist aims. Through an examination of intellectuals’ public interventions alongside French and Algerian historical narratives, I examine the ways in which historical alignment signaled political and cultural distance between France and Algeria. Making an independent Algeria analogous to eighteenth-century revolutionary France lent political and conceptual legitimacy to Algerian claims to an independent national identity while also reinforcing the …

Rethinking Greece: Despina Lalaki On Hellenism, State-Building, Archaeology And The "Democratic West", Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Armenian Genocide: Evidence From The German Office Archives, 1915–1916, Edited By Wolfgang Gust, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

This edited volume should be considered as an significant contribution to the history of the Armenian Genocide. Gust has rendered an important service to scholarship by reviving for the first time in English the voices of the German diplomats and their informants who became eyewitnesses to one of the first genocides of the twentieth century. Almost all of the German observers, be they diplomats or missionaries from the period, agreed on the fact that what happened to the Armenians was an act of genocide. Now that Gust has furnished historians with a plethora of vital documents, it is the task …

The Cradle Of Democracy And The Longue Durée Of A Crisis: Some Thoughts From The Perspective Of Historical Sociology, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

The relationship between Modern Greece and the West has always been a complex and tortuous one. Greece as “the cradle of democracy” – a construct at the intersection of western modernity’s political imaginary and Greek national identity – a terribly familiar and powerful cliché which to a great extent, still today, informs our imagination and politics has been at the heart of this relationship. It is rather a truism to suggest that democracy lies at the political core of the civilization that the West insists offering to the rest of the world, yet we tend to forget that this is …

Book Review: Remembering Genocide, Tony Barta

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

To Whom Does The Body Of The Dead Soldier Belong?: An Examination Of British Imperial Strategy And The Making And Meaning Of World War I Memorials, Hannah M. Jeruc

Lawrence University Honors Projects

In 1915, one year into World War I, Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware founded the Imperial War Graves Commission, the official body responsible for locating, identifying and burying the dead British and Commonwealth soldiers. By the end of the war, the British had lost about one million troops, and for the next 20 years, the Commission would work diligently to create 970 cemeteries, 600,000 graves and 18 larger memorials to commemorate the British losses on the Western Front. However, the significance of the British WWI memorialization process is about more than the Empire's architectural achievements, but rather, the story the architecture …

The World Of Elagabalus, Jay Carriker

History Theses

After his assassination in 222 the Roman Emperor Elagabalus served as Rome's whipping boy--an embodiment of all the vices that led to the decline and fall of Rome; but through placing his policies in the context of a a Julio-Severan Dynasty, the religious boundaries that he disregarded reveal a Varian Moment as a critical period in the Easternization of Roman religion which makes him one of the the most significant figures in Roman history.

A Dickensian Utilitarianism, Zachary Allentuck

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper argues that Charles Dickens' political and world views were in sympathy with Utilitarianism, as defined by Jeremy Bentham. The Utilitarianism Dickens attacked in A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, and Little Dorrit was not real utilitarianism; it was utilitarianism appropriated by England's middle-class.

Germany In Afghanistan: The German Domestic Dispute On Military Deployment Overseas, Nils Martin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis provides a study of the deployment of the German Bundeswehr to Afghanistan and highlights the clash between two conflicting visions of German foreign policy by explaining the different policies supported or opposed by an outspoken segment of the German public and German leaders since the Second World War in regards to the use of military force. While maintaining a focus on German military deployment to Afghanistan, this thesis consists of an analysis of German parliamentary debate, editorials, public opinion polls, speeches and other sources to determine arguments used by German government leaders to try and overcome strong anti-war …

The Power Of A Secret: Secret Societies And The Easter Rising, Sierra M. Harlan

Senior Theses

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) and the Irish Volunteer Force (I.V.F.) altered Irish Nationalist tactics from Parliamentary supported Home Rule to a republican movement for Irish Independence. The actions of these secret societies between 1900 and 1916, during the Irish Revolutionary period,[1] are the reason that Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1922. The change from political negotiations by the ineffective Irish Parliamentary Party to the republican movement would never have happened without the Easter Rising of 1916. The centennial anniversary of this Easter Rising makes The Power of a Secret: Ireland’s Secret Societies and the Easter …

Recreating Richard Iii: The Power Of Tudor Propaganda, Heather Alexander

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Because it signified the violent transition from the Plantagenet to Tudor dynasty, the death of King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth’s Field was a monumental event. After five centuries, his skeleton was rediscovered by an archaeological team at a site, formerly the location of the Greyfriars Priory Church. The presentation uses the forensic evidence to examine the extent to which the perceived image of Richard III is the result of Tudor propaganda.

King Fred: How The British King Who Never Was Shaped The Modern Monarchy, Austin W. B. Hilton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the British monarchy in the eighteenth century and how the philosophy of Frederick, Prince of Wales, helped to shape that monarchy. The early Hanoverians were seen with contempt by many of their subjects, often being ridiculed as ignorant outsiders. They helped matters none by their indifference to Britain, its people, or its culture. Prince Frederick, George II’s eldest son, however, changed all of this. His philosophy on kingship, influenced by Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke’s work, The Patriot King, helped to change the perception of the Hanoverian dynasty. When Prince Frederick died in 1751 before he could take the …

Charles University: A History Of Revolution, Matous Komers

Young Historians Conference

Although the students of Prague’s Charles University are mostly remembered for starting the Velvet Revolution in the 20th Century, the university’s history of revolution started nearly seven hundred years earlier with a young priest named Jan Hus. Hus started a movement of religious reform called Hussitism, which laid the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation. “Charles University: A History of Revolution” explores the impact and influence that Charles University had on the development and spread of the Hussite Reformation and Hus’ massive theological shift.

Alexander Of Macedonia And His Transformation Into Despotism, Brandon Tran

Young Historians Conference

At the age 20, Alexander of Macedonia began his campaign. After inheriting Macedonia from his father, he would expand his empire, stretching from Ancient Greece to Asia Minor. Besides conquering the land, Alexander changed the land by connecting cultures, adopting foreign customs and expanding trade. Historians like Plutarch and Arrian of the Second Sophistic Age would call him Alexander the Great. But was he truly great? His military campaign was riddled with atrocities and unjustified murders, but history books still describe Alexander as a great man. This paper explores the viewpoints of antiquities greatest historians like Plutarch and Arrian, while …

“A Terrible Beauty Is Born”: A Panel On The 1916 Easter Rising, Meg A. Sutter

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

On Wednesday, April 20, 2016, Gettysburg College students and faculty gathered in Penn Hall Lyceum to acknowledge the centennial of the Easter Rising. On April 24, 1916, the day after Easter Sunday, an armed rebellion led by Irish Republicans seized the General Post Office and other major buildings in the center of Dublin, and declared a “Republic of Ireland.” Approximately 1,600 members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army participated in the six-day rebellion. The Rising was an act to overthrow the British government in Ireland and provoke a full-out revolution. After a week, however, British forces squashed the …

The Power Of A Secret: Ireland’S Secret Societies Involvement In Irish Nationalism, Sierra M. Harlan

Scholarly and Creative Works Conference (2015 - 2021)

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) and the Irish Volunteer Force (I.V.F.) altered Irish Nationalist tactics from Parliamentary supported Home Rule to a republican movement for Irish Independence. The actions of these secret societies between the years of 1900 through 1917, before the Irish Revolutionary period,[1] are the reason that Ireland gained independence from United Kingdom in 1921. The change from political negotiations by the ineffective Irish Parliamentary Party to the republican movement would never have happened without the Easter Rising of 1916. The centennial anniversary of this Easter Rising makes The Power of a Secret: Ireland’s secret societies involvement …

The Rsha Generation, Sean W. Hough

Student Publications

The Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) was once the capital of a vast empire of terror; a place where surveillance, persecution, and extermination became merely a quotidian, bureaucratic function and where the Schreibtischtäter could implement their deadly ideology from afar, or sometimes in person; a place where divisions of the SS less associated by the general public with Nazi crimes against humanity, such as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo), would persecute and kill more people than the Gestapo and most other Nazi institutions of terror. The RSHA and its many offices became an outlet for many Nazi intellectual elites, who were educated …