European History Commons^™

Vietnamese Contract Workers In The East German Republic, Sean W. Hough

Celebration

This paper will analyze the historical and cultural conditions that affected how the German Democratic Republic treated one of its largest minority groups, the Vietnamese. During the height of the Cold War and as Decolonization reached its peak phase in the 1960s and 70s, these two factors pushed the GDR and Vietnam closer, which resulted in an exchange in workers. Contract Workers were brought to the GDR to work in an environment "united in socialist solidarity." However, despite this rhetoric, age-old racism, xenophobia, and Orientalism still infiltrated the so called "Socialist Paradise," as the GDR was often called by its …

Bosnia: Doomed To Failure Or A Rising Hope?, Caitlin V. Moore

Politics Honors Papers

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that suffers from a lack of a national identity as it has three main ethnic groups, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs, who are all fighting for power. After the Bosnian war, which lasted from 1992-1995 and involved genocide that was committed against the Bosniaks, the ethnic divisions were further entrenched. These divisions were not helped by the provisions of the Dayton Peace Accords, which was the peace settlement that brought an end to the war. Dayton created an ethnocracy within Bosnia that places more importance on ethnic groups than national identity. In order to see …

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 …

Fort St. Joseph Post - Spring 2016, Michael S. Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

We hope you enjoy this issue of the Fort St. Joseph Post, filled with information about current activities that are being conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, a partnership between the City of Niles and Western Michigan University. As you can see, students, staff, faculty, and volunteers are busy investigating, interpreting, and promoting the archaeology of Fort St. Joseph, one of the most important French colonial sites in the western Great Lakes region. We are regularly present at professional conferences, community events, and other venues sharing information about the fort and inviting the public to …

History, Historical Fiction, And Historical Myth: 'The German Doctor' By Lucía Puenzo, Nathan W. Cody

Student Publications

The escape of thousands of war criminals to Argentina and throughout South America in the aftermath of World War II is a historical subject that has been clouded with mystery and conspiracy. Lucía Puenzo's film, The German Doctor, utilizes this historical enigma as a backdrop for historical fiction by imagining a family's encounter with Josef Mengele, the notorious SS doctor from Auschwitz who escaped to South America in 1949 under a false identity. While Puenzo sought to tell a story within a historical context, the film still has important historical commentaries. Ultimately, The German Doctor demonstrates the intersections of history, …

The Berlin Olympics: Sports, Anti-Semitism, And Propaganda In Nazi Germany, Nathan W. Cody

Student Publications

The Nazis utilized the Berlin Olympics of 1936 as anti-Semitic propaganda within their racial ideology. When the Nazis took power in 1933 they immediately sought to coordinate all aspects of German life, including sports. The process of coordination was designed to Aryanize sport by excluding non-Aryans and promoting sport as a means to prepare for military training. The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin became the ideal platform for Hitler and the Nazis to display the physical superiority of the Aryan race. However, the exclusion of non-Aryans prompted a boycott debate that threatened Berlin’s position as host. A fierce debate in …

Battle For The People: Ideological Conflict Between Soviet Partisans, The German Military, And Ukrainian Nationalists In Nazi-Occupied Ukraine, David L. Heim

Student Publications

Soviet historiography discusses the People’s War during the Second World War, the idea that all of the Soviet people rallied to the cause and fought off the Nazi invaders, but this is far from the truth. Within the western borderlands of the Soviet Union multiple conflicting groups fought for control of and support from the people. This was especially true in Ukraine where the German Army, Soviet Partisans and Ukrainian nationalists all fought ‘for the people’ and for their own ideologies. This paper is an attempt to discuss the ideological conflict between the Nazis, the Soviets, and the Ukrainian nationalists, …

A Coercive Courtship: German Awareness Of And Responses To The Sudeten Germans, 1929-1934, Jesse E. Siegel

Student Publications

Following the end of World War I and the creation of the first Czechoslovak Republic, the Sudeten Germans sought to raise the awareness of Germans in Germany and Austria of their situation under Czechoslovak rule. In the period between 1929 and 1934, the public discourse in Germany altered, as Nazi control began to direct further concentration on the Sudeten Germans, away from broader discussion of their minority status to a German nationalistic perspective. The Nazis, however, were both manipulative and ambivalent in their awareness of the Sudeten Germans, treating them as an extension of the Nazi Party while also beyond …

Geopolitics Of The 2015 British Defense White Paper And Its Historical Predecessors, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

On November 23, 2015 the United Kingdom (UK) released a defense white paper detailing its national security strategic objectives. This work examines the geopolitical, economic, and strategic implications of this document and compares it with recent and historical defense white paper documents issued by the British government. It scrutinizes the text of these documents and relevant scholarly literature analyzing them while also examining the national security threats facing the UK at the time of their issuance and assesses whether the 2015 document will be supported with requisite political will, military personnel, and financial support to carry out its objectives

The Problematic Pleasures Of Productivity And Efficiency In Goa And Navegador, Nancy M. Foasberg

Publications and Research

Eurogames are a specific subset of modern board games known for mathematical beauty, low conflict and light themes. However, despite their apparent nonviolence, they often use colonial themes. This article argues that the uncritical embrace of these themes and "abstracting away" of troubling historical content results in a narrative that supports colonialism. Two examples of the genre, Goa and Navegador are analyzed in detail.

7: Public Archaeology At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project practices community service learning.

8: Religious Life At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Written documents indicate that the Jesuit priests settled among neighboring Native American groups and were successful at creating some converts at the St. Joseph mission.

6: Military Presence At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

From 1691 the 1698 and from 1717 to 1761, French military personnel occupied Fort St. Joseph to defend the site's strategic position on a major trade route near the portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers, while maintaining alliances with friendly Native American groups to facilitate the trade in furs.

5: Project History, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Investigations at the long lost fort were begun in 1998 by WMU archaeologists.

4: Commercial Activities At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph was an important link in the chain of frontier outposts that marked the far reaches of New France and facilitated the fur trade between the French and Native Americans in the Western Great Lakes region.

3: Change And Continuity At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph was a multi-ethnic community.

2: Fort History, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

The French established Fort St. Joseph in the 1691 in present day Niles.

1: What Is Archaeology?, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 1, Archaeology is the study of past peoples through the items that they have left behind.

Map Key And Documentary Sources, Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The Map Key (see pages 164–65) offers a partial representation of the locations of black people in Elizabethan London derived from documentary sources and superimposed on [Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg], Londinum feracissimi Angliae Regni metropolis ([Cologne], [1574]), hand-colored and letterpress text in Latin on back from 1635 edition; Folger Shakespeare Library Shelfmark: MAP L85c no.27. This map is used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All locations are approximate. For the locations that exceed the borders of the map, arrows indicate approximate direction. The numbered entries of the Documentary Sources …

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Inside Cover

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Front Matter

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Editorial Statement

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Contributors

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Contents

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My Grandfather: Soren Lorentz Lassen, Karen Lassen

The Bridge

Fifty-five years aft er my grandfather’s death in 1934, my two brothers and I gathered at his gravesite in Sault Ste. Marie near the Great Lakes. For the fi rst time, Soren Lassen was being honored by a family that he never knew. Although he had died long ago, his gravestone had only recently been put in place. I pulled the scissors I had brought out of my purse and carefully cut back the crabgrass that was already creeping across the new stone. Stepping back, I read it aloud:

Svend Lawrence

(Soren Lassen)

1864-1934

My Father, The Christmas Doctor, And The Danish Nurse Who Saved His Life, Tom Weber

The Bridge

My father, Dr. John Peter Weber, was born to German immigrants in Creston, Iowa in 1888. At the age of eleven he realized he wanted to become a doctor. After finishing the eighth grade in 1904, sixteen-year-old John rode the rails to Montana to help lay railroad tracks, intending to save his wages in order to continue his education. Treated brutally by his foreman, he left the railroad construction job and traveled to Portland, Oregon, searching for work in the lumber industry. The young man from Iowa fell victim to a pickpocket on the streets of Portland. All his savings …

Danish Midsummer: My Bodtker Grant From Dahs, Kelsi Vanada

The Bridge

Though many Americans can trace their family history back to their European ancestors, I have met very few people outside of my own family who have maintained relationships with the branches of their families still living in Europe. I have always been proud of the fact that I know many of my family members living in Denmark today. These ties between the Danish and American sides of my family are strengthened every time one of us travels to visit relatives in the other country, so I am extremely grateful that the Danish American Heritage Society (DAHS) awarded me an Edith …

A Danish Lad In America, Fred Delcomyn

The Bridge

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” So said L.P. Hartley in The Go-Between (1953). Looking back on myself as a young immigrant child in Detroit at mid-century, the phrase seems especially apt. In my past I was quite literally in a foreign country.

Growing Up In Junction City, Oregon. A Memoir., Lois Christiansen Eagleton

The Bridge

I grew up in a Danish world in America. It seemed that all of my relatives and most of our family friends were Danes. Though my parents did not speak much Danish at home, mainly because their families had come from different parts of Denmark and they could not agree on pronunciation, I learned when I went to college that I had a few Danish words in my vocabulary that I had no idea were not English.