scholarly journals History of Phases in Textbook Revisions at the 1928 Oslo Conference from the Hungarian Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gábor Albert
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Committee ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Historical Science ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conference Delegate

This study is focused on phases of the textbook revision movement and textbook debates from the Oslo Conference organized by the International Committee of Historians in 1928. It is based on interviews by the contemporary Norwegian newspaper “Aftenposten” and on reports to the Hungarian Ministry of Education written by the Hungarian conference delegate, Sandor Domanovszky, one of the greatest Hungarian historians and authors of textbooks. Further, the author examines Kuno Klebelsberg’s (leader of the Hungarian Ministry of Education between 1922 and 1931) attitudes to the textbook issue. After World War I the Hungarian textbook revision movement was examined in depth by the institutions of the League of Nations, and at events of the International Committee of Historical Science (Comité International des Sciences Historiques – CISH). The textbook revision movement aimed to filter out tendentious and distorted prejudices towards other nations in history textbooks.

scholarly journals The hierarchical society: the politics of self-determination and the constitution of new states after 1919

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-396
Author(s):  
Maja Spanu
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International System ◽  
World Politics ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
World War ◽  
New States ◽  
History Of

International Relations scholarship disconnects the history of the so-called expansion of international society from the presence of hierarchies within it. In contrast, this article argues that these developments may in fact be premised on hierarchical arrangements whereby new states are subject to international tutelage as the price of acceptance to international society. It shows that hierarchies within international society are deeply entrenched with the politics of self-determination as international society expands. I substantiate this argument with primary and secondary material on the Minority Treaty provisions imposed on the new states in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe admitted to the League of Nations after World War I. The implications of this claim for International Relations scholarship are twofold. First, my argument contributes to debates on the making of the international system of states by showing that the process of expansion of international society is premised on hierarchy, among and within states. Second, it speaks to the growing body of scholarship on hierarchy in world politics by historicising where hierarchies come from, examining how diverse hierarchies are nested and intersect, and revealing how different actors navigate these hierarchies.

1. The best hope of mankind? A brief history of the UN

2015 ◽  
pp. 8-25
Author(s):  
Jussi M. Hanhimäki
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
International Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The United Nations

The International Peace Conference in 1899 established the Permanent Court of Arbitration as the first medium for international disputes, but it was the League of Nations, established in 1919 after World War I, which formed the framework of the system of international organizations seen today. The United Nations was created to manage the world's transformation in the aftermath of World War II. ‘The best hope of mankind? A brief history of the UN’ shows how the UN has grown from the 51 nations that signed the UN Charter in 1945 to 193 nations in 2015. The UN's first seven decades have seen many challenges with a mixture of success and failure.

Retracing Estonia's Russians: Mikhail Kurchinskii and Interwar Cultural Autonomy

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Sociopolitical Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
History Of

In exploring the history of the Russian minority in Estonia during 1918–1940, one is inevitably drawn to the figure of Professor Mikhail Anatolevich Kurchinskii (1876–1939). An academic and journalist, Kurchinskii was also an important political actor devoted to the quest for a satisfactory resolution of the nationality question in Estonia and Europe. It is with good reason that Kurchinskii has been called “the most important theoretician and practical advocate of cultural autonomy amongst the [interwar] Russian minority in Estonia.” From 1927 he also served as a leading member of the Congress of European Minorities (CEM), which became the main promoter of the cultural autonomy concept on the wider European stage. During the same period he took a deep interest in the work of the Pan-Europe movement and the quest for a durable settlement of European affairs following the traumas of World War I. Until very recently, however, Kurchinskii has remained a neglected figure among historians, even within the narrow field of Baltic studies. This neglect is symptomatic of the lack of attention devoted to the political history of the Russian minority more generally. As the first group to implement Estonia's celebrated 1925 law on cultural autonomy, the interwar German minority has already formed the object of a number of studies. By contrast, Kurchinskii's failure to realize the autonomy project means that he—and, indeed, the Russian minority as a whole—barely receives a mention in most histories of Estonia. Just as Kurchinskii's aspirations regarding cultural autonomy were never realized during his lifetime, so his vision of building a “New Europe” faded against the background of economic depression and a retreat into inward-looking national particularism during the 1930s. The tragic fate that befell central and eastern Europe after 1939 has in turn tended to obscure many of the ideas and positive achievements of the interwar minorities movement. This article uses Kurchinskii's career to illuminate issues relating to the sociopolitical development of the Russian minority between the wars. In particular it compares Kurchinskii's thinking on minority issues with that of his rival Aleksei Janson (1866–1940), a socialist politician and pedagogical expert who served as Russian National Secretary in the Estonian Ministry of Education from 1922 to 1927. Finally, by linking Kurchinskii's quest for cultural autonomy to his broader thinking on the “New Europe,” the article assesses the relevance of these ideas to contemporary debates on the nationality question.

Teaching “Americanism with a World Perspective”: The Junior Red Cross in the U.S. Schools from 1917 to the 1920s

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia F. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
The United States ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
World Peace ◽  
World War ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Immigration Restriction ◽  
Treaty Of Versailles ◽  
History Of

The involvement of the United States in World War I, from April 1917 to November 1918, marked a high point in the history of American internationalist thought and engagement. During those nineteen months, President Woodrow Wilson and his administration called on Americans to aid European civilians and to support Wilson's plans for a peacetime League of Nations, defining both as civic obligations; many responded positively. The postwar years, however, saw a significant popular backlash against such cosmopolitan expectations. In 1920, Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and rejected U.S. participation in the League. A growing chorus for 100% Americanism and immigration restriction, meanwhile, offered evidence of a U.S. public that was becoming more insular, more withdrawn from the world. Yet such trends were never universal. As scholars have begun to acknowledge, many Americans remained outward looking in their worldviews throughout the period, seeing engagement with and compassion for the international community as vital to ensuring world peace.

Force versus law: The International Committee of the Red Cross and chemical warfare in the Italo-Ethiopian war 1935–1936

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (322) ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Rainer Baudendistel
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Chemical Warfare Agents ◽  
International Committee ◽  
Chemical Warfare ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Biological Warfare ◽  
World War ◽  
Warfare Agents ◽  
First Time

During World War I, chemical warfare agents were widely used for the first time on all major fronts with an unprecedented number of casualties, and immediately after the war attempts were made to outlaw this latest weapon. Responsibility for the drafting of specific laws fell to the League of Nations, reflecting the belief that this was a matter of concern for the whole world, not just for the victors in the war. On 17 June 1925, the Geneva Protocol for the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare was signed by 26 States.3 It contained a categorical prohibition to resort to chemical and biological warfare. The signature of the Protocol raised high hopes of an effective ban on chemical warfare, but adherence progressed slowly. A number of States, visibly not trusting the Protocol to be implemented in the forthright manner suggested by the text, made major reservations.

scholarly journals Creating the “International Mind”: The League of Nations Attempts to Reform History Teaching, 1920–1939

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
International Committee ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
World War ◽  
History Teaching ◽  
The First World War ◽  
National Governments ◽  
First World

After the First World War, the League of Nations, through its International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, attempted to reshape the teaching of history in its member states. The League's supporters realized that its long-term success depended in part on supportive public opinion and that this, in turn, had implications for education. Aware of the strength of national loyalties, the League sought not to abolish the teaching of national history but to suffuse it with the spirit of the “international mind.” To this end, the League promoted revision of history textbooks and curricula, retraining of teachers, and rethinking of teaching methods. National governments responded by including some study of the League in history curricula but ignored the League's broader plans. Nonetheless, the League's attempt to internationalize the teaching of history opened up a debate that continues today as schools seek to strike a balance between claims of national and global history.

scholarly journals Dubrovnik archive in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

2015 ◽  
pp. 49-64
Author(s):  
Bojan Djordjevic
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
Cultural Property ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The One ◽  
National Significance ◽  
Kingdom Of Yugoslavia

The fundamental issue in the first years after the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was related to the future organization of Dubrovnik Archive, considering that the invaluable materials still lay in the Rector?s Palace, which assumed a completely new role and a special place in the newly formed Kingdom. Namely, following the end of World War I and the foundation of the new state, the Rector?s Palace in Dubrovnik, as a cultural property of national significance, was proclaimed a cultural-historical monument, on the one hand, and also a residence of the king, on the other. Therefore, it came under the jurisdiction of the Court of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Court of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), i.e. of the Royal Office. The jurisdiction over the Archive itself, specifically over the materials kept in it, was in the hands of the Ministry of Education. In 1921, Antonije Vucetic was named the first administrator of Dubrovnik Archive. Vucetic immediately and unequivocally advanced the thesis that Dubrovnik Archive, despite not being of the rank of the Archives in Zagreb and Belgrade, still is ?the most celebrated in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes?. Above all else, he emphasized the historical significance of this Archive, containing materials important for the history of the Republic of Dubrovnik, but also for the Serbian and Croatian histories from the 11th to the 19th centuries. In the year 1930, a new administrator was appointed to Dubrovnik Archive. It was Branimir Truhelka. He realized that in the case of the most important matters related to the Archive, in the case of all the Archive?s needs, they should turn, if possible, directly to the Court of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, i.e. to the Minister of the Court. The year 1931 marks the beginning of Truhelka?s systematic efforts to obtain the most that could be obtained for Dubrovnik Archive, to explain its significance to the authorities on the Court, and - without insisting on moving the Archive from the Rector?s Palace, being aware of the lack of support for this - to do everything to provide the safe keeping of valuable materials and to secure research in the Archive. Until the beginning of World War II and the occupation of Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik Archive prospered and an increasing number of researchers came to work in it. Thus, Dubrovnik Archive proved itself to be an unavoidable source for studying the past of both the Republic of Dubrovnik and the Serbian people.

A Global History of Governance

2018 ◽  
pp. 147-166
Author(s):  
Madeleine Herren
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Networked Governance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Congo Free State

This chapter explains how concepts and practices of global governance intertwined modern nation-building and imperialism since the late nineteenth century. The main argument is that multilayered forms of networked governance, now a characteristic of the twenty-first century’s porous borders, are closely connected to colonial power settings. The first section introduces the historical rationale for the interdisciplinary discourse on global governance and limited statehood analysis. Focusing on the coincidence of imperialism and nation-building, the chapter unveils the colonial power settings as a basis for the development of multilayered networked governance. The examples chosen address global governance problems, claims, and discussions that remain as pertinent today. They include the Congo Free State and the period of power transition after World War I with the League of Nations as its main actor. The chapter discusses periods of crises and war, as well as the changing status and entitlements of individuals.

Press Propaganda and Subaltern Agents of Pan-Islamic Networks in the Muslim Mediterranean World prior to World War I

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odile Moreau
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
North Africa ◽  
World War ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
The Press ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores movement and circulation across the Mediterranean and seeks to contribute to a history of proto-nationalism in the Maghrib and the Middle East at a particular moment prior to World War I. The discussion is particularly concerned with the interface of two Mediterranean spaces: the Middle East (Egypt, Ottoman Empire) and North Africa (Morocco), where the latter is viewed as a case study where resistance movements sought external allies as a way of compensating for their internal weakness. Applying methods developed by Subaltern Studies, and linking macro-historical approaches, namely of a translocal movement in the Muslim Mediterranean, it explores how the Egypt-based society, al-Ittihad al-Maghribi, through its agent, Aref Taher, used the press as an instrument for political propaganda, promoting its Pan-Islamic programme and its goal of uniting North Africa.

The War of Legs

Transfers ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-120
Author(s):  
Michael Pesek
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
World War ◽  
East African ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Belgian Congo

This article describes the little-known history of military labor and transport during the East African campaign of World War I. Based on sources from German, Belgian, and British archives and publications, it considers the issue of military transport and supply in the thick of war. Traditional histories of World War I tend to be those of battles, but what follows is a history of roads and footpaths. More than a million Africans served as porters for the troops. Many paid with their lives. The organization of military labor was a huge task for the colonial and military bureaucracies for which they were hardly prepared. However, the need to organize military transport eventually initiated a process of modernization of the colonial state in the Belgian Congo and British East Africa. This process was not without backlash or failure. The Germans lost their well-developed military transport infrastructure during the Allied offensive of 1916. The British and Belgians went to war with the question of transport unresolved. They were unable to recruit enough Africans for military labor, a situation made worse by failures in the supplies by porters of food and medical care. One of the main factors that contributed to the success of German forces was the Allies' failure in the “war of legs.”

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