Ler História 66 / 2014
Dossier: First World War
Maria Fernanda Rollo, Ana Paula Pires
Presentation
Ana Paula Pires e Richard S. Fogarty
Africa and the First World War
David Welch
The Final Throw of the Dice. General Ludendorff: Morale, 'Patriotic Instruction' and Imperial German Propaganda 1917-18
Fernanda Rollo
Soldier of Africa! How many medals did they put in your chest? Portugal and Africa in a Global War
François Cochet
On the way of total war on the western front: the weapons and their uses between 1914 and 1918
Jean-Claude Farcy
Law and justice during the First World War. The French example
Joana Dias Pereira
The 1917-1920 global agitation cycle
Michael Neiberg
The Crisis of 1914 and the Road to War
Pierre Purseigle
A liberal art of war: Great Britain in the First World War
Abstracts
Ler História 66 / 2014
Ana Paula Pires and Richard S. Fogarty
In 1914 when the Great War started, with the exception of Ethiopia, Liberia, and the Union of South Africa, which were independent, Libya and Morocco which had not yet been «formally conquered», the remaining continent found itself already occupied and divided between the U.K., France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Belgium. This article attempts to summarize the importance of Africa in the context of the Great War, analyzing its human and material input on the entire European belligerence. The paper will focus also some of the reasons behind the entry of the African continent in World War I, and concludes with a synthesis 189 on the social, political and economic impact brought by the conflict to the Europe-Africa relations, and that, in short, allow us to understand how the continent «shaped» itself in order to satisfy the interests of the colonial powers during the war.
Keywords: Africa; War; Globalization; Mobilization.
David Welch
In order to counter reports of a widening gulf between state authority and popular feeling about the war, General Ludendorff launched a major propaganda campaign in July 1917 called Vaterländische Unterricht (patriotic instructions). Four major themes were identified: 1]The Causes of the War. 2] Confidence in Final Victory. 3] The Necessity and Importance of Leadership and 4] The Enemy. It was Ludendorff's 'last throw of the propaganda dice' and he assumed overall responsibility for both its conception and its implementation. However by September 1917, reports coming in to the OHL suggested that the 'patriotic instruction' programme was failing to counter people's negative perceptions of the war as the public viewed it increasingly as 'cheap propaganda'.
Keywords: Ludendorff; propaganda; «patriotic instruction»; Kaiser.
Fernanda Rollo
Why being the Portuguese empire so embedded in the Portuguese imaginary the African war front where Portugal was present between 1914 and 1918, and to where the country mobilized around 50,000 men ended up overshadowed by the non-consensual intervention of the Portuguese army in Flanders? With this article it is intended to contribute to deepen the study of the reasons that stimulated the Portuguese intervention in Africa, contributing to the appreciation of the importance and impact that that presence had not only at a national level, but beyond the historiographical debate on interventionism and non-interventionism, and still of the perception of the role of Portugal and the Portuguese colonies in the study of the First World War in general.
Keywords: Portugal; First World War; Africa.
François Cochet
The Great War innovates in the production of instruments of war in a never before basis. Tactical blocking greatly influenced the Western front. Trenches, forming a completely closed system, that could only be overcome by surprise (gas and tanks) or through the disarticulation (increasingly powerful artillery). All these instruments required the industrial mobilization of the home fronts and rationalized and administered production, leading to a growing totalization of the Great War. The effects upon fighters are impressive, particular the destruction scale made possible by these means. But if the idea of totalization, although ranging in its timeline, can be admitted as such to the Great War, it is necessary to avoid any teleological scheme. Furthermore, it should be carefully distinguished the debates on war totalization, and «brutalization» of societies during and after the Great War.
Keywords: Totalization; weapons; production; artillery; tanks; gas; aviation; combat experience.
Jean-Claude Farcy
During the First World War, in France, as in other countries at war law went back in favor of exceptional procedures, getting to a point of exempt justice in the internment of civilian of enemy nationality and other undesirables. Military justice extended its influence and exercised, particularly in the case of serious danger, a brutal and arbitrary repression with a particular disciplinary objective. Even civil justice was mobilized at national defense service.
Keywords: Law; Military Justice; Concentration Camp; First World War.
Joana Dias Pereira
This article focuses on the cycle of social unrest of late First World War and its crucial role in widening and politicizing the workers' movement. Based on empirical evidences on the Portuguese case and recent literature, it will be argued that new and broader bonds were forged between European workingclass during this episode of contention. Although recognizing the structural social transformation processes, the following juncture factors and mechanisms shall be examined: the collective perception of opportunity in order to improve life and work conditions in the increasing state intervention on economic and social spheres; the social appropriation of organizational resources like associations and informal networks to mobilize workers and populations; and, finally the brokerage between different repertoires of collective action – namely struggles over production and consumption. This process allowed to articulate the worker's organized movement with the people's resistance to life's expensive prices and hoarding, requiring the State's regulation on labour relations and supplies. The election of state-centered strategies strengthened the collective action's translocal articulation.
Keywords: war; cost of living; hunger riots; strikes.
Michael Neiberg
The road from an assassination in the Balkans to a world war is confusing and difficult to understand. Simple explanations will not do if we are to comprehend this seminal catastrophe of the twentieth century. This essay utilizes recent research to present a more complicated and nuanced understanding of the intricate and complex series of events that led to war in 1914.
Keywords: 1914; World War I; Origins of War; Sarajevo; Ultimatum.
Pierre Purseigle
The First World War compelled Britain to adapt its military, economic, and political structures to meet the challenges of industrialized warfare. The transformation of its army – a small force conventionally entrusted with policing the Empire – had a considerable impact on the dominant liberal political culture. The war challenged established conceptions of citizenship and redefined the relationship between State and civil society. This article builds on a transnational and comparative approach to demonstrate that, in spite of the indisputable growth of the State apparatus, the war was not a zero-sum game for British civil society. This article therefore revaluates the critical importance of the liberal pluralism that characterized the British political system in wartime.
Keywords: Great Britain; Liberalism; First World War; pluralism; State.