DOCSLIB.ORG

Inter Ruinas Publicas Scriptum’: Ernest Nys, a Legal Historian in Defence of Belgian Tax Payers During the Great War Frederik Dhondt Published Online: 08 Jun 2015

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Inter Ruinas Publicas Scriptum’: Ernest Nys, a Legal Historian in Defence of Belgian Tax Payers During the Great War Frederik Dhondt Published Online: 08 Jun 2015 This article was downloaded by: [University of Gent], [Frederik Dhondt] On: 09 June 2015, At: 00:47 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Comparative Legal History Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rclh20 ‘Inter ruinas publicas scriptum’: Ernest Nys, a legal historian in defence of Belgian tax payers during the Great War Frederik Dhondt Published online: 08 Jun 2015. Click for updates To cite this article: Frederik Dhondt (2015): ‘Inter ruinas publicas scriptum’: Ernest Nys, a legal historian in defence of Belgian tax payers during the Great War, Comparative Legal History To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2049677X.2015.1041730 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub- licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions Downloaded by [University of Gent], [Frederik Dhondt] at 00:47 09 June 2015 Comparative Legal History, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2049677X.2015.1041730 ‘Inter ruinas publicas scriptum’: Ernest Nys, a legal historian in defence of Belgian tax payers during the Great War Frederik Dhondt* (Received 3 October 2014; accepted 7 November 2014) The Belgian scholar Ernest Nys (1851–1920), a big name in public international law and legal history, is primarily known for his extensive publications in the Revue de droit international et de législation comparée, which often focus on medieval and early-modern doctrine. Yet, Nys was also active as a judge and an ad hoc legal adviser, combining his abilities as a traditional continental jurist and a legal historian. During World War One, he drafted an impressive manifesto against wartime contributions on movable property designed by the German occupant. The text combines an intellectual pedigree of political thought with strict legal reasoning on the basis of classics, such as the 1874 Brussels Conference or the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions. Finally, Nys’ motivations for an assault on this capital tax, which included a compulsory declaration of personal wealth, can be situated in traditional liberal resistance against state intrusion into the private sphere. Keywords: history of international law; tax law; World War One; legal history Ernest Nys (1851–1920)1 has been called the ‘first professional historian of public international law’ by a leading historian2 and, in the words of another eminent *(Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Legal History Institute (Ghent University), and Visiting Fellow, Graduate Institute for Inter- national and Development Studies (Geneva). Email: [email protected]. 1Nys had also been active as a judge in the Tribunal of First Instance in Antwerp (1882) and Brussels (1883), Chamber President in the Brussels Court of Appeal (1898) and, finally, Downloaded by [University of Gent], [Frederik Dhondt] at 00:47 09 June 2015 member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. An outspoken anglophile, Nys spent each summer in the manuscripts collection of the British Museum: Paul Errera, ‘Notice sur Ernest NYS, membre de l’Académie’ Annuaire de l’Académie Royale de Belgique 1. See also the biographical entry in the Biographie Nationale de Bel- gique by Jean Salmon (ULB): http://www.academieroyale.be/cgi?lg=fr&pag=906&tab= 102&rec=17794&frm=363; Frederik Dhondt, ‘België en de historiografie van het volken- recht in de Belle Époque: François Laurent en Ernest Nys’ in Bruno Debaenst (eds), De Belle Époque van het Belgisch Recht (Die Keure, 2015) (forthcoming). 2Martti Koskenniemi, ‘A History of International Law Histories’ in Anne Peters and Bardo Fassbender (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Oxford UP, © 2015 Taylor & Francis 2 F. Dhondt specialist of the discipline, stands out as a ‘très très grand nom’3 whose works ‘ont plutôt bien vieilli’.4 After his law studies in Ghent (1874) under his master Fran- çois Laurent (1810–1887),5 combined with a training at the faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Nys took courses in Heidelberg, Leipzig and Berlin in the roaring German Empire, where Heinrich von Treitschke, Theodor Mommsen or Rudolf von Gneist taught. Back in Belgium, Nys refrained from a personal political com- mitment. Yet, he benefitted from the liberal electoral victory in 1878, and obtained a directorship in the Ministry of Justice. At the age of 35, on recommendation of Alphonse Rivier (professor of Roman law and international law 1835–1898),6 he was appointed a professor at the Law faculty of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1885. Nys taught several courses on positive law, as well as, in the School for Political Science, ‘diplomatic history since 1815’.7 In 1898, after Rivier’s death, Nys took over the latter’s course on the law of nations. He published an astonish- ing amount of work on the history of public international law, extensively covering the Middle Ages and the early-modern period. Most of these are still worth reading today and have lost nothing of their appeal. He was one of the pillars of the Revue de droit international et de legislation comparée (°1868), the official organ of the Institut de droit international, founded in Ghent in 1873. An annual summer visitor to the British Museum’s manuscripts department, translator of James Lorimer (1818–1890)8 and John Westlake (1828–1913),9 doctor honoris causa in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Nys was a crucial bridge to the Anglo-American world. He contributed an astonishing 116 times to the journal between 1884 and 1914, and published 39 books in the same time span. This article will not discuss Nys’s published texts, but a handwritten memor- andum, Les impôts dans l’occupation de guerre, composed in September 1917 and kept at the Belgian Royal Library.10 Contrary to what is often assumed, there was no contradiction in Nys’s activities as a practical lawyer and a legal 2012) 955; Martti Koskenniemi, ‘Histories of International Law: Dealing with Eurocentr- ism’ (2011) 19 Rechtsgeschichte 152. 3Dominique Gaurier, Histoire du droit international (PU Rennes, 2005) 202. 4Ibid, 32. 5Ernest Nys, ‘François Laurent, sa vie et ses oeuvres’ (1887) XIX Revue de droit inter- national et de législation comparée 409; Dirk Heirbaut, ‘Een hopeloze zaak: François Laur- ents nieuw burgerlijk wetboek voor België’ (2013) 15 Pro Memorie. Bijdragen tot de rechtsgeschiedenis der Nederlanden 261. Downloaded by [University of Gent], [Frederik Dhondt] at 00:47 09 June 2015 6Alphonse Rivier, Introduction historique au droit romain (Mayolez, 1881); Principes du droit des gens (Rousseau, 1896); Henri Rolin, ‘Notice sur Ernest Nys: Biographie’ (1951–1952) IV Revue de l’université de Bruxelles 349. 7Rolin (n 6) 349. 8James Lorimer, Principes de droit international (E Nys tr, Muquardt, 1885). 9John Westlake, Études sur les principes du droit international (E Nys tr, Fontemoing, 1895). 10Ernest Nys, Les impôts dans l’occupation de guerre. Inter ruinas publicas scriptum (s.n., 1917). Belgian Royal Library, 58558 (third series), 291383 (available at http://uurl.kbr.be/ 1041910). Comparative Legal History 3 historian.11 In his positive law teachings, including constitutional law, social law or introduction to civil law, Ernest Nys clung to a strict exegetic method.12 The present text is an example of Nys’s interdisciplinary skills in his practical advisory work, combining both a historical and a strict legal approach.13 Since October 1914, almost the whole of Belgium had been under belligerent occupation by the German Empire.14 The German army had reduced the 1839 Treaty of London,15 which guaranteed Belgium’s neutrality, to ‘a scrap of paper’,16 invoking necessity.17 The multilateral diplomatic system, which had dominated part of the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries and inspired considerable periods of stability, had come to a halt.18 Throughout the war, Nys continued to draft legal opinions, refuting German claims ‘la plume à la main’, using the laws of war against the Diktat of the temporarily dominant party.19 Nys claimed not to have been totally unsuccessful, finding interlocutors within German civil administration outside the army.20 His memoranda not only attacked 11Dominique Gaurier, Histoire du droit international (PU Rennes, 2014) 544. 12See the handwritten syllabi by Ernest Nys in the ULB’s archives, 01Q/3653 (droit civil), 01Q/3651 (droit constitutionnel), 01Q/5257 (introduction au cours de droit civil), 01Q/3654 (législation sociale). 13Nys was appointed on the commission on violations of the laws of war by the German army on 7 August 1914 by the Minister of Justice. After the occupation of Brussels (20 August 1914), where Nys lived, he continued to write privately. Nys drafted the 1916 declaration of the ULB against the German occupant, advised the City of Brussels, the Pro- vince of Brabant (for which he already drafted an anti-tax memorandum on 26 August 1914), the Belgian National Bank (Ernest Nys, L’Occupation de guerre.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The German Army, Vimy Ridge and the Elastic Defence in Depth in 1917
    Journal of Military and Strategic VOLUME 18, ISSUE 2 Studies “Lessons learned” in WWI: The German Army, Vimy Ridge and the Elastic Defence in Depth in 1917 Christian Stachelbeck The Battle of Arras in the spring of 1917 marked the beginning of the major allied offensives on the western front. The attack by the British 1st Army (Horne) and 3rd Army (Allenby) was intended to divert attention from the French main offensive under General Robert Nivelle at the Chemin des Dames (Nivelle Offensive). 1 The French commander-in-chief wanted to force the decisive breakthrough in the west. Between 9 and 12 April, the British had succeeded in penetrating the front across a width of 18 kilometres and advancing around six kilometres, while the Canadian corps (Byng), deployed for the first time in closed formation, seized the ridge near Vimy, which had been fiercely contested since late 1914.2 The success was paid for with the bloody loss of 1 On the German side, the battles at Arras between 2 April and 20 May 1917 were officially referred to as Schlacht bei Arras (Battle of Arras). In Canada, the term Battle of Vimy Ridge is commonly used for the initial phase of the battle. The seizure of Vimy ridge was a central objective of the offensive and was intended to secure the protection of the northern flank of the 3rd Army. 2 For detailed information on this, see: Jack Sheldon, The German Army on Vimy Ridge 1914-1917 (Barnsley: Pen&Sword Military, 2008), p. 8. Sheldon's book, however, is basically a largely indiscriminate succession of extensive quotes from regimental histories, diaries and force files from the Bavarian War Archive (Kriegsarchiv) in Munich.
    [Show full text]
  • Obligation and Self-Interest in the Defence of Belgian Neutrality, 1830-1870
    CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH IN LAW CORE VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL Working Papers No. 2017-2 (August) Permanent Neutrality or Permanent Insecurity? Obligation and Self-Interest in the Defence of Belgian Neutrality, 1830-1870 Frederik Dhondt Please do not cite without prior permission from the author The complete working paper series is available online at http://www.vub.ac.be/CORE/wp Permanent Neutrality or Permanent Insecurity? Obligation and Self-Interest in the Defence of Belgian Neutrality, 1830-1870 Frederik Dhondt1 Introduction ‘we are less complacent than the Swiss, and would not take treaty violations so lightly.’ Baron de Vrière to Sylvain Van de Weyer, Brussels, 28 June 18592 Neutrality is one of the most controversial issues in public international law3 and international relations history.4 Its remoteness from the United Nations system of collective security has rendered its discussion less topical.5 The significance of contemporary self-proclaimed ‘permanent neutrality’ is limited. 6 Recent scholarship has taken up the theme as a general narrative of nineteenth century international relations: between the Congress of Vienna and the Great War, neutrality was the rule, rather than the exception.7 In intellectual history, Belgium’s neutral status is seen as linked to the rise of the ‘Gentle Civilizer of Nations’ at the end of the nineteenth century.8 International lawyers’ and politicians’ activism brought three Noble Peace Prizes (August Beernaert, International Law Institute, Henri La Fontaine). The present contribution focuses on the permanent or compulsory nature of Belgian neutrality in nineteenth century diplomacy, from the country’s inception (1830-1839)9 to the Franco- 1 Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), University of Antwerp, Ghent University/Research Foundation Flanders.
    [Show full text]
  • American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917 Thomas D
    University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 7-21-2014 Rough and Ready Relief: American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917 Thomas D. Westerman University of Connecticut, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Westerman, Thomas D., "Rough and Ready Relief: American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917" (2014). Doctoral Dissertations. 466. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/466 Rough and Ready Relief: American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917 Thomas David Westerman, Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2014 This dissertation examines a group of American men who adopted and adapted notions of American power for humanitarian ends in German-occupied Belgium with the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) during World War I. The CRB, led by Herbert Hoover, controlled the importation of relief goods and provided supervision of the Belgian-led relief distribution. The young, college-educated American men who volunteered for this relief work between 1914 and 1917 constructed an effective and efficient humanitarian space for themselves by drawing not only on the power of their neutral American citizenship, but on their collectively understood American-ness as able, active, yet responsible young men serving abroad, thereby developing an alternative tool—the use of humanitarian aid—for the use and projection of American power in the early twentieth century. Drawing on their letters, diaries, recollections as well as their official reports on their work and the situation in Belgium, this dissertation argues that the early twentieth century formation of what we today understand to be non-state, international humanitarianism was partially established by Americans exercising explicit and implicit national power during the years of American neutrality in World War I.
    [Show full text]
  • Das Reich Der Seele Walther Rathenau’S Cultural Pessimism and Prussian Nationalism ~ Dieuwe Jan Beersma
    Das Reich der Seele Walther Rathenau’s Cultural Pessimism and Prussian Nationalism ~ Dieuwe Jan Beersma 16 juli 2020 Master Geschiedenis – Duitslandstudies, 11053259 First supervisor: dhr. dr. A.K. (Ansgar) Mohnkern Second supervisor: dhr. dr. H.J. (Hanco) Jürgens Abstract Every year the Rathenau Stiftung awards the Walther Rathenau-Preis to international politicians to spread Rathenau’s ideas of ‘democratic values, international understanding and tolerance’. This incorrect perception of Rathenau as a democrat and a liberal is likely to have originated from the historiography. Many historians have described Rathenau as ‘contradictory’, claiming that there was a clear and problematic distinction between Rathenau’s intellectual theories and ideas and his political and business career. Upon closer inspection, however, this interpretation of Rathenau’s persona seems to be fundamentally incorrect. This thesis reassesses Walther Rathenau’s legacy profoundly by defending the central argument: Walther Rathenau’s life and motivations can first and foremost be explained by his cultural pessimism and Prussian nationalism. The first part of the thesis discusses Rathenau’s intellectual ideas through an in-depth analysis of his intellectual work and the historiography on his work. Motivated by racial theory, Rathenau dreamed of a technocratic utopian German empire led by a carefully selected Prussian elite. He did not believe in the ‘power of a common Europe’, but in the power of a common German Europe. The second part of the thesis explicates how Rathenau’s career is not contradictory to, but actually very consistent with, his cultural pessimism and Prussian nationalism. Firstly, Rathenau saw the First World War as a chance to transform the economy and to make his Volksstaat a reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Waterloo in Myth and Memory: the Battles of Waterloo 1815-1915 Timothy Fitzpatrick
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2013 Waterloo in Myth and Memory: The Battles of Waterloo 1815-1915 Timothy Fitzpatrick Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES WATERLOO IN MYTH AND MEMORY: THE BATTLES OF WATERLOO 1815-1915 By TIMOTHY FITZPATRICK A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2013 Timothy Fitzpatrick defended this dissertation on November 6, 2013. The members of the supervisory committee were: Rafe Blaufarb Professor Directing Dissertation Amiée Boutin University Representative James P. Jones Committee Member Michael Creswell Committee Member Jonathan Grant Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii For my Family iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Drs. Rafe Blaufarb, Aimée Boutin, Michael Creswell, Jonathan Grant and James P. Jones for being on my committee. They have been wonderful mentors during my time at Florida State University. I would also like to thank Dr. Donald Howard for bringing me to FSU. Without Dr. Blaufarb’s and Dr. Horward’s help this project would not have been possible. Dr. Ben Wieder supported my research through various scholarships and grants. I would like to thank The Institute on Napoleon and French Revolution professors, students and alumni for our discussions, interaction and support of this project.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Yanks are Coming Over There: The Role of Anglo-Saxonism and American Involvement in the First World War Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5cc4h9md Author Buenviaje, Dino Ejercito Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE The Yanks are Coming Over There: The Role of Anglo-Saxonism and American Involvement in the First World War A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Dino Ejercito Buenviaje August 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Brian Lloyd, Chairperson Dr. Roger Ransom Dr. Thomas Cogswell Copyright by Dino Ejercito Buenviaje 2014 The Dissertation of Dino Ejercito Buenviaje is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is truly a humbling experience when I consider the people and institutions that have contributed to this work. First of all, I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Brian Lloyd, for his patience and mentorship in helping me to analyze the role of Anglo- Saxonism throughout American history and for making me keep sight of my purpose. I am also grateful to my other committee members such as Dr. Roger Ransom, for his support early in my graduate program, and Dr. Thomas Cogswell, for his support at a crucial point in my doctorate program. I also would like to thank Dr. Kenneth Barkin for his suggestion that I add a German-American chapter to my dissertation to make my study of American society during the First World War more well-rounded.
    [Show full text]
  • Discord & Consensus
    c Discor Global Dutch: Studies in Low Countries Culture and History onsensus Series Editor: ulrich tiedau DiscorD & Discord and Consensus in the Low Countries, 1700–2000 explores the themes D & of discord and consensus in the Low Countries in the last three centuries. consensus All countries, regions and institutions are ultimately built on a degree of consensus, on a collective commitment to a concept, belief or value system, 1700–2000 TH IN IN THE LOW COUNTRIES, 1700–2000 which is continuously rephrased and reinvented through a narrative of cohesion, and challenged by expressions of discontent and discord. The E history of the Low Countries is characterised by both a striving for consensus L and eruptions of discord, both internally and from external challenges. This OW volume studies the dynamics of this tension through various genres. Based C th on selected papers from the 10 Biennial Conference of the Association OUNTRI for Low Countries Studies at UCL, this interdisciplinary work traces the themes of discord and consensus along broad cultural, linguistic, political and historical lines. This is an expansive collection written by experts from E a range of disciplines including early-modern and contemporary history, art S, history, film, literature and translation from the Low Countries. U G EDIT E JANE FENOULHET LRICH is Professor of Dutch Studies at UCL. Her research RDI QUIST AND QUIST RDI E interests include women’s writing, literary history and disciplinary history. BY D JAN T I GERDI QUIST E is Lecturer in Dutch and Head of Department at UCL’s E DAU F Department of Dutch.
    [Show full text]
  • Nurse-Martyr-Heroine: Representations of Edith Cavell in Interwar Britain, France and Belgium
    This is a repository copy of Nurse-Martyr-Heroine: Representations of Edith Cavell in Interwar Britain, France and Belgium. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/136299/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Fell, AS and Sternberg, C (2018) Nurse-Martyr-Heroine: Representations of Edith Cavell in Interwar Britain, France and Belgium. Journal of War & Culture Studies, 11 (4). pp. 273-290. ISSN 1752-6272 https://doi.org/10.1080/17526272.2018.1530524 © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of War & Culture Studies on 16 Oct 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17526272.2018.1530524. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Nurse-Martyr-Heroine: Representations of Edith Cavell in Interwar Britain, France and Belgium Alison S.
    [Show full text]
  • Humanitarian Intervention in the Long Nineteenth
    4 International law and humanitarian intervention Advocates and opponents of humanitarian intervention From the 1860s onwards, international law became an academic discipline in its own right in Europe and the Americas, taught separately from philosophy, natural law or civil law, and came to be written by professional academics or theoretically inclined diplomats.1 Until then what existed was the droit public de l’Europe or ‘external public law’. Britain in particular had to face the ‘spectre of Austin’,2 who dominated British jurisprudence in the first part of the nineteenth century. For John Austin, ‘laws properly so called’ were ‘established directly by command’3 and those lacking command were ‘positive moral rules which are laws improperly so called … laws set or imposed by general opinion’4 and this was the case with the ‘so called law of nations [which] consists of opinions or sentiments current among nations generally’.5 Two landmarks for international law are the founding of its first scholarly journal and of an institute/association of international lawyers (see chapter 3). The journal, theRevue de droit international et de législation comparée, was launched in Belgium in 1868, by the Belgian Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, the Dutch Tobias Asser and the British John Westlake, with the support of the Italian Professor Pasquale Mancini.6 Rolin-Jaequemyns was also at the forefront of the creation of the Institut de droit international in 1873, with the help of Bluntschli, Holtzendorff, Calvo, Mancini and a few others.7 At its inception,
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Anglo-Saxonism and American Involvement in the First World War
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE The Yanks are Coming Over There: The Role of Anglo-Saxonism and American Involvement in the First World War A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Dino Ejercito Buenviaje August 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Brian Lloyd, Chairperson Dr. Roger Ransom Dr. Thomas Cogswell Copyright by Dino Ejercito Buenviaje 2014 The Dissertation of Dino Ejercito Buenviaje is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is truly a humbling experience when I consider the people and institutions that have contributed to this work. First of all, I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Brian Lloyd, for his patience and mentorship in helping me to analyze the role of Anglo- Saxonism throughout American history and for making me keep sight of my purpose. I am also grateful to my other committee members such as Dr. Roger Ransom, for his support early in my graduate program, and Dr. Thomas Cogswell, for his support at a crucial point in my doctorate program. I also would like to thank Dr. Kenneth Barkin for his suggestion that I add a German-American chapter to my dissertation to make my study of American society during the First World War more well-rounded. I also would like to thank the staff at the history department for helping me navigate throughout the various stages of my program. I am especially grateful to the University of California, Riverside for all the material and financial support it has provided me throughout my graduate education, such as the use of the Tomás Rivera Library, the Dean’s Fellowship, the Dissertation Year Fellowship, as well as valuable teaching experience through teaching assistantships.
    [Show full text]
  • One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research
    Bretislav Friedrich · Dieter Hoffmann Jürgen Renn · Florian Schmaltz · Martin Wolf Editors One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences Bretislav Friedrich • Dieter Hoffmann Jürgen Renn • Florian Schmaltz Martin Wolf Editors One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences Editors Bretislav Friedrich Florian Schmaltz Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Max Planck Institute for the History of Society Science Berlin Berlin Germany Germany Dieter Hoffmann Martin Wolf Max Planck Institute for the History of Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Science Society Berlin Berlin Germany Germany Jürgen Renn Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Berlin Germany ISBN 978-3-319-51663-9 ISBN 978-3-319-51664-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-51664-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017941064 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017. This book is an open access publication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/), which permits any noncom- mercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
    [Show full text]
  • België Vernietigen 103
    belgië vernietigen 103 België vernietigen Het kronkelpad van een citaat jakob müller & winfried dolderer Op 17 december 1914 kwam de Alduitser Theodor Reismann-Grone over de vloer bij de kersvers benoemde gouverneur-generaal in België Moritz von Bissing. Het werd een roemrucht bezoek, want tijdens het maar twintig minuten durende on- derhoud viel een uitspraak die tientallen jaren later nogal wat ophef zou maken in de geschiedschrijving: “Wir müssen Belgien vielleicht aufgeben, doch es zerstören durch die Flamen. Das Phantom Belgien bleibt ein Feind.” De vraag is wie van de twee heren zich deze gevleugelde woorden heeft laten ontvallen. Tot op vandaag zijn daar tegenstrijdige versies over in omloop. Reismann-Grone was uitgever van de Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung in Essen die zich onder zijn bewind tot spreekbuis van het radicale Duitse nationalisme ontbolsterde, en hield er nauwe banden op na met nijverheidskringen in het Roergebied.1 Hij was bovendien een van de grote tenoren in het Alduitse Vlaanderen-discours.2 In 1898 stichtte hij het Vlaams-Duitse tijdschrift Germania, en hij was degene die het blad ruim zes jaar lang financieel overeind hield. In 1912 bracht hij een bezoek aan het Reichsmarineamt waar hij voorstelde een ‘revolutie’ in België te stoken. Uiteraard was hij er ook tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog van meet af aan als de kippen bij om zijn invloed op de Flamenpolitik te doen gelden. Gedurende het interbellum trad hij op als geldschieter van sectaire kringen in het radicale Vlaams-nationalisme. Hij overleed, ontgoocheld en verbitterd over twee faliekant afgelopen wereldoorlogen die hij had moeten meemaken, pas in 1949.
    [Show full text]