Chronos 2009

Chronos The Syracuse University Undergraduate History Journal Volume 5, Issue 1 – Spring 2009 Chronos – The Syracuse University Undergraduate History Journal Volume 5, Issue 1 Spring 2009 Editorial Staff Ashley Rosettie – Editor Kelly Bogart – Pagination Editor Kari Foley – Junior Editor Brad Rice – Features Editor Katherine Perti – Features Editor William Ruff - Features Editor Advisor: Professor George Kallander Published by the History Department of Syracuse University, 2009 Cover photo: Maxwell Hall Photo provided by: Syracuse University Archives TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the Editors.....................................................................................................2 Anorexia Mirabilis: A Secular Seduction Nicholas A. Ross.....................................................................................................3 The Oneida Land Claim Deborah Toole.........................................................................................................8 The United States & Haiti’s Political Economy in Historical Perspective James W. Livengood..............................................................................................13 From Rome to Aachen: The Shift from Roman to Medieval Society Manuel L. Iravedra...............................................................................................22 Disconnected Mindsets: The United States, Cuba, The Soviet Union and the Build-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis Frank Dariano.......................................................................................................27 To Be a Tudor Woman: Social Expectations and the Women Who Defied Them Jessica Spriggs......................................................................................................39 Revolt, God, Monarchy and Change: The International Conservative Reaction to the French Revolution Kelsey Bilodeau………….....................................................................................54 MASH: Advances in Treatment and Triage during the Korean War Ryan Planer….………….....................................................................................69 Nuanced Echoes: Examining Lord George Macartney’s Writings on China through the Lens of the Late Enlightenment Mathew Lazare……..….......................................................................................89 Elizabeth on Paper: Elizabeth I Viewed Through Her Writings and Public Addresses Kelly Bogart…………........................................................................................102 2 letter from the editors... We have made many changes in our fifth issue of the journal. The most obvious change being our published format. In this age of technology and sustainability, we thought it best to move with the times and forego our printed medium for a more economical and ecologically-friendly version. What follows is the result of those efforts. Who says history never changes? With this change to our format we are now able to expand the journal for future issues. We will be able to accept more outstanding papers from our students. We will also be able to incorporate more graphics, and hopefully, add new sections to the journal in future issues, such as student travel and research. So keep those snapshots of travel and courses around the world. We’d love to have them. We have been able to make these changes through the constant and enthusiastic support of the chair of our department, Professor Craige Champion. The department is welcoming as the new chair Professor Carol Faulkner and we greatly look forward to working with her in the coming year. With each year that passes and the journal continues to receive submissions for publication we are heartened that the journal will continue to be an outlet for exceptional student work. This would not be possible without the help of everyone in the History Department. To that end we would like to thank the administrative staff of the History department, Patti Blincoe, Patti Bohrer, and Fran Bockus. They do an incredible job, not only for us, but for all history students and faculty. Without their continued help, we would be lost. We also thank the College of Arts and Sciences for their continued financial support, which has allowed us to grow and expand. Without their support, there wouldn’t be a journal. For this issue we received dozens of submissions from every era and subject matter. We are seeing a much wider variety of topics and we’re very pleased to present this year’s chosen papers. This was one of our main reasons for deciding to move to a format where we can showcase a larger number of papers. In the future, we hope to publish work that have been submitted for the Distinction in History. In the past we have been constrained by space and financial limitations. As we move forward, these barriers will no longer hinder their publication. To all those who submitted papers, we thank you for your part in this project. It is only due to your continued interest that we can continue to publish student work. To our undergraduates, we hope this journal will encourage you to strive to excel and see your own potential. To our departing seniors, we wish you a bright future and hope you depart with a happy history here at SU. The Editorial Staff... Ashley Rossettie Kelly Bogart Kari Foley Brad Rice Katherine Perti William Ruff Anorexia Mirabilis 3 ANOREXI A MIR A BILIS : A SECUL A R SEDUCTION NICHOLAS A. ROSS Hagiographical accounts of the late Middle Ages emphasize an asceticism centered on food that became specifically a female genre. These accounts of selfless denial were intended to inspire the masses in times of doubt. Particularly with women, as they were ‘susceptible’ to demonic influence, the accounts began to follow a prototypical model. Saint Catherine of Siena’s story, “Leyenda,” written by her confessor and hagi- ographer, Fra Raimondo da Capua della Vigne, reveals this ‘holy’ struggle. Her dual goals of faith and purity were pitted against her family’s worldly endeavors in an increasingly secular period.1 The hagiography tells of her growing desire to please everybody, beginning in childhood and continuing up to her untimely death. The struggles of her life culminated in this saintly denial of food like many other female ascetics of her time. Saint Catherine’s story labels her relationship with food as anorexia mirabilis, a divine loss of appetite. A psycho- medical examination of her situation, however, forces one to ask: was her condition really divine in origin, or was the weight of society’s unreachable goals too great, inducing a compulsive need for self discipline mani- fest outwardly as this obsessive concern with food? To answer this, one must consider women’s role as nurturers and their subsequent association, literally, as food. Close examination of Catherine’s denial of food in the context of her disturbing childhood leads one to see that Catherine most definitely suffered from acute anorexia nervosa, heretofore considered a modern phenomenon. The increased attention given to anorexia nervosa has spurred a historical revision in the in- terpretation of anorexia mirabilis, revealing that, underneath its possibly divine inspiration, there exist ties to a deeper, emotionally twisting, struggle. It can be seen that her denial of food, although possibly divinely inspired, places the origins of anorexia nervosa much before modernity. Catherine Benicasa was born on 25 March, 1347, entering the world in the midst of the Great Plague. People were dying in the streets, blurring the distinction between the private and the public. The religious and the secular were no longer in a position of power as everybody was at risk with this disease. It was an increasingly dismal time as “the dead seemed to outnumber the living.”2 The inability of elites and laymen to render these tragedies explicable made for a turbulent epistemological and psychological environment. It is possible that Catherine was affected by these communal stresses. Additionally, her familial environment added to this anxiety, as she survived her frail twin, Giovanna, at birth. One cannot be certain whether the disappearing social structure affected her development adversely, yet it can be inferred that she was impacted greatly by the guilt that she bore in being chosen to survive her twin. Fra Raimondo emphasizes Catherine’s strength in dealing with her own survival; her life played out in an inspiring tale of fervor. As Catherine grew older, economic misfortune drove her mother, Lapa Piacenti, to obsess over the family’s socioeconomic future. Catherine had always sought to please Lapa, offering herself as a means to solve the Benicasa family problems. Historian Rudolph Bell suggests that the mother did everything possible to prepare her daughter for marriage, a common means to increase family wealth, “keeping after her to scrub her face and put on makeup.” Although Catherine involved herself with these affairs out of a sense of duty, “such prettiness did not sit well with the child.”3 Catherine’s older sister, Bonaventura, also coaxed her to fol- 1 Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988) 85. 2 Rudolph Bell, Holy Anorexia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 31. 3 Ibid, 31. 4 Chronos The Undergraduate History Journal low their mother’s advice, explaining that she had found wealth and happiness in the same way. In acquiescing, the young girl, “became more worldly, yet never evil or unmindful of the Church’s teachings,

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