Spring/Summer 2019 thewha.org Vol. XXXV No. 1 World History Bulletin Issue Focus: The 1919 Paris Peace Conference

Guest Editor - Ellen J. Jenkins, Arkansas Tech University

Focus Issue Essays and Lesson Plans

Peace without Precedent by Ellen J. Jenkins Post-1918 Political Map of Europe: at the Paris Peace Conference by Mihai Manea Italian Draft Proposal for the : Original Solution for a Global Conflict by Simonetta Florissi Global Feminists and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919: A Historical and Teaching Note by Mona L. Siegel Setting the Stage: The Global Impact of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference by Linda Black Editor’s Note

Greetings from the Secretariat of the Southeast World History Association (SEWHA). As most of the readers of the World History Bulletin are aware, SEWHA members have served as editors of the Bulletin since the Fall of 2001, when I took over the helm from Chip Desnoyers and Ross Doughty. In the interim eighteen years, the Bulletin has had four SEWHA-affiliated editors: myself, Jared Poley, Denis Gainty, and Ian Christopher Fletcher. During the ensuing years, the Bulletin editors have attempted to make each issue better than the previous one, and I hope to continue that objective. I must first offer congratulations and thanks to Ian for his herculean efforts in producing the special issue on The Long Global Sixties. Although the original intent was to have the topic spread out over two 2018 issues, I am confident most readers will agree with me that the single issue approach worked extremely well. This issue, the first of Volume XXXV, focuses on the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Although the last veteran of — Florence Green — died in February 2012 at the age of 110, the War and its aftermath remain in the public consciousness, if for no other reason, because of the new national boundaries that were created in Paris in 1919-1920. Even today, those boundaries have scars. My colleague Ellen “Jan” Jenkins has put together an excellent group of essays and classroom activities concerning the Paris Peace Conference. The multinational group of contributors to this issue of the Bulletin illustrates the editorial efforts to broaden our appeal to international members of the World History Association (WHA), and we hope to continue to recruit quality essays from abroad. Yi Guolin, our new Book Review Editor, is in need of members who are willing to review works for future issues. If you are interested, please send me an email [[email protected]] with your address and fields of interest.

As you read this issue of the Bulletin, please send me feedback as to how the new editorial team can make the publication more valuable to the WHA membership. H. Micheal Tarver Editor-in-Chief World History Association World History Bulletin ISSN: 0886-117X Northeastern University 245 Meserve Hall H. Micheal Tarver 360 Huntington Ave. Editor-in-Chief Boston, MA 02115 Nicholas Di Liberto Tel. +1.617.373.6818 Fax +1.617.373.2661 Associate Editor e-mail: [email protected]

Amy-Elizabeth Manlapas Production Editor President: Merry Wiesner-Hanks ([email protected]) Yi Guolin Book Review Editor Vice-President (President Elect): Laura J. Mitchell ([email protected])

Carlos Márquez Secretary: Maryanne Rhett ([email protected]) Copy Editor Treasurer: Michele Louro ([email protected]) [email protected] Past President: Rick Warner ([email protected]) Department of History Arkansas Tech University Executive Director: Kerry Vieira ([email protected]) 407 West Q Street - Ste. 244 Russellville, AR 72801 479.968.0265

Cover Photo: Réunion du comité interalliés (Versailles). Photograph by Helen Johns Kirtland, 1919. Source: United States Library of Congress. Table of Contents

Editor’s Note Inside Front Cover Letter From the Executive Director 2 Letter from the President 3

WHB Focus Issue, Guest Editor - Ellen J. Jenkins, Arkansas Tech University 5 Peace without Precedent 5 Ellen J. Jenkins Post-1918 Political Map of Europe: Romania at the Paris Peace Conference 7 Mihai Manea Italian Draft Proposal for the League of Nations: Original Solution for a Global Conflict 11 Simonetta Florissi Global Feminists and the Paris Peace Conference of 1919: A Historical and Teaching Note 18 Mona L. Siegel Setting the Stage: The Global Impact of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference 22 Linda Black 2018 WHA Teaching Prize 24 The Struggle for Freedom and Equality is World Wide: The Cold War, Civil Rights and Decolonization Gustavo Carrera Highlighted Lesson Plan Inquiry and Axial Age Religion: The Rise of Christianity as a Case Study 33 Dave Neumann Global Crossroad: Colonial Rangoon as Immigrant City 48 Angelo P. Coclanis and Peter A. Coclanis Book Review Section, Book Review Editor - Yi Guolin, Arkansas Tech University 50 The Banana Business: Tracing the Contours of a Tropical Fruit Commodity in World History 51 Cynthia Ross List of Donors Inside Back Cover

World History Bulletin • Vol XVVV • No. 1 • Page 1 LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - WORLD HISTORY ASSOCIATION

First, I feel compelled to state how happy the WHA is with recent World History Bulletin issues. From last year’s 1968 vision from Guest Editor Ian Fletcher to the incredible line up for the next three issues, beginning with this one. The themes for the next two issues are as follow: Transglobal Voyages: Five Centuries since the Epic Voyage of Fernão de Magalhães and Juan Sebastián Elcano and The : Five Centuries since the Accession of Kanunî Sultan Süleyman. We welcome back Editor-in- Chief Micheal Tarver whose expertise and creativity will benefit the readers.

Flipping through this latest issue, it becomes obvious that peace 100 years ago was at worst still tumultuous and at best quite uncertain. Race riots broke out in numerous U.S. cities, including Washington D.C. The 18th Amendment in the U.S. was ratified, prohibiting the sale of alcohol, which would have unexpected repercussions in the following decade and beyond. In Asia, Gandhi initiated nonviolent resistance campaigns against British rule. And for his insight, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Our office is focusing on our 28th Annual WHA Conference taking place June 27 – 29, 2019 in . The two conference themes in Puerto Rico will be “Cities in Global Contexts” and “The as Crossroads.” All conference sessions will convene under one roof, that of our host hotel, the Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan. Partnering with the Global Urban History Project (GUHP) for a joint conference ensures the interdisciplinary nature of our conference will thrive. Through the expertise of our local tour guide, the WHA Registration desk will be collecting items for residents of Puerto Rico still suffering the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Those items most needed and that travel well include solar based items for phone chargers; solar based flashlights; solar based “camping” stoves; portable water filters; gift cards for necessities and building materials: Walmart, Kmart, Walgreens, CVS, Home Depot and Sears and over the counter medications.

For members planning ahead, the 29th Annual WHA Conference will be held from June 25 – 27, 2020 in Salt Lake City. Nestled in the mountains, we will be located in the Foothills District of the city (www.foothillcd.com). Our conference sessions will be held at the University of Utah, where we are being cosponsored by the Department of History. The conference will kick off at the Marriott University Park, where all opening events commence on June 25. More soon on the WHA website about conference themes and additional specific details. As we plan for 2021 and beyond, should your university be interested in co-sponsoring the WHA annual conference, contact our office.

A reminder to maximize your WHA membership by signing up for the Members’ Area on our website. Here you will have direct access to the digital Journal of World History and WHA Newsletters. This website page will enable you to initially sign up and/or reset your password: https://www.thewha.org/membership/accounts/ Once you notify our office, we will approve you as a member on our website. After this last step, your ability to login continuously begins!

Our office forges ahead with other exciting plans for the near future. These include our WHA reception & sessions at the 2020 AHA Conference in New York City, the summer & fall WHA newsletter and the 2020 WHA Annual Conference in Salt Lake City.

Should you be interested in publishing in the World History Bulletin, contact Editor-In-Chief, Micheal Tarver, at bulletin@thewha. org or the WHA Headquarters at [email protected] or by telephone at 617-373-6818. All submissions welcome, including submissions from international members, which are especially encouraged. Additionally, we welcome article ideas and important news from our members for the WHA newsletter. Please keep us informed since the newsletter is meant to involve your news and scholarship as well.

Sincerely,

Kerry Vieira Director - World History Association

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 2 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT - WORLD HISTORY ASSOCIATION Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from cold and rainy Milwaukee, common spring weather in the Upper Midwest! I am looking forward to seeing many of you in warm and sunny San Juan in June, a joint meeting with the Global Urban History Project (GUHP), a new network of scholars interested in exploring the connections between global history and urban history. The conference program and events look fabulous. My special thanks in advance to Kerry Vieira, Maryanne Rhett, Candice Goucher, and Carl Nightingale for making the conference all that it is. And my great thanks to H. Micheal Tarver, who will resume his position as editor-in-chief of the World History Bulletin with this issue.

I like to use my letters in the WHB to discuss one aspect of the many activities of the WHA. In my last letter, I focused on the conferences of our regional affiliates, and this time I would like to highlight the newly-formed community college committee. Because so much world history instruction is happening at community colleges, the WHA has just established this committee to explore ways that it can both assist and draw from the strengths of CC faculty. The committee will also consider the changing landscape, with dual enrollment blurring the border between grades 12 and 13 and many people teaching as adjuncts at multiple institutions. Committee members are Jack Norton (Chair), Normandale Community College; Monica Ketchum, Arizona Western College, Imperial Valley College, and San Diego State University-Imperial Valley Campus; Ian Livie, Drew School, Santa Rosa Junior College, Ohlone College, and College of Marin; Shane Carter, Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS) at UC Berkeley; Jenny Grohol, Bakersfield College. (Plus me and Laura Mitchell, our VP). The committee has begun its discussions, and there will be an open meeting at the WHA conference in San Juan for anyone who would like to give input at this early stage.

Yours,

Merry

I have asked Jack Norton, the chair of this newly formed committee, for more on its possible activities:

Greetings from Minnesota. As I write this in week 13 of the semester, the Yuan Empire is about to fall in my world history courses, again. Having taught world history for just shy of 20 years, I know my students’ experience of the fall of the Mongols differs greatly today than when I first started teaching in 1999. Rather than one textbook narrative, supplemented with course reader of primary documents, my students engage a panoply of sources, including digitized manuscripts, scholarship, and popular histories of the Mongol empire, such as Crash Course in world history.

Just as our students’ experience of history has changed in the past twenty years, so too has where students study world history changed. Today, two-year schools serve approximately 40% of all undergraduate students, and almost 50% of all students who graduate from a four-year college attend community college for at least one semester. [1] [2] At Minnesota community colleges, world history courses have almost completely supplanted western civilization courses in our curriculum. In spite of a light sample pool for two-year schools, evidence indicates that enrollments in history courses are now stable [3] at U.S. colleges. This constellation of data directs us to the importance of community colleges as conduits of world history. It is not an exaggeration to say that more students learn college world history in community colleges than in any other type of higher education institution. For the last 9 years I have taught world history at Normandale Community College and, as the chair of the WHA community college committee, I am eager to hear from you about how the WHA can better serve World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 3 community college faculty.

Our WHA community college committee knows some issues we might address, but we are but few and need your help to understand where to prioritize our efforts. For example, we know that connecting community college faculty with resources is crucial. Sometimes we need to do a better job communicating existing resources. For example, did you know that the 1982-2015 World History Association Bulletins, “a biannual, fully peer-reviewed publication” includes essays on research, pedagogy, book reviews, and theory are available for free at [https://www.thewha.org/about/publications/whb/](https:// www.thewha.org/about/publications/whb/)?

The WHA is also affiliated with World History Connected, an e-journal of world history learning and teaching that presents innovative classroom-ready scholarship and the best in learning and teaching methods, published by the University of Illinois Press and available free world-wide: www.worldhistoryconnected.org

We’re working on ways to make both of these resources more accessible and useful, such as an index. As well, the WHA is part of an NEH and George Mason University project that is aggregating world history sources and producing OER teaching materials. We will communicate more about this new site, called the World History Commons, as it becomes available.

As the WHA seeks to support world history everywhere it is practiced, we need to listen to and support community college faculty robustly. Later this summer we will be sending members, regional affiliate members, and other groups a short survey to help us learn what full- or part-time community college faculty or those who hope or plan to become community college instructors need and want from the WHA. When you receive this, please take just five minutes to fill it out.

In addition to asking for help understanding world history faculty needs at community colleges, we would also like to invite contributions from community college faculty for the World History Bulletin that directly address community college concerns. You can find the topics of forthcoming issues elsewhere in this bulletin, as well as how to submit contributions. These can be anything related to teaching world history, and do not need to directly address the theme of the issue.

I look forward to talking with any of you who will be in San Juan. Plans are underway for our 2020 WHA national conference in Salt Lake City and we would love for community college faculty to play a major role in shaping that conference.

Thank you,

Jack Norton Chair, Department of History and Political Science Normandale Community College

[1]: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019021REV.pdf () [2]: https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Community-College-FAQs.html [3]: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2019/history-enrollments- stable-in-2017%E2%80%9318-aha-survey-shows-how-departments-are-fighting-declines

SEEKING MEMBERS FOR THE NEW WORLD HISTORY BULLETIN EDITORIAL BOARD

If you are interested in serving on the Editorial Board for the World History Bulletin, please send an abridged CV to Micheal Tarver at [email protected]. The primary responsibility of Board Members is to help review submissions for quality and historical accuracy.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 4 Focus Issue: The 1919 Paris Peace Conference

Ellen J. Jenkins Guest Editor

PEACE WITHOUT PRECEDENT

Ellen J. Jenkins | Arkansas Tech University | [email protected]

One hundred years ago, from 18 January 1919 until 21 January 1920, delegates from 32 countries met in Paris, determined to wring order and a lasting peace out of the wreckage of the Great War 1914-1918. The task of treaty negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference was enormous, thankless, and fraught with controversy. Conflicting claims, agendas, and ambitions, exacerbated by impossible-to-keep wartime promises, meant that someone—or everyone— involved was to be disappointed in the results. There were no precedents for a conference to create a new, democratic world. The closest, the Congress of , had taken place a century earlier, and it had not worked to establish a new world order but to resurrect the old, autocratic one. Many of the countries seeking redress or reward at Paris had not even existed in 1815. Others, including Russia, Austria, and Prussia (since 1871, ), who had combined forces to defeat Napoleon and had participated in the Congress of Vienna, were in the middle of revolution or civil war by late 1918, when the Great War ended. The world of 1919 was a very different place to that of 1815. Preliminary sessions intended to plan the peace conference ultimately became the conference, itself. Russia was left out, having signed the 1917 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. The former , Germany, Austria, and Hungary, were not invited to send their own delegates to these sessions and were left out of the negotiations, altogether, until time to sign the treaties. Of these, there were five: the , signed 28 June 1919, which dealt with Germany, was the most important. The other settlements were the Treaty of Saint- Germain with Austria (signed on 10 September 1919); the The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28th June Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria (signed on 27 November 1919 by William Orpen. A view of the interior of the Hall 1919); the with Hungary (signed on 4 of Mirrors at Versailles, with the heads of state sitting and June 1920); and the Treaty of Sévres with Turkey (signed standing before a long table. Front Row: Johannes Bell on 10 August 1920). The latter became defunct after the (Germany) signing with Hermann Müller leaning over him. Turkish War of Independence eliminated the Ottoman Middle row (seated, left to right): Tasker H. Bliss, Edward sultanate, so the Sévres treaty was replaced with the 24 July M. House, Henry White, Robert Lansing, Woodrow Wilson 1923, Treaty of Lausanne. (United States); (France); David Lloyd The Council of Four led the way and established the George, Andrew Bonar Law, Arthur J. Balfour, Alfred rules of operation: Woodrow Wilson, President of the Milner, George Nicoll Barnes (Great Britain); Saionji United States; David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Kinmochi (Japan). Back row (left to right): Eleutherios Great Britain; Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France; Venizelos (Greece); Afonso da Costa (Portugal); George and Vittorio Orlando, Prime Minister of Italy, were the Allardice Riddell (British Press); George E. Foster (Canada); central figures at the conference, each one determined Nikola Pachitch (Serbia); Stephen Pichon (France); Maurice to protect his nation’s interests. Woodrow Wilson had Hankey, Edwin S. Montagu (Great Britain); Ganga Singh enumerated his list of requirements for the post-war world (India); Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (Italy); Paul Hymans in a speech to Congress in January 1918. The Fourteen (Belgium); Louis Botha (South Africa); William Morris Points were to be the guidelines for a new and more Hughes (Australia). Image in the Public Domain. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 5 peaceful world. The list began with determined that any punitive measures included women from across the world, broad-based ideals, including an end towards Germany must not disrupt the who argued that their rights as citizens to secret diplomacy, freedom of the continental balance of power or result in surely entitled them to representation at seas, free and equal trade opportunity that nation’s economic ruin or inability the peace conference. The only country for all countries, arms reduction, the to trade with Britain. He also had no to heed these arguments was China. arbitration of colonial disputes, and intention of supporting freedom of the The five resulting peace treaties self-determination for the subject seas, when Britain’s security depended addressed national borders and populations of the former German, upon the dominance of the British conflicting territorial claims along Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman navy. France’s repeated experiences with reparations payments, the rights empires. Then came Wilson’s plans for of German aggression meant that the of ethnic minorities, and troop the resolution of territorial issues, with reduction of armaments would not limitations. The Treaty of Versailles points specifically addressing Russia, be welcomed at home. Clemenceau also included Article 231, the “War Belgium, France, Italy, the Balkans, intended to protect France from any Guilt Clause,” which forced Germany Turkey, and Poland. The fourteenth future German resurgence of power, to accept responsibility for having item called for the creation of a “general and he was resolute that Germany started the Great War and, along association of nations” to protect the must pay reparations for the wartime with enormous reparations, the loss independence and sovereign integrity damage inflicted upon northern France. of resources, territory, and colonial of all countries and to eliminate the Orlando focused upon the promises of possessions, troop limitations, and the causes of war. territorial gains on the Dalmatia coast prohibition of weapons and materiél, Wilson went to Paris determined that had been part of the 1915 Treaty created much bitterness in a population that any conference must begin its of London, which offered territory already humiliated and demoralized work in the creation of this association, as an incentive for Italy to join the by their defeat. Wilson’s equitable the League of Nations. This body Allies. The Allies had made many such peace “without victory” was defeated. would oversee the implementation promises to a variety of countries, His insistence upon the creation of of the peace treaties that were to be without any significant consideration the League of Nations led him to negotiated afterward, and it would have to the conflicts they would cause after make compromises that, according the power to eliminate any weaknesses the war. to the Republican-led U.S. Congress, that appeared in the future. Wilson’s Present but struggling to make threatened American sovereignty. goals appeared too unrealistic and themselves heard were the many Congress never ratified the treaties, naïve to his counterparts. While Lloyd secondary powers, including Romania, so the United States never joined George and Clemenceau were willing to Portugal, Greece, Brazil, and China. the League. This, arguably, doomed go along with the creation of a League Romania, in particular, occupied a the League of Nations to failure, of Nations in order to focus upon difficult position, having joined the and, accordingly, ensured that rising their individual aims, neither seriously Allies in August 1916, and then having nationalism would disrupt the coming considered it likely to succeed. signed an armistice with the Central decades. According to Simonetta Florissi’s Powers in December 1917 and a treaty The final contribution to this issue article, “Italian Draft Proposal for the with Germany three months later. on the Peace Conference is a lesson plan League of Nations: Original Solution The treaty was never ratified by the and activity by Linda Black, entitled for a Global Conflict,” included in this Romanian king, and Romania rejoined “Setting the Stage: The Global Impact of edition, Italy, which often has been the Allies in November 1918. This the 1919 Paris Peace Conference,” which dismissed by historians as a lesser complicated Romania’s territorial claims asks students to formulate responses partner at the peace conference, was after the war. As Mihai Manea explains to several key questions concerning the committed enough to the creation of a in his article, “Post-1918 Political Map aftermath of Paris. League of Nations to work extensively of Europe: Romania at the Paris Peace at formulating guidelines for the body. Conference,” the Romanian delegation Suggested Reading Plans for objectives, resolution of faced resentment and bitterness at the crises, and sanctions resulted from conference. Romania’s difficulties were Clarke, Peter. The Locomotive of War: Money, brainstorming sessions overseen by finally smoothed over when Queen Empire, Power, and Guilt. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2017. Professor Dionisio Anzilotti (1867- , a granddaughter Gilbert, Martin. The First World War: A 1950), a legal expert and judge who of , visited Paris and Complete History. New York: Holt, 1994. ultimately served on the Permanent used her personal influence to thaw the Goldstein, Erik. The First World War Peace Court of International Justice. Italy’s antipathy towards her adopted country. Settlements, 1919-1925. Abingdon, elaboration of operational plans for Other neglected voices came from Oxon: 2013. the League included many of the society’s marginalized groups, including Keegan, John. The First World War. New fundamental ideas that ultimately were women. As Mona Siegel explains in her York: Knopf, 1999. adopted for the Security Council in the article, “Global Feminists and the Paris MacMillan, Margaret. Paris, 1919: Six Covenant of the League of Nations. Peace Conference: A Historical and Months That Changed the World. New Great Britain, France, and Italy Teaching Note,” women’s groups were York: Random House, 2001. had their own agendas at the peace justly concerned that “men in starched Nicolson, Colin. The First World War: Europe, 1914-1918. Longman Companions conference, each of which ran counter collars” were unlikely to include women to History. Edited by Chris Cook and to some aspect of Wilson’s idealistic in their plans for self-determination or John Stevenson. Harlow, UK: Pearson Fourteen Points. Lloyd George was economic integrity. Female activists Education, 2001. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 6 POST-1918 POLITICAL MAP OF EUROPE: Romania at the Paris Peace Conference Mihai Manea | , Romania | [email protected]

Editor’s Note: The dates used in this essay are in He said it could not change the thirty- to achieve their national New Style (i.e., using the Gregorian Calendar). year tradition of Romania’s foreign ideal, i.e., the unity of all the territories policy. With pain in his heart, he said, inhabited by the Romanians. "I, gentlemen, personally count myself Under these conditions, Romania's The First World War (aka, the Great with the Central Powers. But if you neutrality – though disputed both by the War, 1914-1918), where the two major think that for the sake of Romania Entente and the Central Powers – was political and military alliances – the another foreign policy is required, I am seen as a timing of Romania's union Entente and the Central Powers – ready to withdraw."3 After numerous with Transylvania. Thus, a well-known confronted each other, is considered discussions in the Crown Council, the political leader, (née to be one of the most devastating decision was made that Romania, for Dumitru Ghită Ioan) established three conflicts in world history with its the time, would remain neutral. propaganda organizations: "National massive economic, political, diplomatic, At the same time, Princess Marie – Action," "Unionist Federation," and military, national, and demographic a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of "Patriotic Action," which included, consequences.1 Great Britain as well as a granddaughter among others: Nicolae Filipescu, At the beginning of the War, the of Tsar Alexander II of Russia – was , Barbu Romanian King, Carol I (r. 1881-1914; married to Prince Ferdinand (the future Stefanescu Delavrancea, Constantin also served as of Romania, Ferdinand I, , r. 1914- Istrate, Ion Cantacuzino, George 1866-1881) received diplomatic 1927). For her part, she constantly Diamandi, I. Grădişteanu, Nicolae requests to join the Central Powers, in campaigned for Romania's entry into Fleva, Simion Mandrescu, Thomas accordance with the 1883 secret treaty War alongside the Entente powers. She Ionescu, Vasile Lucaciu, and Octavian between Romania and the Central opined that it was the only way for the Goga. Powers that had subsequently The state of neutrality for Romania been renewed several times. 1918 Poster from the Central Committee for did not last long. The start of the Brusilov National Patriotic Organisations (London) Thus, on 26 July 1914 (N.S.), showing the Kaiser and the King of Romania offensive in Galicia and Bukowina on the Austro-Hungarian minister arguing while examining a map. Source: United 4 June 1916, was considered a decisive in Bucharest, Count Ottokar States Library of Congress. moment by the adherents of Romania's Czernin officially communicated entry into war along with the Entente to Carol I and his Prime powers. After lengthy secret talks with Minister, Ion I. C. Brătianu, that Entente diplomats, Romanian leaders in the event of war he expects decided to enter the War alongside "Romania's loyal cooperation as the Entente. On 16 August 1916, an ally." The next day, Emperor two major documents were signed in Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary Bucharest: the Alliance Treaty between wrote to King Carol that "your Romania and the / old friendship and our friendly France/Russia/Italy, and the Military ties are very important to me Convention between the same nations. as I have as many guarantees As a result, a new Crown Council, this that you will have a sincere time at Palace (in Bucharest) understanding of the judgments decided on 27 August 1916 to enter I have taken in this grave hour." Romania into war against the Central Four days later, on 31 July 1914, Powers.4 the Emperor clearly states this On 27 August, Romania declared position: "My thoughts are war on Austria-Hungary. Germany moving towards you. I trust that and Turkey immediately declared war you will be faithful as a king and on Romania, and on Bulgaria when it Hohenzollern to your friends attacked the positions of the Romanian and that you will fulfill your army at Turtucaia, Bulgaria on 1 Ally's debtless obligations."2 September. This attack ended in disaster At the Crown Council at for the Romanians. On 24 November Peles Castle (in ) on 3 the enemy armies crossed the Danube August 1914, Carol claimed River, leading to the evacuation of the that Romania must execute the Royal Family, the Government, and the Treaty of 1883 that linked the Parliament in Iasi, where they would kingdom to the Central Powers. remain for two years. On 6 December World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 7 1916, Bucharest was occupied by With the conclusion of the First model in concluding peace treaties.5 Central Power troops. At this point, World War, the political map of At the conclusion of the War, Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu and Europe changed radically, primarily Romania – along with members of the the other politicians looked forward due to the dissolution of several Entente Powers – was forced to provide to any peace conference that would be major empires: Tsarist Russia, Austria- answers to legitimate questions about held at the end of the War. Brătianu had Hungary, Germany, and Ottoman. the validity of the above-mentioned absolute trust in those words stipulated Upon their ruins – relying on the Alliance Treaty (August 1916) and in the secret treaties signed whether the Treaty had been by Romania, which should affected by Romania’s signing have been the basis for the of the separate peace with the negotiations during the Central Powers in Bucharest (May conference. 1918). The Romanian delegation In 1917, the Romanian to the Paris Peace Conference was army opposed the forced to engage in diplomatic breakthrough of the battles during the Conference, Germans in , who and in most cases, the Romanian wanted to bring Romania out delegation was forced to engage of the war. The Romanian in considerable efforts to have army subsequently won their voices heard.6 victories at Marasti, The Romanian delegation – Marasesti, and Oituz. headed by Prime Minister Brătianu Unexpected events such as – included Plenipotentiary the November Bolshevik Minister Nicolae Mişu; Ministers coup d'état in Russia – which Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, brought about the collapse of Victor Antonescu, Constantin the Russian front as a result Queen Marie of Romania is shown above in native peasant Diamandy, and General of Lenin’s Decree on Peace costume helping in the distribution of American Red Cross Constantin Coada. In addition, (8 November 1917) – and supplies to the needy children and mothers of Bucharest, a delegation from Russia's withdrawal from the 1920. Due to depressing economic conditions, the Romanian went to Paris in an effort to conflict by the Brest-Litovsk government was unable to give much relief to its needy, obtain recognition of the union Treaty (3 March 1918) so the Queen gave her personal services to the American of Bessarabia (9 April 1918), with the Central Powers, relief organization, pitching into the hardest kind of work. Bukowina (28 November 1918) put Romania in a very Source: United States Library of Congress. and Transylvania (1 December difficult situation. Another 1918) with Romania: Ion Basilian, unforeseen problem was the Ion Pelivan, Ion Codreanu, Sergiu intensification of Russia's opposition to Wilsonian principles included in his Victor Cujba, and Emanoil Catelli. Romania because Bessarabia – inhabited Fourteen Points of 1918 – several From the outset of the by many Romanians but under Russian young states, named by some historians Conference, the atmosphere in Paris rule at the time – became the Moldovan as "successor" states, were born or was unfavorable to Romania, with the Democratic (2 December restructured: Poland, Czechoslovakia, kingdom’s delegation faced with the 1917), declaring its independence. Hungary, Austria, Romania, and prospect of not being recognized with Thus, Romania was forced by Yugoslavia (Serbian-Croatian- Allied status that it gained through the the new geopolitical and military Slovenian Kingdom). Treaty of August 1916 and which was situation to sign an armistice with the The Paris Conference of 1919- the primary basis for mass negotiations. Central Powers (Focsani, 9 December 1920 – which had as its mission to build One example of Romania's unequal 1917) and then a separate peace with a new political and territorial order treatment in Paris is that the kingdom Germany. The Preliminary Peace Treaty in Europe following the devastating was represented in only eight of the was signed on 18 March 1918 in Buftea war – was the most representative fifty-eight commissions created in with the final one in Bucharest on 7 international meeting ever, surpassing the framework of the Conference. In May. However, by signing this treaty, even the importance of the Congress addition, Romania failed to obtain a Romania reneged on its August 1916 of Vienna (1814-1815), the Congress place on the territorial or minority pledge to not make a separate peace, of Paris (1856) and the Congress of commissions, issues in which the a matter that would be imputed to the (1878). A new geopolitical reality kingdom was specifically interested. In Paris Peace Conference. The treaty was established in Europe by the 1919- the face of this unfortunate situation, was not validated by King Ferdinand 1920 Paris Peace Conference, brought Prime Minister Brătianu insisted on the of Romania and consequently did not about by the signing of peace treaties rights of Romania, as stipulated in the take effect. On 10 November, Romania with the various Central Power member Treaty of August 1916 and on the rights rejoined the war with the Entente states. Starting from the principles of of an independent state of Romania. powers and with the armistice of 11 organizing relations between states, At this stage of the Conference's November 1918, the previously signed the Paris Conference was also the first work, Queen Marie of Romania played Treaty of Bucharest was voided. attempt to approach a new, democratic a significant role: When the letters World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 8 of Prime Minister Brătianu to King which provided to be a cornerstone for the treaty. Ferdinand noted the coldness to which the protection of minorities and the On 10 June 1919, the Council of the Prime Minister was treated, Queen recognition of new states, based on the Four summoned delegates from the Marie traveled to Paris on a "private principle of national self-determination. national states of Central Europe in visit." Through her intellect and charm, In spite of the recognition of these order to discuss the borders of Hungary. Marie played a significant role, having principles, the proceedings of the In this matter, however, the nations several meetings with world leaders specialized commissions were carried directly concerned were not always and ardently advocating the cause out without Romania or the other and fully consulted. When the maps of Romania. French Prime Minister interested states being consulted, with boundary borders were presented, Georges Clemenceau and President which caused dissatisfaction. The Brătianu again found that in the case of Raymond Poincaré publicly welcomed Romanian delegation expressed its Romania, the earlier 1916 Treaty was the visiting Queen at Elysee Palace with position on the treaty with Austria not respected. Faced with this situation, a French honor guard and Poincare during the plenary session of 31 May the Prime Minister requested a delay awarded her with the Ordre national 1919. After expressing its gratitude for (between ten and twelve days) so that de la Légion d'honneur. The French the recognition of Bukowina's union the King and his Government could be Academy also welcomed her with with Romania, Brătianu declared that notified and fully informed. honors. In London, Maria’s cousin, "Romania was ready to accept any The situation in Hungary also King of the United Kingdom, agreement which any other member of became of concern, as a Soviet-style met her at the station and accompanied the League of Nations would admit to republic was proclaimed by Bela her to . There, its territory in this area." The tensions Kun. In fact, the small communist Queen Mary of the United Kingdom grew even more as the date of signing experiment following the model of loaned Queen Marie jewelry to wear, the treaty with Austria approached. the Bolshevik Revolution promoted by as the Crown jewels of Romania had On 10 September, in Saint-Germain Leon Trotsky brought back the Allies' been taken by the Russians. Meetings en Laye, the Peace Treaty was trust in Romania. It is known that after with David Lloyd George, Austen signed between the main Allied and the inauguration (21 March 1918) of Chamberlain, and Associated Powers and Austria. At that the Hungarian Republic of Bolshevik took place. Subsequently, when Queen time, Romania's signature was missing Councils, the Hungarian government, Marie returned to Paris, the atmosphere from the treaty. Subsequently, on 12 in violation of the armistice at the Peace Conference became more September, the government led by Ion of 13 November 1918, twice attacked favorable to Romania.7 I. C. Brătianu resigned in Bucharest, Romania: the first time on 16 April A delicate moment of Romania's arguing that it could not sign a treaty 1919, when the Romanian army was relations with the Great Powers was "incompatible with national dignity and in the area of the Apuseni Mountains, that of the Treaty of Versailles with independence of Romania." In Paris, and then, on 1 May 1919, when the Germany. Although the Romanian negotiations between the Romanian Romanian army stopped at the border delegation did not know the text of the delegation and the representatives of stipulated in the Political Convention document until shortly before entering the took place to bring about between Romania and the Entente, the Conference Hall, Romania's treaty modifications. Three months signed in Bucharest in August 1916, and interests in the field of reparations were after the initial signing, Romania signed the second, on 20 July 1919. This time, virtually ignored. As such, the Romanian the Romanian army retaliated, Prime Minister was faced with the need ending with the occupation of to sign the document simply to avoid Budapest on 4 August 1920, open conflict with the representatives after which the Hungarian of the Great Powers. The head of Communist government was the English delegation, David Lloyd removed. The Trianon Treaty George, insisted that the earlier Treaties recognized the union of of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest were Transylvania with Romania. canceled, thus removing one of the Referred to by the Hungarians main vulnerabilities of Romania at as a dictate, the treaty was the Peace Conference. Thus, on 28 contested by Hungary, whose June 1919, Brătianu took part in the leaders refused to accept the solemn meeting in the Hall of Mirrors provisions on the border with at Versailles and signed the Treaty with Romania, as stipulated in the Germany. Subsequently, Brătianu left Convention between Romania Paris and Nicolae Mişu, Minister of the and the Entente powers.8 Romanian Government in London, was The photograph above shows “Big Four” world Peace with Bulgaria was appointed Romania's senior delegate to leaders at World War I Peace Conference in Paris, achieved in Neuilly on 27 the Peace Conference. 27 May 1919. From left to right: British Prime November 1919. Greece got In mid-April 1919, the Council of Minister David Lloyd George, Italian Premier Thrace, the border with Serbia Four (France, Italy, the United States, Vittorio Orlando, French Premier Georges was corrected, and Romania and the United Kingdom) began Clemenceau, and United States President Woodrow maintained the 1916 border, working on a treaty with Austria, Wilson. Source: United States Library of Congress. that is, retained Cadrilater World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 9 (). 4. Constantin Kiritescu, Istoria razboiului Satmarean, 1998); Viorel Virgil Tilea, The treaties signed with Austria pentru întregirea Romaniei (Bucuresti: Ed. Actiunea diplomatica a Romaniei, nov. 1919 - (Saint-Germain-on-Laye, 10 September Stiinyifica si Enciclopedica, 1989); Ion Rusu mart. 1920 (: Tipografia Poporului, 1919), Bulgaria (Neuilly-sur-Seine, Abrudeanu, Romania si razboiul mondial: 1925): 149-150. 27 November 1919), and Hungary contributiuni la studiul istoriei razboiului nostru 9. Monitorul oficial (Bucuresti), aprilie 7, (Trianon, 4 June 1920) officially (Bucuresti: SOCEC & comp., societate 1922. accepted the union of Bukowina anonima, 1921). 10. Dumitru Th Pârvu and Ion and Transylvania with Romania. 5. Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: Constantin, Problema Basarabiei: în lumina Unification of Bessarabia was only The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its principiilor actelor juridice internationale. consecrated in the final stages of the Attempt to End War (London: John Murray, (Contributii la cunoasterea raporturilor diplomatice Paris Peace Conference although the 2003); Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: româno-ruse) (Bucuresti, Tipografia Scoalei recommendations of the American Six Months That Changed the World (New Superioare de Razboi, 1943): 290; Viorica and British experts were unequivocal: York: Random House, 2002); Margaret Moisuc, Basarabia, Bucovina, Transilvania: Bessarabia is Romanian in its major MacMillan, The War That Ended Peace: How Unirea 1918 (Bucuresti: Departamentul aspects: ethnic, historical, cultural, Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World Informatiilor Publice, 1996): 42-43. and linguistic. The vehement rejection War (London: Profile Books, 2013). appeals came from the Russian circles 6. Ion Ionascu, Petre Barbulescu – although the Soviet government was and Gheorghe Gheorghe, Tratatele not recognized and, as a consequence, internationale ale Romaniei, 1354-1920: Texte not represented at the Conference rezumate, adnotări, bibliografie (Bucuresti: Ed. in Paris – as well as from a so-called Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1975): 452- Bessarabian delegation. On 28 October 453; Valeriu Florin Dobrinescu, Romania 1920, the , concluded si sistemul tratatelor de pace de la Paris: 1919- between the United Kingdom, France, 1923 (Iasi: Institutul Eureopean, 1993): Italy and Japan, on the one hand, and 51; Nicolas Dascovici, Interesele şi drepturile Romania, on the other hand, recognized Romaniei in texte de drept international public the vote of the Country Councils of (Iasi: Tipografia Concesionara Alexandru 27 March 1918 (in Kishinew) through Ţerek, 1936); Constantin Botoran and which Bessarabia joined with Romania. Viorica Moisuc, Romania si Conferinta de Pace In 1922, the Treaty was ratified by de la Paris (1918-1920): Triumful, principiului, Romania and the United Kingdom; naţionalitatilor (Cluj-Napoca: Editura Dacia, in 1924, by France; and in 1927, by 1983): 388; Sherman David Spector and Italy. Japan did not ratify the treaty and Sorin Parvu, Romania si Conferinta de Pace de has consequently not produced legal la Paris: Diplomatia lui Ion I.C. Bratianu (Iasi: 9 Koo Vi Kyuin Wellington, one of the effects. The union of March 1918 was Institutul European, 1995): 134; Florin Chinese Representatives at the Paris never recognized by the Soviet Union, Anghel, Dumitru Preda, Florin Anghel, Peace Conference. In 1945, he would despite the resumption of diplomatic Ioan Chiper, Alexandru Ghisa, Tatiana lead the Chinese delegation at the San relations between Romania and the Dutu, Florin Müller, Nicolae-Alexandru Francisco conference that founded the 10 United Nations. Source: United States Library Soviet Union in 1934. Nicolescu, Dragos Preda, Sorana Gorjan, of Congress. In the summer of 1940, Romania and Jean-Yves Conrad, editors. Romania – caught between the Soviet Union, la Conferinta de Pace de la Paris (1919-1920): Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria and Documente diplomatice (Bucuresti: Semne, with all the critics of the treaties of 2010): 24-56; Marin Radu Mocanu and Paris (1919-1920) – lost territories. As Arhivele Naţionale ale României, România a result of the territorial losses in the în anticamera Conferintei de Pace de la Paris: summer of 1940, the northwest region Documente (Bucuresti: Arhivele Naţionale of Transylvania passed to Hungary ale României, 1996): 352. (until 1944) and Bessarabia and North 7. www.anomismi.wordpress.com/ Bucovina were taken over by the Soviet 2011/10/16/regina-maria-a-romaniei- Union forever, as did the Cadrilater capitole-tarzii-din-viata-mea-memorii- area in Bulgaria. rederscoperite. 8. Lucian Leustean, Romania, Ungaria si Notes: Tratatul de la Trianon (Iasi: Polirom, 2002): 1. Mircea N. Popa, Primul Razboi 85; Gheorghe I. Bratianu, Actiunea politica Mondial, 1914-1918 (Bucuresti: Editura si militara a Romaniei in 1919 in lumina Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, 1979). corespondentei diplomatice a lui Ion I.C. Bratianu 2. Constantin Xeni, Take Ionescu (Bucuresti: “Cartea romaneasca”, 1939): (Bucuresti: Tritonic, 2002): 254; Anastasie 59; Gheorghe Nicolescu, Viorel Ciubotă Iordache, (Bucuresti: Editura and Cornel Tucă, One of the Japanese Representatives Take Ionescu Jurnal de operatiuni al at the Paris Peace Conference, Matsui Mica Valahie, 2008): 308. Comandamentului Trupelor din Transilvania Keishirō. Source: United States Library of 3. Ibid., 258. (1918-1921) (Satu-Mare: Editura Muzeului Congress. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 10 ITALIAN DRAFT PROPOSAL FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS: Original Solution for a Global Conflict Simonetta Florissi | Sapienza Università di Roma | [email protected] With regard to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference it was the this Section, with Senator Scialoja and the Honorable Carlo view of the more powerful countries (e.g., the United States Schanzer taking part in meetings where animated discussions and Great Britain) taken up by historians,1 that Italy was not occurred on this matter. an important player in global diplomacy at the close of the At the very beginning, a vote was requested to approve a First World War and in the construction of the League of statement wishing that: Nations Covenant, the forerunner of the United Nations. Among the larger possible number of countries, This essay seeks to illuminate Italy’s fundamental role in and in any case among those with which Italy now the evolution of the reasoning behind—and ultimate shape has economic and military interests in common, of—the League of Nations, its Council, and thereby the later it would be possible to conclude agreements United Nations Security Council. in order to formulate and to adopt a coherent By doing so, the author hopes to direct future scholarship system of norms about rights and duties of the to look beyond the Great Powers when exploring the roots of states in their relationships; modern diplomacy. Furthermore, the hope is that instructors And as a base and instrument of the negotiations may use this essay to reveal to students the true complexity to conclude these agreements, which will be of the diplomacy in the era under review. easier to apply if able to satisfy the national The League of Nations was an organization, desired by aspirations of the various peoples, it would be U. S. President Woodrow Wilson, which came into being at opportune to follow the path traced by The the end of the First World War to avoid the risk of another Hague Conferences, in order to continue their terrible conflict. Its Covenant was the result of brainstorming work in an adequate manner to reach extensive by government officials in both belligerent and neutral aims.2 countries which had taken place in 1917-1918. The above statement demonstrates that even if at the The Governments of Great Britain, France, the United government level there was skepticism, the professionals States, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, and Germany each participating in the Commission were convinced that a new instituted diplomatic commissions to prepare a scheme for Society of Nations needed a set of rules so that member such a forum of nations. Their aim was the construction of states could peacefully coexist, could cooperate in order to a mechanism to peacefully resolve international disputes and achieve common goals, could even progressively review the impede actions by a state and by states that might drag others acquired norms to guarantee the reciprocal respect of rights into war. and duties between states. In the end, three projects for the League of Nations The Commission for the Aftermath of War Covenant were elaborated within Italy: the first written by Dionisio Anzilotti and Arrigo Cavaglieri; the second written With the Legislative Decree of 21 March 1918, Italy instituted by Arturo Ricci Busatti and Mariano D’Amelio; and the third the Commission for the Aftermath of War in order to written by Andrea Torre and Gustavo Tosti. manage, from the legal point of view, the transition from war However, it was Professor Anzilotti who became the to peace and to elaborate guidelines for Italy’s performance juridical personality most involved in this brainstorming.3 at an eventual post-war peace conference. In fact, on 28 November, Anzilotti read to a Section of That Commission, starting its works on 14 September the Commission his preliminary paper with some issues 1918, was divided into two sub-commissions. The first of contained in his draft project. these—divided in twelve Sections—was headed by Senator In brief, his views could be summarized in three points: Vittorio Scialoja, who later was officially encharged to follow Structure and Objectives of the Society, Solution of the the construction of the Covenant. Controversies, and Sanctions. The specific Section dealing with international issues was presided over by the Honorable Ferdinando Martini. Structure and Objectives of the Society In addition, the Section included several Members of Parliament, such as Carlo Fabri, Carlo Calisse, Andrea Anzilotti explained that a Society of Nations (i.e., the Torre, and Giulio Venzi; scholars such as the professors coexistence of States as various political organizations acting Dionisio Anzilotti, Giulio Cesare Buzzati, Enrico Catellani, in their relationships with defined rules) was not properly a Arrigo Cavaglieri, Giulio Diena, and Prospero Fedozzi; the quid novi, something new in history coming out from the war. plenipotentiaries Salvatore Contarini, Gaetano Manzoni, and Yet, it was possible to give a new order to the Society in two Arturo Ricci Busatti; the Consul-General Gustavo Tosti; the known juridical ways: a federal state or a confederation of Supreme Court of Cassation advisor Mariano D’Amelio; the states. State advisor Adolfo Berio; and Colonel Gennaro Laghezza The Italian jurist didn’t wish for the institution to become of the Marine Ministry. a “super state” that merely overcomes the particular interests The debate on the League of Nations was carried out in of the national communities. Rather, international law was World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 11 a system between governments and thus the League would of controversies. All the existing treaties of arbitrage and the have resulted in a development of a cooperation model proposals on the League of Nations juridically allowed states, already working for international conferences, like the Hague in the end, to go to war without betraying the obligations Disarmament Conferences had been. As such, Anzilotti subscribed. War continued to be a possible legal option in talked about a confederation. the proposals. A reading of some of Anzilotti’s writings on the matter For Anzilotti, the next step should have been to forbid allows one to deduce that the Italians had seen the draft absolutely the resort to arms by making obligatory a pacific plans for the League that had been written up to that point solution of international disputes; while, he noted, the and had analyzed the British and the French proposals. In British proposal for the Covenant attempted to render war Anzilotti’s perspective, the Society of Nations would have very difficult, it was in any case present as an option. served to adapt international law to the new interests arising According to Anzilotti, the legal possibility of going to from new historical situations, without resorting to conflicts, war was excluded by the French while it was legally permitted and with the agreement of all the members, as it happens in a by the British. On the contrary, Anzilotti’s opinion was that single state when the contrasts are solved through legislative the possibility of resorting to arms in any case should be provisions in order to avoid violence between social groups unlawful. or citizens. He specified: Anzilotti wrote: The English project, as already observed, is much [No one] doubts that war will have served to more obsequious to the tradition; it is certainly so realize a fairer and more balanced order in the planned to leave few probabilities for a war [could relationships between states; [and no one] doubts occur] between the associated countries, yet the even that this order, as it happens for every historical possibility is not legally excluded, while it is excluded fact, can in future be in contrast with new interests, in the French project. This is perhaps the more heavy which in turn will need acknowledgment and and delicate problem of this utterly delicate matter. protection. Hence there is the necessity to constitute For us the time has come to make a stride, meaning a social organization making the norms and the excluding in any case the juridical possibility to resort existing institutes adapting progressively to the new to war. The Covenant has to contain the mandate to conditions, so that those transformations, made the organization to substitute itself to the quarreling by means of conflicts until now, could occur by Parts in order to rule their relations every time they means of the conscious and concordant action of are not able to agree upon in another manner, so the members themselves. This is not to affirm that that the refusal to accept the decisions will result in a perpetual peace will be guaranteed, but it’s just to a violation of the undertaken duties. This will not say that the antagonistic forces present inside human really exclude armed conflicts, as it happens in the beings could in many cases deploy their contrasts internal law when it can not exclude revolutions, without reaching an armed conflict. As in the realm nevertheless it forbids and punishes the acts contrary of every state, opportune government provisions to Law with which the violence is expressed; but war can avoid violent contrasts between individuals or will be in any case a fact contrary to Law. social groups. Accordingly, it was necessary that the League reach a This elaboration and development of international law consensus and it was necessary to operate its institutions ruling the Society of Nations could have been carried on with this aim in mind. by the associated countries themselves gathered in collective Anzilotti divided the issue into two broad categories: conferences, able to create new norms or to abrogate those juridical and political. In fact, it would have been possible in force; practically he talked about the institution that that some states could have a dispute because of an eventually came to be known as the General Assembly in the interpretation or application of norms, and this meant United Nations (UN) organization.4 setting up a mechanism to handle juridical disputes. At the It must be remembered that in the early plans for the same time, a dispute could arise because of the value of the League if Nations Covenant (and later the UN General rule itself, which was a more serious situation necessitating a Assembly)—that is, the governing body of the League solution not based on law. The issue in this latter case would comprised all of the Members—was called differently in the not consist in simply clarifying or interpreting a legislative various plans: the British named it Conference of the Allied provision. Rather, the organization needed the ability to create States; for the French it was the International Council (Conseil a more balanced arrangement of the interests on the ground. International); the Americans outlined a collective Body As such, it needed to resolve political disputes. Therefore, the of Delegates; and the Italians, initially, called it simply the constitutional act of the Society needed to have foreseen two Council (Consiglio). Thus, it is important not to mix the labels different organs to solve the different kinds of controversies of the institutions. Moreover, it is necessary to specify that between Members: juridical and political. the body nowadays called the Security Council (meaning a This philosophy was reflected in the first Italian draft restricted body to manage the controversies) was not present proposal of thirty-five articles, written by Professor Anzilotti in the American, British, and French plans. together with Arrigo Cavaglieri and named Scheme of Solution of the Controversies Convention to Constitute a Society of Nations with the Aim to Assure the Maintenance of Peace. It sketched the According to Anzilotti the punctum pruriens (crucial point) of institution of a so called Council of States for the solution the question was the manner to guarantee the pacific solution of the political controversies: a body, in the initial phase, World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 12 comprised of Representatives from each Member country sanctions against the recalcitrant country, either military, of the League.5 moral, financial, or economic. He stated his position by writing: According to Anzilotti, this kind of provision would The political controversies, because of their nature necessitate numerous discussions between the members on and for implying a balanced conciliation of the when a country would be considered having violated the pact different interests by means of reciprocal transactions and what sanctions should be placed on the recalcitrant State. more than the actual law in force, […] should be In other words, each country could have decided by itself how addressed to a body formed by the representatives of to deal with the pact-breaking State. It was better in the French the States called ‘Council of States’. The composition proposal, providing that such a situation was managed by the of the dispute has in such a case the value of a fact International Council (i.e., modern-day General Assembly), regarding the entire society. which would establish whether and which sanctions should But he continued explaining: be placed, then the Members would be expected to apply the Rather it is possible to doubt if a so enlarged body— official sanctions.7 In reality, the comments above concerning given that almost all the States of the world will the British plan are inappropriate, giving that it literally read join the League—would be the most appropriate to at the very beginning, under the title: Avoidance of War”: exercise these functions. But some problems could be overcome with opportune procedural norms and Article 1. with the creation of restricted committees. Each of the Allied States (being the parties to this It is in this last phrase that the first mention of a reduced Convention) agrees with the other Allied States (i.e., less-numerous) governing body within the League of collectively and separately that it will not go to war Nations resides; a body able to deal in particular with the with another of the Allied States – political controversies arising between the Members. a) without previously submitting the matter in Effectively, in the draft plan presented by the international dispute to arbitration or to a Conference of law scholars to the Section, Article 6 reported a provision for the Allied States; and the selection of a restricted group of countries, chosen with b) until there has been an award or a report the nucleus of the procedure later adopted to form the UN by the Conference […]; and also that Security Council: c) with another of the Allied States A Delegation is constituted composed by the which complies with the award or with President of the Council […], who presided it, and the recommendation (if any) made by the four members elected every year by the Council itself Conference in its report. in its domain […] bearing in mind that the word ‘Council’ in this case meant all Article 2. the members participating in the League. If, which may God avert, one of the Allied Further on, Article 8 read: States should break the covenant contained in […], the Delegation will do those attempts and the preceding Article, this State will become ipso those proposals considered useful for an amicable facto at war with all the other Allied States, and composition of the controversy […] the latter agree to take and to support each other Hence, a small body elected by the whole Council (i.e., in taking jointly and severally all such measures- modern-day General Assembly) was present in the plan, -military, naval, financial, and economic--as will named “Delegation” and charged with the task of resolving best avail for restraining the breach of covenant. international political controversies.6 […] Differently, the juridical controversies could have been and this was more or less the same wording used by Anzilotti judged by the Permanent Court instituted by The Hague and Cavaglieri in their draft plan, with the only difference Conferences; but it was better that the constitutional act that this wording was the content of Article 30, placed at the of the League of Nations ruled the creation of a Court end of the project, it read: of Justice to solve those disputes deserving of a juridical In the case that one of the States Parties (to the solution. Covenant) violates the obligation not to resort to arms, performing acts of hostility before the Council Sanctions or the Court would have pronounced their decision, all the other Parties will be at war with it and will Anzilotti faced the problem of sanctions in the event a have the faculty of intervening, jointly or separately, member nation refused to abide by the decisions. In this in the manners they will consider more opportune to regard, the Members themselves could have decided to do or defend the attacked State. not to do something to constrain the recalcitrant country to So it is possible to say that in both the plans (the Italian fulfill its obligations. and the British), the violations of the duty not to resort to war In the British proposal, the violation by a member state until the Court or the Council had released an award entailed of the duty to avoid going to war before having a dispute a defensive action, and even a conflict. The real difference submitted for arbitration (or to the Conference of the Allied resided in the value of the award: a recommendation States) entailed, automatically, conflict with all of the other in the British case for the Conference and an obligatory states of the League. These states would have been ipso facto prescription in the French and Italian cases.8 authorized, together or separately, to take any opportune The second Italian draft proposal for the League of World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 13 Nations, entitled Scheme of General Act for the Society of adhesions. Nations (Preamble+forty-two Articles), was presented to the There was a third Italian proposal for the Covenant Commission for the Aftermath of War by the plenipotentiary (thirty-two Articles) entitled Scheme of Convention for Arturo Ricci Busatti together with Mariano D’Amelio, a judge the Constitution of the Society of Nations, elaborated by engaged in the highest levels of the Italian Court system. the Honorable Andrea Torre and Consul General Gustavo This proposal contained a peculiar Preamble, quoting as Tosti. It initially had more or less the same issues as the Ricci- promoters of the League the President of the United States Busatti/D’Amelio plan, namely, the constitutional principles of America, His Majesty the King of Italy, and so forth. of the League; the Council of States (modern-day General In other words, the winners of World War I, who strongly Assembly) was defined, but with the addition of four new desired to guarantee the pacific coexistence between states Committees to assist it: the Economic Committee with the and committed to establishing a new international juridical task to analyze economic problems and in particular the fair order assuring to every nation the needed conditions for distribution of raw materials; the Work Committee with their independent and autonomous development. the specific task to check the application and interpretation It is important to note that in this draft plan, the text stating of international conventions dedicated to the protection the support of the various heads of state had a particular of workers; the Military Committee formulating proposals placement: it was positioned at the very beginning with to constitute a “collective Army and Fleet,” in order to the King of Italy being immediately after the United States carry out any sanctions (it seems that this provision put President (i.e., Woodrow the third Italian plan near Wilson), as to highlight the the French one providing close relationship between an international armed Italy and the United States. force); and the Permanent Then, the affirmation Committee of Enquiry and of some fundamental Conciliation specifically principles was reported, involved in solving always similar to Wilsons’ international controversies. convictions. For example, These Committees were the member states are equal formed by representatives before law; any threat to from each of the member independence and integrity states. of a state contradicts The norms concerning the basic rules of the the Court of Justice were international community; almost all taken by the freedom of commerce; Anzilotti/Cavaglieri plan, freedom of navigation while the measures to for merchant ships; sanction a pact-breaking international distribution state were the usual ones. of raw materials and At the end, there were the guaranteed circulation of normal provisions regarding currency; provisions in the coming into force and favor of workers applied adhesions. without distinction in all the These three proposals countries; and loyalty to the for the Covenant were international treaties and no presented to the Italian secret treaties admitted. Italy’s close relationship with the United States —whether real or government, which would Some “General perceived—can be ascertained in this letter from King Vittorio then introduce its political Emanuele III of Italy to the American Red Cross thanking them Dispositions” followed, for their generous support of Italian soldiers during the War. In the considerations in order to establishing the core of letter he notes that the Red Cross workers “relieved the innumerable formulate a unique plan the matter: international aches of the war taking care and assisting [the people] with a tireless to be presented to the controversies should and self-sacrifice action, so that making the sentiment of sincere 1919 Conference of Peace be solved according to friendship, already tying the two nations, more alive by pure affection by Italy. Subsequently, an the norms provided by and a close brotherhood.” Source: United States Library of Congress. official plan was elaborated, the treaty itself, and the the Draft Scheme for the representatives of all member states would have gathered in Constitution of the Society of Nations (Preamble+thirty- periodic conferences. eight Articles). The document can be found in Annex 3 of At this stage, the Ricci-Busatti/D’Amelio plan the Minutes of the First Meeting of the Commission on the incorporated the norms of the Anzilotti/Cavaglieri plan, League of Nations.9 namely those specific to the Council of States, on the The official Italian proposal began with an important International Court of Justice, and on sanctions, so that the Preamble affirming, first of all, that the League wasan second Italian proposal resulted from a combination of two initiative of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy proposals. and Japan (as it was stated in the Ricci-Busatti plan). In this At the end there were some rules on ratifications and way, the document stressed that the Covenant was the will World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 14 of the winner states, which in the future United Nations present. Charter will become the Permanent Members of the Security Council.10 Nevertheless, the widely accepted view on Italy’s In this official plan, the organs to manage the organization contributions to the League of Nations is that the Kingdom’s were two: the Representatives of all the Contracting States proposals did not influence the elaboration of the final would meet in Conferences periodically to examine general version of the Covenant. On the contrary, it is possible to problems of common interest, whilst the restricted Council affirm that the Italian lawyers created the formula used today was composed by a representative from each of the five Great to compose the Security Council of the United Nations. Powers (the ones mentioned in the Preamble as promoters Perhaps Italy had a political reason to imagine in its plan of the Scheme) with an additional four representatives from a restricted body able to solve the international disputes. the other Contracting States, who were elected by the whole Actually, professor Andrea Francioni (University of Siena) Conference,11 thus affirming for the first time this formula. has suggested that Italy wanted to participate in a Council Under the direction of the Council, three Commissions formed by only nine countries, among which the Great were to be constituted: an Economic Commission for the Powers, in order to have a privileged international status. solution of the international economic problems; a Labor Commission to formulate provisions for the protection of workers; and a Military Commission able to deal with the Notes military matters facing the League of Nations. 1. Bearing in mind that the essay considers the early plans for the In brief, the solutions for international controversies had Covenant, namely the treaty proposals elaborated by official government more options: Commissions instituted in 1917-1918 and by diplomatic personalities. It • Any dispute that was not possible to solve by is possible to give some examples to testify to the widely accepted view amicable negotiations, was automatically settled by of the predominance of U.S. and Great Britain in writing the League of arbitration. Nations Covenant. Here the words of David Hunter Miller, American • If the Parties didn’t agree on the arbitrators, the legal adviser: matter should be referred to the Council—meaning a Every plan for a League of Nations necessarily envisaged a general restricted body—in its capacity as Court of Enquiry conference of all the members of the League under one name or another, and Conciliation, having the power to decide on the the Assembly as we now know it. merit of the question. There was also the possibility The Phillimore Plan, the House Draft and Wilson’s American Draft to refer the dispute to the whole Conference by all contained such provisions and indeed it would be difficult to draw any reason of its importance or nature. In either path, scheme for a League of Nations without them. both the Court of Enquiry and Conciliation or the The idea of a smaller representative body to meet more frequently Conference could decide on the grounds of equity had been suggested in various quarters and was, so to speak, in the air. or political experience and release binding sentences. While not in the Phillimore Plan or in the House Draft or in the Wilson • If the dispute pertained to a matter of international American Draft, it was suggested in the French Plan; it was embodied law, it would be referred to the Court of International in the draft which I had submitted to Colonel House, where I called the Justice, which would have been established at The smaller body the ‘Council’; it was the draft of Dr. Scott and myself where Hague. it was called a ‘Standing Committee’ of Seven Powers; and it was in In cases of violations of any sanctions, matters should be Lansing’s Articles, where it was called a ‘Supervisory Committee’ of five. decided by the Council of States (i.e., the restricted body). In According to Smuts, the League was to consist of a General Conference this regard, there is a very detailed list of measures, beginning and a Council with Courts of Arbitration and Conciliation; the Council, from the rupture of the diplomatic relations as well as the being “the Executive Committee” of the League, was to be composed of police supervision and expulsion of the recalcitrant state’s representatives of the Great Powers “together with the representatives citizens from the territories of the loyal ones, not to mention drawn in rotation from two panels of the Middle Powers and minor States the economic and commercial boycott, an embargo on ships, respectively”: and group representation was also suggested as possible. and so forth. D. H. Miller, Drafting the Covenant, Vol. 1, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York– It has to be recognized that the Italians wrote a London, p. 36. consequent and logic “Scheme” for the League of Nations, featured it as a structure containing the main elements not The pamphlet of General Smuts raised much interest in the League domain only of the League’s Covenant but also of today’s United when it was released, on December 16, 1918. The author, pertaining to Nations mechanism. the British War Cabinet, was considered very brilliant and his plan was In fact: normally thought to be the first project containing the institution of a 1. an Assembly (named Conference) was imagined Council following the formula: Great Powers (US, Great Britain, France, where all the members took place; Italy and Japan) plus four other minor countries chosen in rotation-- 2. then a restricted Council formed by the Great by the Great Powers themselves--from two panels. But the Italian legal Powers (quoted in the initial phase of the plan, experts working in the ‘Commission for the Aftermath of War’, from as inviting the others to join the League) plus September 1918, elaborated a final official plan with a ‘Council’ formed other four countries chosen by the Assembly by the Great Powers plus four countries--nominated by the Conference- was thought: it was a body with the specific -(i.e. the Executive Council formula in the Covenant and the nucleus of function to solve political controversies; the UN Security Council formula), already outlined in the treaty-projects 3. and a Court of Justice to decide the disputes presented in November 1918. It has to be said that President Wilson read on the grounds of International Law was also Smut’s Plan when he reached Paris, then he decided to write another draft World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 15 in order to add new elements to his First Draft, following some Smut’s had been painstakingly prepared by him, Colonel House, Lord Cecil, and provisions. In fact, the so-called Wilson’s Second Draft, was released on General Smuts and that the Commission would proceed to discuss it point January 10, 1919, and it contained an ‘Executive Council’ in addition by point. to the Body of Delegates (=Assembly), differently from Wilson’s First Léon Bourgeois suggested at least a twenty-four-hour delay to consider the Draft where only the Body of Delegates was present as instrument to document, which as yet no one outside the British-American teams had even manage the League. From then on, all the subsequent draft projects for seen. Orlando thought it ought to be translated into French. the Covenant will contain a restricted Council, but not composed with Elmer Bendiner, A Time for Angels. The Tragicomic History of the League of the formula ‘Five Great Powers plus four Small Powers chosen by the Nations, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1975, p. 88. Conference (=Assembly)’ proposed by Italy and later officially adopted. 2. Antonio Grossardi, “I lavori della prima sezione della Commissione Another protagonist of the League of Nations construction was Lord per il ‘Dopo Guerra’,” Rivista di Diritto Internazionale, Anno XII, Serie II, Robert Cecil, a British politician, son of Lord Salisbury and cousin of Vol. VII (1918), Fasc. I-II, pp. 247-282. Lord Balfour. Here is the description by the historian Patrick O. Cohrs: 3. Antonio Cassese, “Realism v. Artificial Theoretical Constructs: In December 1918, both Cecil and Smuts presented the War Cabinet with Remarks on Anzilotti’s Theory of War,” European Journal of International plans that placed the League at the centre of the postwar system yet were Law, Vol. 3, Issue Number 1, 1992. nonetheless distinct. What Smuts put forward in his The Legue of Nations: 4. It is worth saying that a permanent committee organizing the A Practical Suggestion dovetailed with Wilson’s vision. He proposed a works between the Conferences would have been necessary and in this League that was powerful and egalitarian, envisaging it as an organisation office there was the seed of the body later called Secretariat. giving the smaller powers a tangible say and only a slim majority to the great 5. In the British plan the collective ‘Conference’ should have been powers in its Executive Council. participated by all the Members represented by the diplomats accredited Patrick O. Cohrs, The Unfinished Peace after World War I. America, Britain to the country hosting the Conference (at that moment a seat for the and the Stabilisation of Peace 1919-1932, Cambridge, Cambridge University League was not yet decided); while in the French plan the collective Press, 2006, p. 42. ‘Council’ should have been participated by the Head of States or Prime ministers of all the Members. Here the words of the historian George W. Egerton: 6. It is necessary to make a distinction between the restricted body On 10 January, regular meetings of the British league of nations’ section provided by the Anzilotti plan and the small body present in the French began under Cecil’s direction. The immediate task at hand was to draw up plan, always called ‘Delegation’ and formed by fifteen countries, because a British draft scheme for a league that would serve as a basis for exchanges in the French case it was an institution functioning in the lapse of with the Americans. The American delegation had on 1 January been given time between the meetings of the International Council (i.e. nowadays a copy of the Cecil plan – the Foreign Office plan of 14 December 1918 – Assembly) with bureaucratic tasks, in other words a sort of Secretariat. but this consisted only of the barest outline of organization and principles. 7. But, following his doctrine, Anzilotti criticized the French for those Work was now undertaken to draft a detailed blueprint for international provisions of the project foreseeing the constitution of an international organization. Using a draft prepared largely by Philip Baker as a base, armed force for the execution of eventual military measures against the the British section had a plan ready for printing on 16 January. This plan defaulting State: he considered very difficult to realize it and not strictly was forwarded to President Wilson on 19 January and, in a slightly revised necessary when the States had the conviction to act in the domain of the version, served as a basis for exchange with the Americans. Society provisions. George W. Egerton, Great Britain and the Creation of the League of Nations. 8. But with the fundamental consequence that the Member- Strategy, Politics and International Organization, 1914-1919, London, Scolar countries must have not resorted to arms against that Part following the Press, 1979, p. 115. recommendation. 9. David Hunter Miller, “Draft Scheme for the Constitution of And Egerton himself, asked in his book: “Can we accept the assertion the Society of Nations, Annex 3 to Minutes of the Commission on of Lloyd George that he and his government were consistent in their the League of Nations First Meeting”, in Drafting the Covenant, New devotion to the league and entitled the major credit for its creation? York-London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928, Vol. 2, pp. 246-255; Italian (Ibidem, “Introduction,” p.xi.). version in D.H. Miller, op. Cit., Vol. 2, pp. 539-547; English version also available in League of Nations Archives (, UN seat), “Paris Peace According to the historian Zara Steiner: Conference, 1919, Commission on the League of Nations”, Box. R 1568, The League of Nations was, in the words of its most tireless champion, Document 40/340/293, pp. 12-18; Original Italian version in League of Lord Robert Cecil, ‘a great experiment’. President Wilson’s creation injected Nations Archives, “Schema di Atto Generale per costituire la Società a new multinational dimension into the traditional modes of diplomatic delle Nazioni”, Shepardson Private Papers, Box 257, Files 16-27. negotiation. 10. The Preamble read: Zara Steiner, The Lights That Failed, Oxford, Oxford University Press, The President of the United States of America, the President 2005, p. 349. of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, His Majesty the King of Italy, and His Majesty the And again, in the description of the journalist and historian Elmer Emperor of Japan, animated by a common desire to secure a stable Bendiner: peace and friendly co-operation between all States, to enforce a more When Miller arrived at the Colonel’s suite proudly bearing printed copies rigorous observance of justice and equity between them, and to provide of Wilson’s third and latest draft of the Covenant, the Colonel informed the best means of promoting their common interests, duly invite all him that they had changed their minds the night before and were going to use those States taking part in the Conference assembled in Paris, in the draft in which Miller himself had reconciled Wilson’s thinking with that January 1919, to form themselves for the above purposes into a of the British. No one had told Miller, and now he had to scurry to have ‘Society of Nations’ […]. enough copies made up for the delegates. When the copies were distributed, Wilson announced that the draft 11. This is the exact wording of Article 5 (with regard to the

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 16 composition of the Council): any meeting will be binding on a State which was not invited to be A Council, composed of a representative of each of the five Great represented at the meeting. Powers mentioned in the preamble as promoters of the scheme and Such meetings will be held at whatever place may be decided on, or, of four representatives of the other Contracting States, nominated failing any such decision, at the capital of the League, and any matter by each successive Conference, together with an equal number of affecting the interests of the League, or relating to matters within its supplementary members chosen by the same methods as deputies for sphere of action or likely to affect the peace of the world, may be dealt any representatives prevented from attending, shall meet at least once with. a year, or whenever circumstances demand it, to deal with matters of The Hurst-Miller Draft was Annex 1 to the First Meeting of the common interest or requiring immediate action […]. Commission on the League of Nations, while the Draft Scheme for 12. In fact, it is possible to quote Article 3 on the Executive Council the Constitution of the Society of Nations (Italian Draft Proposal) was of the Hurst-Miller Draft: the document, written by David Hunter Miller Annex 3. This means that on February 3, 1919, the formula presented by (American legal adviser) and Cecil Hurst (British legal adviser), base of the Anglo-Americans to compose the Executive Council was different the negotiations occurred in the Commission on the League of Nations from the Italian one; the latter yet prevailed in the final version of the to construct the Covenant: Covenant due to the battle conducted by the Small countries (particularly The representatives of the States, members of the League directly Brazil, Serbia, Greece, Belgium, China), supported by Italy. affected by matters within the sphere of action of the League, will meet as an Executive Council from time to time as occasion may require. David Hunter Miller, “Draft Covenant [Hurst-Miller Draft], Annex 1 to The United States of America, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Minutes of the Commission on the League of Nations First Meeting”, Japan shall be deemed to be directly affected by all matters within in Drafting the Covenant, New York-London, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928, the sphere of action of the League. Invitations will be sent to any Vol. 2, p. 231-237. Power whose interests are directly affected, and no decision taken at

C-SPAN CLASSROOM Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was the peace agreement signed after World War I on June 28th, 1919. The treaty was negotiated by the victors of World War I with little input from Germany. The final treaty redrew the boundaries of Europe and forced Germany to pay reparations. The decisions made at Versailles had a significant impact on the events leading up to World War II and led to Germany’s resentment of other European powers. Aspects of this treaty set the stage for Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the start of World War II. Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson helped draft the treaty and brought his Fourteen Points to the table, the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the treaty. Although the treaty had many failings, it did create the League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations. The failure of the Treaty of Versailles also provided lessons that the British and American governments used when negotiating peace after World War II. Video Clip One: Explanation of World War I. www.c-span.org/video/?c4677141/explanation- world-war Video Clip Two: Woodrow Wilson During the Treaty of Versailles. www.c-span.org/ video/?c4677101/woodrow-wilson-treaty-versailles Video Clip Three: The Signing of the Treaty of Versailles. www.c-span.org/video/?c4677150/ signing-treaty-versailles Video Clip Four: Wilson’s Fourteen Points. www.c-span.org/video/?c4677154/wilsons-14- points Video Clip Five: The Impact of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. www.c-span.org/ video/?c4677178/impact-world-war-treaty-versailles Video Clip Six: Flaws in the Treaty of Versailles. www.c-span.org/video/?c4760265/flaws- treaty-versailles C-SPAN Classroom is a free membership service for social studies teachers. Its mission is to enhance the teaching of social studies through C-SPAN’s primary source programming and websites.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 17 GLOBAL FEMINISTS AND THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE: A Historical and Teaching Note Mona L. Siegel | California State University, Sacramento | [email protected]

and internationalists, reformers and justice, and they claimed democracy Imagine the Paris Peace Conference. pacifists captured global headlines as the birthright of all citizens. The No matter what picture this watershed repeatedly in 1919. Their activism, peacemakers ignored these women at event in global history brings to as I demonstrate in my book Peace their peril, and the world has paid the mind, I am fairly confident that the on Our Terms, transformed women’s price ever since. “When I hear that mental image you just composed is rights into a global rallying cry, laying women are unfit to be diplomats,” one peopled entirely by men. Perhaps it the groundwork for international and feminist activist of 1919 would later features British Prime Minister David transnational movements for gender reflect, “I wonder by what standards Lloyd George, French Prime Minister equality that continue to reverberate of duplicity and frivolity they could Georges Clémenceau, and American right up to the present day.1 possibly prove themselves inferior to President Woodrow Wilson in their top Integrating these women’s voices the men who represented the victors at hats and overcoats striding confidently into our textbooks and our classrooms Versailles.”2 down the streets of Paris. Maybe it is is not just a matter of restoring women One does not need to dig terribly an image of Emir Feisal I, adorned in to their rightful place in history. It deep to find historical evidence of the traditional keffiyeh headdress, prepared is a necessary precondition to fully intense battle waged by women for to make a stand for Arab self-rule in equal rights at the time of the the Levant. Possibly, it brings to mind Paris Peace Conference. It is a Marquis Saionji Kinmochi and the research challenge that can easily Japanese delegation (shown to the be undertaken by anyone with right), eager to expand their country’s access to the New York Times influence in the Pacific and to challenge Historical Database. A search racial discrimination against Japanese for news items featuring the citizens abroad. A simple internet words “women” and “peace” search turns up all of these images, in the weeks following the awash in a digital sea of black and white armistice of November 1918, photographs of men in starched collars for example, turns up several and neckties descending on Paris to articles including one titled, remake the world. “Women at the Peace Table.” It is ironic that women are Scarcely a week after World War completely absent from this virtual Japanese delegates (standing, L-R) Ijuin Hikokichi I had ended, the article recounts, montage of the Peace Conference, for and Matsui Keishirō and (seated, L-R) Baron the National American Woman they were far from invisible in 1919. Makino Nobuaki, Prince Saionji Kinmochi, and Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Women could be found in Paris lobbying Viscount Chinda Sutemi. Source: United States Library passed a resolution requesting for equal rights in drawing rooms of of Congress. that President Woodrow Wilson the peace delegates, demonstrating for appoint one or more women to self-determination on the streets of understanding the peacemakers’ failure serve on the United States’ delegation Cairo and Beijing, joining with former to fulfill their single most important to the Peace Conference. “We urge him enemies to condemn the Versailles mandate in 1919: establishing to select women,” American suffragists Treaty in , and demanding conditions of global security that could said, “who may be relied on to uphold economic justice for women workers in foster peaceful relations and prevent free representative institutions, based Washington, D.C. The female activists the reoccurrence of a cataclysmic world upon the will of all the people in who stepped onto the international war. In 1919, female activists boldly every land in which independence is stage in 1919 hailed from four different insisted that a lasting peace could not established, in order that democratic continents. They included white women be built by one half of humanity to institutions may make an end of war.”3 and women of color, women steeped the exclusion of the other. Where male In 1917, when President Wilson led in the traditions of nearly all of the statesmen and colonial nationalists the United States into World War I, major world religions, women raised lined up to demand national self- he famously declared, “The world in poverty as well as those privileged determination, these women cried must be made safe for democracy.” with wealth and titles, women happily out for a peace settlement that would For democracy to take hold, these married to supportive husbands and guarantee the rights of individual self- suffragists now implied, women others engaged in life-long, same- determination: the right of all people, would have to be empowered to take sex relationships, women from regardless of their sex, to help shape part in the peace negotiations and be colonizing nations and from among the the laws, policies, and customs that granted the rights and responsibilities colonized. This remarkable group of structure their lives. They proclaimed of full citizenship in a new world feminists and suffragists, nationalists gender equality to be integral to social order. “Never,” reported the NAWSA, World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 18 had their organization “offered any study law at France’s premier university, supporters to protest against the peace suggestions which had received such the Sorbonne. World War I brought terms. Tcheng’s May Fourth activism strong and immediate response as this her back to China, where she recruited in Paris was also covered by the New one for having women represented at Chinese laborers to travel to Europe to York Times.10 The following month, the Peace Conference.”4 aid the Allied war effort.7 unnoticed by the Times, Tcheng would Wilson ignored American A search on the terms “Chinese” play a critical and dramatic role in suffragists’ request for women to “woman” and “1919” in the New York convincing the Chinese chief delegate be seated at the peace table. David Times Historical Database opens a window to boycott the signing ceremony of the Lloyd George was equally deaf to the onto her role in the Peace Conference Treaty of Versailles.11 pleas of British suffragists when they as well. A Times journalist conducted an Although this diplomatic crisis at approached him with the same request. interview with Tcheng in early spring the Peace Conference drew China’s In fact, only one Allied nation invited 1919, as she was passing through the female delegate away from working on to the negotiations chose to appoint a United States on her way to Europe. behalf of feminist goals in 1919, in the woman to its national peace delegation. In its write-up, the Times explained that decades that followed, Soumay Tcheng It is worth asking your students to Soumay Tcheng was headed “to Paris established a reputation as a leading hazard a guess before revealing the to report on the conference for the women’s rights advocate in China. country’s identity, for they are very Chinese papers and act as a propagandist In the mid-1920s she would become likely to be stumped. The country was working to interest the world in China China’s first female lawyer and judge. A China. as a great future power.”8 Although the few years later, she would help draft the Like the United States, China article did not state it to be the case, nation’s first modern civil code, which declared war on the Central Powers in Tcheng also was appointed explicitly to endowed married women with full 1917. The Chinese saw in the conflict a represent Chinese women in the Peace legal capacity, allowed them free choice chance for their country to restore its Conference. in selection of a marriage partner, and status as a major power and begin to When she first arrived back in codified their right to control their shed the shackles of the unequal treaties Paris in April 1919, French and British own property.12 In the 1920s, she also that had left it beholden to Western and papers reported that Soumay Tcheng collaborated repeatedly with Western Japanese imperial powers by the end had returned to the French capital to feminists, particularly with French of the nineteenth century. China was collaborate with Western feminists.9 women who played their own out- far from politically unified sized role in championing in 1919, with a central women’s rights in 1919 at government in Beijing the Peace Conference. warding off challenges The Allied leaders’ from both regional resistance to seating a warlords and the southern- woman at the peace table based Nationalist Party did not silence Western (Guomindang) for territorial suffragists in the aftermath sovereignty. Nevertheless, of the First World War. On opposing factions put aside the contrary, for American their differences so that the and European women who Chinese delegation could had been fighting for the present a united front at rights of political citizenship the Paris Peace Conference. Madame Wei Tao Ming (Tcheng Yu-hsiu, second from right) chats for years, if not decades The Chinese believed the with Mrs. George Bailey Sansom (Lady Katherine Sansom), Madame before the War, the peace appointment of a woman to Henri Bonnet (Hellé Zervoudaki), Madame Andrei Gromyko negotiations offered an their delegation would help (Lydia Dmitrievna Grinevich), and Mrs. Joseph E. Davies (Marjorie unparalleled opportunity Merriweather Post) in a receiving line at a reception celebrating demonstrate their nation’s International Women’s Day (March 1945) at the home of Joseph E. to draw international modernity, progress, and Davies, former United States Ambassador to the Union of Soviet attention to their concerns. thus readiness for the rights Socialist . Source: United States Library of Congress. French feminists, who of full sovereignty. saw preparations for Soumay Tcheng (given name Such plans were quickly derailed, the negotiations unfurling at their Tcheng Yu-hsiu, married name however, when Allied leaders in Paris doorstep, took the lead in this effort, Madame Wei Tao Ming), the woman decided to award Chinese territory convening an Inter-Allied Women’s whom the Chinese chose to represent once controlled by the Germans to Conference, which met in the French their nation in Paris, was only twenty- the Japanese rather than returning it to capital for two months, running from seven years old at the time of the Peace China. This ill-conceived decision set February to April 1919. Traces of their Conference, but by 1919, she already off a wave of mass protests in China, activism can also be found in the pages possessed a remarkable résumé. As a which would soon be immortalized as of the New York Times. In early March, teenager, she had helped bring down the May Fourth Incident, an important the photo section of the paper carried the Qing by smuggling bombs turning point in modern Chinese a picture of a delegation of women into Beijing for Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s history. At the same time in Paris, from the Inter-Allied Conference Revolutionary Alliance. A few years Soumay Tcheng kicked into high gear, after they had secured an appointment later, she moved to Paris and began to helping rally overseas Chinese and their with Woodrow Wilson to demand the World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 19 New York Times, 2 March 1919, Picture Section, page 3 [unnumbered]. a watershed moment in world history and open their eyes to the need for women’s active participation in global peacemaking efforts to come.16

Notes 1. Mona L. Siegel, Peace on Our Terms: The Global Battle for Women’s Rights After the First World War (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming). 2. H. M. Swanwick, I Have Been Young (London: Victor Gollancz LTD, 1935), 323. 3. “Women at Peace Table,” New York Times, November 19, 1918. 4. Ibid. 5. “Women and the Peace Conference,” Common Cause, December 20, 1918. 6. Xu Guoqi, China and the Great War: China’s Pursuit of a New National Identity and Internationalization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). 7. Wei Tao-Ming, My Revolutionary Years: The Autobiography of Madame Wei Tao Ming (New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1943). 8. The article was published several months after the fact. “A Chinese Portia,” New York Times, June 1, 1919. 9. “Mlle. E. Tcheng, féministe chinoise et creation of a Women’s Commission to American, Chinese and the hundreds francophile sincère est arrivé à Paris,” Excelsior, the Peace Conference (see next page). of other feminists who organized, April 7, 1919; “Une jeune révolutionnaire chinoise à la Conférence de la paix,” Le Petit The peacemakers considered and petitioned, and took to the streets Parisien, April 7, 1919, and Andrée Viollis, “Miss then rejected this request, choosing in 1919 emerged frustrated with Cheng of China, What Her Country Wants, A instead to invite women’s delegations global statesmen’s stubborn refusal to Vicious Advocate,” Daily Mail, April 16, 1919. to address both the League of consider most of their demands when 10. “Chinese to Appeal to American Nations Commission and the Labor crafting the peace terms. The women Senate,” New York Times, May 11, 1919. 11. Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Commission to express their interests who seized the global stage after World Self-Determination and the International Origins of and demands. The New York Times War I advocated a wide range of issues Colonial Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University reported on the first of these meetings, including national self-determination Press, 2007), 177-196. describing the League of Nations for colonized peoples, racial justice 12. Chapter five of Peace on Our Terms Commissioners’ willingness to listen to for people of color, redistribution of recounts Soumay Tcheng’s remarkable role in this singular moment in Chinese and the concerns of the feminist delegation global food and resources, protection diplomatic history. On Tcheng’s role in drafting as “one of the greatest compliments of women from rape and deportation in China’s Republican Civil Code, see Margaret ever paid to women.”13 Patronizing wartime, economic equality for working Kuo, Intolerable Cruelty: Marriage, Law, and language notwithstanding, thanks to women, and female enfranchisement Society in Early Twentieth-Century China (Lanham: women’s official appearances before in the nations of the world. All told, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012), esp. 12, 68, and 145-6. these commissions, as well as to women insisted that lasting peace 13. “Women’s Petitions to League their carefully coordinated lobbying could only be realized if it secured the Framers,” New York Times, April 13 1919. This campaign behind the scenes, male fundamental rights of people, not just unsigned article was written by Constance peacemakers agreed to assert language nations, to sovereignty and security.15 Drexel, a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in the Treaty of Versailles specifying Their arguments largely fell on deaf and a feminist activist in Paris herself in 1919. See Peace on Our Terms, chapters 1 and 4. that women would be able to participate ears in 1919 but today international 14. Chapters 1 and 6 in Peace on Our Terms in the League of Nations on equal relations scholars and global policy discuss the Inter-Allied Women’s Conference terms with men and encouraging the makers have begun to place many of and women’s labor internationalism in 1919. appointment of female advisors to them back on the table. Similarly, they On the former, see also Karen Offen, Debating the International Labor Organization, argue that the “diverse, equal, and the Woman Question in the (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, which would be set up in Washington, meaningful participation of women 2018), 596-601. On the latter, see Dorothy D.C. later that year. Both were notable in peace processes, reconciliation Sue Cobble, “A ‘Higher Standard of Life for achievements with lasting significance. processes [and] post-conflict the World’: U.S. Labor Women’s Reform, In the male-dominated world of reconstruction” is one of the surest Internationalism, and the Legacies of 1919,” international relations, this small means of creating and safeguarding Journal of American History (March 2014): 1052- 1085. On the League of Nations: Michael opening would afford women their conditions that promote lasting peace. Marbeau, “ Les femmes et la SDN (1919- most effective means of legitimizing By teaching our students about the 1945): Genève, la clé de l’égalité?” in Femmes et international female policy-making century-long history of women’s relations internationales au xxe siècle, ed. Jean-Marc expertise in the interwar decades.14 diplomacy and peace activism, we can Delaunay and Yves Denéchère (Paris: Presses In most ways, however, French, both deepen their understanding of Sorbonne nouvelle, 2006), 163-186. 15. The New York Times covered white, World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 20 Western women’s activism far more than it did that of foreign women or women of color. For other articles from 1919, see for example, “Women’s Conference Will Fight Treaty,” New York Times, May 20, 1919, and “Aid for Working Mothers. Women’s Labor Congress Debates Schemes for Maternity Benefits, New York Times, November 5, 1919. 16. “Diverse, equal, and meaningful”: UN Women, “Women, peace, and security experts look ahead to 2020,” March 18, 2019, at http:// www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/3/ news-women-peace-and-security-experts-look- ahead-to-2020, accessed April 7, 2019. See also J. Ann Tickner and Jacqui True, “A Century of International Relations Feminism: From World War I Women’s Peace Pragmatism to the Women, Peace and Security Age,” International Studies Quarterly 62 (2018): 221-33 and Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa, “Women Waging Peace.” Foreign Policy, no. 124 (May-June 2001): 38-47. UN Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in October 2000 specifically calls for members states in the United Nations and the UN Secretary-General to expand the role of women in peace negotiations and conflict resolution and to incorporate gender perspectives into peacekeeping operations. See https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/ UNDOC/GEN/N00/720/18/PDF/N0072018. pdf?OpenElement, accessed April 7, 2019.

A Gathering of Minds Representatives from several nations gathered in Paris to discuss peace, independence, and new global realities following the end of First World War. Shown here are (Right) Croatian politician Ante Trumbic with Serbian leaders Nikola Pasic, Milenko Radomar Vesnic, and Ivan Zolger; and (Below) Sir Joseph George Ward, who served as 17th Prime Minister of New Zealand with William Ferguson Massey who served as the 19th Prime Minister of New Zealand. Source: United States Library of Congress.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 21 Setting the Stage: The Global Impact of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

Linda Black | Stephen F. Austin State University | [email protected]

Did the peace settlement at the end of World War I eventually help cause World War II, as some texts and historians assert? How did the interaction of the leaders at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference as well as those not invited to the Peace Conference play out on the world stage in years to come? Were the ideals advertised in The Fourteen Points actually carried out in the peace treaties and settlements? Did the lessons learned from the peace settlements after World War I actually influence the peace settlement after World War II?Did the 1919 Paris Peace Conference actually result in peace? These historical questions and claims can be used to lead students into a structured inquiry lesson where they analyze sources and make informed judgments about historical people and events. While lecture and educator presentation still remain the dominant classroom format in many secondary and higher education history classrooms, the use of different levels of inquiry methodology is growing, particularly with support of organizations such as The College Board, the World History Association, the American Historical Association, and the National Council for the Social Studies. The peace settlement at the end of World War I, including the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles and subsequent treaties, had a significant impact on the rest of twentieth-century politics and foreign affairs. However, this impact was focused not just on Western Europe and the United States as detailed in many textbooks, but extended globally by forming the basis for long-term issues and conflicts that would involve regions and countries in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific for years to come. Factoring in the economic, social, and political consequences of the Great Depression as well as the actions of individual players provides students with a more complex picture of historical events and causation than typically found in a secondary text. This lesson asks students to read and analyze both secondary sources and excerpts from historical documents, the Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles, from the point of view of a particular non-Western country and leader, and to then make judgments on the impact of the peace agreement on that particular country/region. The objectives of this lesson are to increase students’ ability to: • Analyze how historical events and developments are shaped by unique circumstances of time and place • Analyze complex and interacting factors that influence the perspectives of people during different historical eras • Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past • Integrate evidence from multiple relevant sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past **(Taken from the College, Career, and Civic Life [C3] Framework for Social Studies State Standards)

Key Vocabulary sovereignty; autonomous; Mandate system; May 4th Movement; covenant Lesson Sequence 1. Divide the class into six-eight groups of 3-5 students. Each group will represent one of the following countries/ regions and its leaders: a. Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh. (Initial background research: Using outside sources, describe Ho Chi Minh’s relationship with Woodrow Wilson.) b. China and Mao Zedong. (Initial background research: Using outside sources, describe the causes of the May 4 Movement.) Students need Articles 156-158 of the Treaty of Versailles at http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/ versailles.html. c. Japan. (Initial background research: Using outside sources, describe the Racial Equality Proposal.) Students need Articles 156-158 of the Treaty of Versailles at http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html. d. Southwest Asia (Middle East) region containing the countries of Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. (Initial background research: Define and explain the Mandate System and its impact on this area. Students need Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations established as a result of the Treaty. Can be found at: www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations).

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 22 e. Palestine. (Initial background research: What was the Balfour Declaration?) Students need Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations established as a result of the Treaty. Can be found at: www.britannica.com/ topic/mandate-League-of-Nations f. India and Mahatma Gandhi. (Initial background research: What was India’s relationship with Britain before and after the war? What was Gandhi’s role as a result of the peace settlement?) g. Turkey, Mustafa Kemal. (Initial background research: What was the role of the Kurdish people?) h. People in German East Africa (Tanzania), West Africa, & Central Africa (Initial background research: Were there nationalist groups or leaders before, during, or after the war that were affected by the peace settlement?) * Add additional countries such as Korea or South Africa if needed to accommodate larger class size. 2. Provide each student with a copy of the Fourteen Points (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1918wilson.html) and certain articles in the Treaty of Versailles at (http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html) to read and analyze. 3. Group members then research the answers to the following questions based on the point of view of their country/ leader. 4. All groups must answer the following questions for their country based on reading their secondary text (if provided), and then copies of The Fourteen Points and certain sections or articles in the Treaty of Versailles and subsequent treaties, and other sources as indicated by their instructor: a. What was your country’s role in World War I? b. What was your country or leader’s role in the peace negotiations at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference? c. What did your country and leader expect from the peace settlement based on the ideas in the Fourteen Points? d. How did the actual peace settlement (Treaty of Versailles and subsequent Covenant and treaties) impact your country/region? e. What was the immediate reaction of your country or leader to the decisions of the actual peace settlement? f. What was the long-term impact of the Treaty’s provisions on your country? g. Were there any unintended consequences of the peace settlement on your country or on movements or organizations within your country? Explain h. Final Essential Question: Based on your research, did the 1919 Paris Peace Conference actually promote peace in your region or country? 5. Each group will present their findings about the effect of the peace settlement on their country/region/people following World War I, including the answers to all questions, identification of important people and terms, and the use of maps to illustrate significant geographic changes pre- and post-war peace settlement.

REFERENCES AND WEBSITES http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html. Contains the entire Treaty of Versailles www.britannica.com/topic/mandate-League-of-Nations. Encyclopedia site with copies of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations which explains the actions of the Allies in creating the mandate system. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp. Original Covenant of the League of Nations document with all amendments. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1918wilson.html. Educational website that includes copies of historical documents from world history, including the Fourteen Points by President Woodrow Wilson.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 23 2018 WHA Teaching Prize Winner The Struggle for Freedom and Equality is World Wide: The Cold War, Civil Rights and Decolonization

Gustavo Carrera | Shore Country Day School (MA) | [email protected]

Unit title: “The Struggle for Freedom and Equality is World Wide: The Cold War, Civil Rights and Decolonization”

Introduction

1. For whom is the lesson intended? This unit and supporting materials are intended for high school juniors enrolled in the course The United States in the Modern World II (USMW II). The course is the second part of a two-year sequence that explores the global dimensions of American history in the period that started in 1865 and ends with the 1992 election. Traditional high school U.S. History courses, by their very nature, focus on our nation’s unique qualities; they often describe our country’s special place in the world and often miss important aspects of our national experience by focusing on domestic explanations for phenomena that are global in nature. The course was created, in part, as a response to the “La Pietra Report” that calls for the internationalization of American history in a global age. This course’s central narrative describes the processes by means of which the globe has become increasingly interdependent and on America’s role in shaping those processes as well as being shaped by them. The course aims at transcending those confines and illuminating American history with a global perspective. And no unit better exemplifies what is gained by providing a global light to national processes than a unit that connects the Civil Rights movement and African decolonization within the context of the Cold War.

2. What is the purpose of the lesson? To accomplish the internationalization of American history while still providing a chronologically- organized narrative of the nation’s history, the course explores many themes in chronologically organized units. One of those themes that permeates the course is an exploration of evolving discourses on race another a discussion of foreign policy. The materials of the course are organized into a series of unit case studies one of which explores the intersections between Cold War policies, African decolonization, and the American Civil Rights movement. Without diminishing the importance of individuals who took heroic stances against segregation and colonialism, this unit seeks to provide complexity to narratives about the Civil Rights movement. I enjoy reading books like The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks to my six-year-old where we learn that, through mobilization, courageous individuals challenge a system of oppression and overcome.1 These stories are of great value as they promote civic responsibility, advocacy, empathy, and important values such as justice and prudence. But in high school, we often add little complexity to this story. Perhaps students gain a better understanding of the motivations of Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Stokley Carmichael. And although they were individuals highly engaged with the world at large, textbooks often present them as profoundly disconnected from the wider world. Similarly, high school and college textbooks present the Civil Rights movement in similar terms as in the Youngest Marcher; American Civil Rights activists are represented as disconnected from global processes and actors. Through this lens, the Civil Rights struggle is one more example of the unique or exceptional American story. The Cold War objectives of American foreign policymakers are not mentioned as motivators for unprecedented domestic policy changes, changes that started immediately after World War II. If U.S. history textbooks mention African independence movements at all, it is only within the chapters dedicated to the Cold War—connections between independence movements and Civil Rights are usually not drawn. Thus, the global leadership role that African American Civil Rights activists played as advocates for African decolonization and independence is also occluded in such textbook narratives. Similarly, World History World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 24 textbooks usually make no mention of American Civil Rights. By approaching the Cold War, Civil Rights, and the African struggle for independence as three discreet processes students miss significant opportunities to make connections and give them texture and complexity. Advanced high school students should gain a more complex and nuanced understanding of this era. Civil rights leaders were far more aware of the significance of Cold War imperatives for the Civil Rights struggle for racial and social justice. Civil rights leaders also understood their struggle as part of a larger struggle for liberation: “The Struggle for Freedom and Equality is world wide.”2 On the other side of the Atlantic, independence leaders in Africa understood America and its foreign policy, at least in part, through the lens of segregation and the Civil Rights struggle; while America’s Soviet adversaries exploited those perceptions to their advantage. A community, a community of Civil Rights and anti-colonial advocates bound by ideas and ideals emerged across the Atlantic. Also, there is a political perspective students need to take into account. Not only did American governing coalitions have to struggle in balancing domestic political coalitions, but they also had to focus on the impact that domestic policies had on foreign policy and foreign alliances. Unsurprisingly in this era characterized by a global struggle for power, American governing elites progressively provided for the rights of America’s black citizens. To gain a more complex understanding of the era, students should also look into majority supporters and opponents of the Civil Rights and anti-colonial movements. By providing a more unified perspective on these events, students gain a more complex understanding of all these processes. Civil Rights emerge as a field of controversy and propaganda in the Cold War, and foreign policy goals emerge as key motivators behind the decision-making of Washington policymakers. The African struggle for independence acquires its true importance both internationally and within the U.S. A community of African American and African leaders joined in a struggle for justice and freedom is also brought to light, and African American global leadership is thus recognized. Africa and African independence movements are placed both at the center of the Cold War and the Civil Rights movement which re-valorizes the role of Africa for students. Lastly, an important purpose of the unit is having the students read and analyze primary and secondary sources writing arguments using that evidence. In addition, students are able to reflect upon the nature of historical inquiry.

3. How does it fit in the curriculum or larger plan? The course is structured around a few themes including race and foreign policy, which include imperialist, anti-imperialism and anti-colonial discourses. Because this is a spring unit, it is one of the units that helps students bring it all those themes together. One of the spines of the course is the theme of foreign policy. There are several units through the Fall and Winter terms. The unit on foreign policy in the period 1890 to 1942 emphasizes the intersection of those discourses with race. In that unit students read excerpts from Michael Hunt’s Ideology and US Foreign Policy.3 In addition, students explore the American and British imperialist discourse as well as a wide variety of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial texts. Amongst these students read: John Marshall “Cherokee Nation v Georgia,” 1831; 1870s-1890s US Imperialism Cartoons; Benjamin Disraeli “The Maintenance of Empire,” 1872; Cecil Rhodes “Confession of Faith,” 1877; Josiah Strong “Our Country,” 1885; Joseph Chamberlain “The Mandate System,” 1892; Jose Marti “Our America,” 1896; Mark Twain “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” 1898; “Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League,” 1898; William McKinley “War Message,” 1898; “Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States,” 1898; Andrew Carnegie “Distant Possessions,” 1899; Benjamin Tillman “Speech On Twain’s To the Person Sitting in Darkness,”1899; Theodore Roosevelt “Expansion and Peace,” 1899; Carl Shurtz “The Policy of Imperialism,” 1899; Rudyard Kipling “The White Man’s Burden” and other poems, 1900; Henry Cabot Lodge “Speech on Imperialism” 1900; Beveridge “Defends American Empire,” 1901; Insular Cases, 1904; The Drago Doctrine, 1902; Ruben Dario “To Roosevelt,” 1904; Vladimir Lenin Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism, 1916; Jose Ingenieros “An Argentine Denunciation of Pan-Americanism,” 1922; Miguel Ugarte “The United States as the New Rome,” 1923; Franklin Delano Roosevelt “Our Foreign Policy,” 1928; “Clark Memorandum,” 1930; Ho Chi Minh “Founding of Communist Party,” 1930; Pedro Campos “Puerto Rican Nationalism,” 1936; “Government of India Act,” 1935; Mahatma Gandhi “Quit India Speech,” 1942; Jinnah “Bengal Speech,” 1942. The course explores the development of segregation throughout the twentieth century. Starting with the Plessy decision, and then paying special attention to residential segregation and income discrimination; World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 25 since last year, much of this analysis is derivative of the work in The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.4 By the time students arrive to this spring unit, they had ample opportunity to explore the system of legally imposed segregation both in the American north and south. As part of the winter unit, “Jim Crow, north and south” students read: 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution; Andrew Johnson “Veto of the Civil Rights Bill,” 1867; Thaddeus Stevens “Relative to Damages to Loyal Men, and for Other Purposes,” 1872; Frederick Douglass “Self-Made Men,” 1874; S. Caine “All we Ask is Equal Laws,” 1876; Frederick Douglass “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln,” 1893; Ida B. Wells “Our Day,” 1894; William Graham Sumner, “The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over,” 1895; Booker T Washington “Atlanta Exposition Address,”1896; “Plessy v. Ferguson,” 1898; Chesnutt “Sheriff ’s Children,” W.E.B. Du Bois “The Talented Tenth,” 1903; 1910-20 selected Harlem Renaissance poems; “Buchanan v. Warley,” 1917; Johnson “Negro Housing,” 1932. They have also watched D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Birth of a Nation, and Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 Within Our Gates. A few HOLC redlining maps the communities in which they live in the Boston area in addition to excerpts from The Color of Law. Finally, “The Struggle for Freedom and Equality is World Wide: The Cold War, Civil Rights, and Decolonization” is immediately preceded by a unit on the Cold War that emphasizes the American and Soviet approach to anti-colonialism, national liberation and revolutionary movements from across the global south. The main reading of this unit are experts from Odd Arne Westad’s Global Cold War that dwell on the African decolonization that include Chapter 6 “The Crisis of Decolonization.”5 Students also read excerpts from Walter LaFeber The American Age. The sources students read look at imperialist, anti- imperialist, as well as Soviet and American. Some of these are: “The Atlantic Charter,” 1941; Sumner Welles, “Memorial Day Address,” 1942; “Declaration of Liberated Europe,” 1945; Harry Truman “Foreign Policy Principles,” 1945; Winston Churchill “The Iron Curtain,” 1946; “Stalin’s Reply to Churchill,” 1946; Clark Clifford “Memorandum to President Truman,” 1946; Ho Chi Minh “Letter to President Harry Truman,” 1946; George Kennan “Long Telegram,” 1946; Nikolai Novikov, “Telegram,” 1947; Walter Lippmann Cold War, 1947; “Truman Doctrine,” 1947; “Rio Treaty,” 1947; “Marshall Plan Speech,” 1947; “NSC-68,” 1950; Robert Taft “Foreign Policy,” 1951; Dwight D Eisenhower “Atoms for Peace,” 1953; “Doolittle Report,” 1954; “CIA memo on NSC 144 1,” 1954; Sukarno “Opening of the Bandung Conference,” 1955; “Congress Studies the Eisenhower Doctrine,” 1957; Abdel Nasser “The philosophy of the Revolution,” 1959; WW Rostow “Stages of Economic Development,” 1960; Khrushchev “Speech on Cuba ,”1960; “NSC-52,” 1961; “Alliance for Progress,” 1961; Khrushchev “Secret Speech on the Berlin Crisis,” 1961; John F. Kennedy “American University Commencement Address,” 1963; John Fitzgerald Kennedy “Berlin Speech,” 1963; Che Guevara “UN Speech,” 1964; Lyndon Banes Johnson “Peace Without Conquest,” 1965; Robert McNamara “on Wars on National Liberation,” 1965; J William Fulbright “Intervention in the Dominican Republic.” 1965. Thus by the time students reach the unit “The Struggle for Freedom and Equality is World Wide:” The Cold War, Civil Rights, and Decolonization,” students are prepared to discuss the post-World War II environment both from multiple domestic and international perspectives. This unit will help students pull all those threads together and render their discussions more complex.

4. What are the lessons links to current research? No single work of academic scholarship inspired this assignment; this unit has evolved only slowly and over many iterations. On its first iteration, the unit was just a two-day assignment inspired by Carol Anderson’s “International Conscience, the Cold War, and Apartheid” published in the Journal of World History in 2008. This first version of the unit superficially touched upon the NAACP, American foreign policy, and the struggle for the liberation of South West Africa, and America’s policy towards the Apartheid regime as part of a larger Cold War unit. From there, however, I explored works such as Thomas Borstelmann’s The Cold War and the Color Line7 and Mary Dudziak article “Brown as a Cold War case”8 and her book Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.9 The weight of the evidence presented in these articles first led me to put together a few more assignments about the role that Cold War foreign policy imperatives played a role in Brown. However, building even these assignments presented significant difficulties. As a full-time teacher, many of the sources are not readily available; it is an interesting note that in 2012, when I first looked for some of the documents used by Dudziak including briefs in the Brown case could not be easily found a special request had to be sent to the national archives. Materials were only obtained after the school librarian took it upon herself to search them for me. This difficulty led me to think that this would be a good assignment to ask World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 26 students to reflect upon the narrative construct of Civil Rights in the U.S. and challenge this hegemonic perspective. By its third iteration, the assignment had become a unit, and one of its main purposes was that of making students reflect upon the nature of history as social construct. I then decided then that the unit had to incorporate African independence movements. While conceptually the unit then acquired almost its final shape, collecting sources was done only slowly and with difficulty as many sources are not available in translation; many other materials are not available in edited versions and had to be edited and re-edited to give students a sense of complexity, clarity, while making these sources of a length appropriate for high-school-age students. In short, although I started working on this unit many years ago it was only in the fall of 2015 that I finished editing most of the sources I need to fully incorporate the African independence movement to the unit. The article “Casting a Badge of Inferiority Beneath Black Peoples’ Feet: Archiving and Reading the African Past, Present, and Future in World History,”10 where Mamadou Diouf and Jinny Prais expand on John Thornton’s ideas about the Black Atlantic to conceptualize a “community of intellectuals and activists”11 as early as the nineteenth century, led me to conceptualize not merely a sequence of readings on Cold War, Civil Rights and Anti-Colonial discourses but a whole set of questions that would help the students tie them together. Finally, this year my reading of the Journal of World History article “Aliens in their Native Lands,”12 inspired me to start creating a new unit that connected the Chicano movement into the Cold War and Civil Rights assignments. This article further helped me bridge the gap between Civil Rights and Independence movements by looking at the ideas exposed by various groups and proposing points of conversion and areas of divergence. This is an area that I will continue to explore.

Procedures for implementation

1. What preparatory work is assigned? 2. How does the lesson work? (procedure, number of sessions, etc.) Day 1 Preparatory Homework: the majority opinion in 1954 Brown v Board of Education. Day 1: We start the unit by having the students tell us what they know about Civil Rights to establish a baseline of knowledge often mired with misconceptions. We even discuss the possible motivations of the Supreme Court when deciding. We then discuss the narrative they have formed in elementary social studies courses. We then proceed to analyze the first episode ofEyes on the Prize: “Awakenings” 1954-56 (all episodes of Eyes are tightly edited to allow for discussion). In that episode of this excellent award- winning documentary, we explore the narrative of Civil Rights students are familiar with. We discuss how this narrative confirms and expands their preconceived ideas about the Civil Rights movement.

Day 2 Preparatory Homework: 1949 “Soviet Racial Propaganda,” 1952 Jomo Kenyatta “Speech”, 1952 Acheson “Letter to the Court re Brown v board,” 1956 “MPLA,” 1953 W.E.B. DuBois “Negroes and the Crisis of Capitalism in the United States,” 1954 “Algeria FNL Proclamation,” Review previous notes on Global Cold War chapters 5 and 6. Day 2: Discussion of documents (possible role of the Cold War had in Court Decision). Day 3 Preparatory Homework: 1956 “Southern Manifesto on Integration,” 1957 Brownell “Protecting Civil Rights,” 1957 Dwight Eisenhower “Letter to Sweede, “1957 “Transcript Wallace interview with Eastland.” Day 3: Discussion of documents highlights tensions within governing coalitions in the US and how to approach both Civil Rights which was portrayed as “subversive.” In addition, excerpts of episodes 2 and 3 of Eyes, “Fighting Back” 1957-62 / “Ain’t Scared of Your Jails” 1960-61. Day 4 Preparatory Homework: 1958 Patrice Lumumba “Speech at Accra,” 1959 “Accra Conference, Houser report,” 1960 Lumumba “Speech at the Proclamation of Independence of Congo,” 1962 “American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa,” 1962 Julius Nyerere “Ujamaa Speech.”

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 27 Day 4: Discussion of documents especial attention to pan-Africanism in Houser report and the approach to anti-colonialism of African American leaders. We watch the excerpts of episodes 4 of Eyes, “No Easy Walk” 1961-63. Day 5 Preparatory Homework: 1960 Macmillan “Winds of Change Speech,” 1960 Verwoerd “Response Winds of Change Speech,” 1961 JFK “Special Message.” Day 5: Discussion of documents emphasizing transformation. Day 6 Preparatory Homework: 1961 Albert Lutuli “Nobel Prize speech,” 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham City Jail,” 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. “Speech at the Washington Monument.” Review Gandhi. Day 6: Discussion of documents especially comparison. Excerpts of episode 5 of Eyes “Mississippi, is this America?” (1963-1965). Day 7 Preparatory Homework: 1962 Busia “Independence Speech,” 1962 JFK “Executive Order 11063— Equal Opportunity in Housing,” 1963 JFK “Moral Crisis Speech,” 1963 Robert Kennedy “on Civil Rights and Cold War,” 1964 G. Wallace “The Civil Rights Movement.” Day 7: Discussion of various approaches to African independence and understanding the Kennedys.

Day 8 Preparatory Homework: 1965 LB Johnson “Howard University Speech,” 1964 “Civil Rights Act,” 1965 “Voting Rights Act.” Day 8: Discussion of LBJ and the legal transformations. Excerpts of episode 6 of Eyes, “Bridge to Freedom” 1965. Day 9 Preparatory Homework: 1964 Malcolm X “The Ballot or the Bullet,” 1964 Nelson Mandela “I am Prepared to Die.” Day 9: Discussion of Mandela and Malcolm X with an eye towards comparison. Excerpts of episode 7 of Eyes, “The Time Has Come” 1964-66. Day 10 Preparatory Homework: 1964 “Stevenson’s U.N. Speech,” 1965 Malcolm X “The Rape of Congo,” 1966 LBJ “Organization of African Unity,” review WW Rostow, McNamara, and Fulbright. Day 10: Discussion of the Congo events through different lenses especially that of Malcolm X. Day 11 Preparatory Homework: 1966 Black “Black Panther Party Platform,” 1966 Stokely Carmichael “Black Power,” 1968 Charles Hamilton “Black Power,” 1969 “ANC Strategy and Tactics.” Day 11: How are the strategies of Civil Rights and anti-Apartheid activists changing? Excerpts of episode 9 of Eyes, “Power!” 1966-68. Day 12 Preparatory Homework: 1966 R. F. Kennedy “South Africa Speech,” 1967 Martin Luther King “A Time to Break Silence,” 1985 Pieter Botha “speech.” Day 12: Comparison with Macmillan and Verwoerd response. Comparison with RFK’s previous position on Civil Rights. What are the alternatives? Day 13 Preparatory Homework: 1969 Gonzales “What Political Road for the Chicano Movement,” 1969 “Plan de Santa Barbara”, 1972 Acuna “Preface” Occupied America. Review Campos and Marcantonio. Day 13: Discussion of documents: What is internal colonialism? Days 14-18: Assessment

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 28 3. How do I know the students got it? The first time I run this assignment, it was much shorter and the students drew fewer conclusions from the readings. I have now run the assignment 4 or 5 times adding content based on the scholarship I read and it has become ever more successful. This assignment, more than any before in the course, accomplishes the goal of breaking down the barriers of the national narrative. Students can explore the connections between various thinkers and activists and become quite familiar with analysis and discussion of complex primary sources. However, this is a high-level assignment meant for our more sophisticated students thus we spend much time checking not only on understanding (that they got it) but also on metacognition (a reflection on their own understanding). Daily round table discussions reveal student understanding of the materials. But the final assessment helps students checking their understanding and challenges their preconceptions. Students need to accomplish four tasks. The first three are formative assessments to help students go back review and discuss misinterpretations. It is common for students to misinterpret Malcolm X, for instance. Thus the formative assessments help students clarify their own ideas before moving to the final reflections. The third assessment is followed by reading and discussing selected passages of the sources. The final assessment is a series of questions to help students reflect upon their own journey as students. First Task: as groups ensure that you have collectively read all the readings in reading groups. Second Task: as groups please answer the following questions in a shared Google doc. Your answers should show quotations and evidence. • Do labels like “Libertarian” “Communist” “Nationalist” have one monolithic meaning defined by the 18-19th century European founders of these schools of thought? How are these labels transformed by the African cultures and societies that embraced them? Explain. • Show specifically how one reading where these labels seem transformed by the context. Explain • One reading where these labels seem to overlap. Explain • What impact has the Cold War has had on the Civil Rights movement use 4-6 documents to show how decision-makers in Washington DC changed their approach to Civil Rights and make connections to the international context. • Using examples from the readings make sure to document spaces where the readings about and independence mirror each other in language or approach.

Third Task: Create a chart or graph on poster board show the points of connection between the Civil Rights and Decolonization movements in Africa. The graph should highlight specific quotations. Is there an “Atlantic community” of Africans and African Americans activists even if this community is a community of ideas? Fourth Task: Answer the following questions: • Coming into this class how did you think the Civil Rights movement had produced change? • Did that idea match the mythology depicted in Eyes on the Prize? • How has a global perspective changed your ideas about the Civil Rights movement? Explain • How important does the African independence movement appear through this lens?

Conclusion

1. Reflections on how it went in your class. (Student work and/or student reflections are encouraged.) What follows are the responses to a survey-style question that asks students to reflect upon their experience as learners in this unit. The prompt asked them: How has a global perspective changed your ideas about the Civil Rights movement? Obviously, I don’t necessarily agree with much in their responses, they are themselves a point of departure for further conversation. Nonetheless, it is clear that this unit has added a more complex and nuanced understanding.

“WWII was presented to the American public as a moral war against oppression and racism, as that was a convenient way to justify shipping vast resources across the Atlantic. This message also primed American citizens to support the civil rights movement after the war. Additionally, the African Independence Movement World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 29 shows that American civil rights leaders did not operate in a vacuum. Movements were beginning across the globe just as they began in America, and the ideals espoused by American activists were not exceptional. “The Cold War tensions also gave white Americans a stake in the Civil Rights Movement, which helps explain some of its success. Bigotry at home hurt the US’s image abroad. By taking a global perspective, one sees the United States was scrambling to assemble allies to help combat the Soviets. Moreover, the US may have been losing initially because the domestic inequities were so apparent.” “Because of the habit of compartmentalizing “black history” and teaching it separately from the rest of American history, I was missing the context that provided many of the motivations both of politicians and of Civil Rights activists themselves.” “The independence movement seems enormous compared to my original knowledge of the movement. ... The words of Martin Luther King Jr. were all I knew for the most part before this unit. The idea of a non- violent revolt had been learned years ago, but I never learned about the origins of non-violence and Gandhi’s influence on that particular movement.”

“National Liberation movements in Africa founded on Stalin’s prediction of world-wide precipitation of revolutions concluding in communists states, created a tension with the capitalist nations that sought to prevent those within their area of influence from being persuaded into this form of government. W.E.B Du Bois text mentions the ability of the Soviet Union to educate its own people; this notion that communist states were a more compelling form of government than capitalist ones, coupled with the growing pressure from African nations—newly liberated from their colonial rulers—for the U.S. to create more equal rights for blacks in government and society, was a significant factor in determining the legislation that was passed in this era. This understanding consequently downplays the significance of the supposed “self-awareness” of Congress and the Supreme Court in rendering separate but equal unconstitutional. The U.S’s inclination to assuage foreign tensions speaks to the interconnectedness and dependency of the U.S. on its foreign relations, a topic which has grown in significance from Hamilton’s original vision through the world wars and to the late 60s.” “A global perspective has not changed my view on the Civil Rights Movement but it did broaden the lens I saw it through…. Even with all of these outside factors I still believe the Civil Rights Movement in America would have happened but I now understand why it happened when it did.”

“A more global perspective on the Civil Rights movement has opened my eyes to all of the factors working in conjunction that led to the development of the movement. Originally, I thought that the Civil Rights movement was almost entirely grounded within the US, but by studying the influences of international imperialism and the Cold War, I have learned how much foreign affairs played into the social and political reforms that came along with the movement. This new perspective has also shown me how the development of more equal laws and the fight against segregation was far more self-serving for US policymakers than I originally thought.” “The global perspective with which we studied the Civil Rights movement completely changed my perspective on it…. I know understand the Civil Rights movement to be part of something larger and much more multifaceted than I initially thought it to be.”

“Global perspective has changed my idea of the Civil Rights movement tremendously. As kids, we always learned about the courage and bravery that African Americans had and how their marches, sit-ins, and boycotts enlightened racist politicians to the unjust social structure in the United States. Learning this perspective since as early as 2nd grade, the idea that the entire Civil Rights movement was only an issue of national importance was ingrained in my mind. I had never thought about relating it to international matters occurring at the same time such as African liberation, the Cold War, anti-colonization sentiments, and Communism. Bringing these topics into the picture completely changed many preconceived ideas that I had about figures typically known for doing good such as John F. Kennedy….Overall, learning about the Civil Rights movement through a global lens opened my eyes.”

2. How might you adapt it to more advanced or lower level students? The process of adapting this unit for higher education would be quite interesting. This already-extensive unit could become a full-fledged term course. The time and length of the readings would have to be expanded for collegiate students. Also, students at that level should also be reading the secondary sources that inspired this unit to challenge the narrative implicit in the assignments. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 30 Since the Fall of 2018, I teach at the Middle School level at the Shore Country Day School. Adapting it to a middle school level would also be challenging and interesting; the most important transformation would be to question the single narrative students are presented with at more elementary school levels. The narratives of Cold War, Civil Rights, and decolonization can’t be told in conjunction, as it would be too complex. The sources would have to be pared down to account for the time dedicated to homework and reading comprehension skills at the Middle School level. The narratives of Civil Rights and decolonization told in isolation provide a great deal texture and detail that helps the students get a sense of the contingency of history to their understanding. This assignment, without creating master narratives, adds to that texture detail and sense of contingency. These three narratives should appear separately but in close succession so that students can uncover connections.

3. What other possible conceptual links do you see? There are three links I would further explore, I would add a further layer of complexity by including Latin American liberation movements. These are areas that need further exploration. Also to add more complexity the unit can be expanded by asking questions about the nature of the Enlightenment and how post-colonial discourses challenged Eurocentric ideas of progress, human nature, and society. Finally, I would like to make connections to current debates about memory and memorialization. Notes

1. Levinson, Cynthia. The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist. Simon and Schuster, 2017. 2. 1962 Preamble Resolutions of the AMERICAN NEGRO LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON AFRICA p. 4. 3. Hunt, Michael H. Ideology and US Foreign Policy. Yale University Press, 2009. 4. Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Liveright Publishing, 2017. 5. Westad, Odd Arne. The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 6. Anderson, Carol. “International Conscience, the Cold War, and Apartheid: The NAACP’s Alliance with the Reverend Michael Scott for South West Africa’s Liberation, 1946–1951.” Journal of World History 19, no. 3 (2008): 297-325. 7. Borstelmann, Thomas. The Cold War and the Color Line. Harvard University Press, 2009. 8. Dudziak, Mary L. “Brown as a Cold War case.” The Journal of American History 91, no. 1 (2004): 32-42. 9. Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton University Press, 2011. 10. Mamadou Diouf and Jinny Prais, “Casting the Badge of Inferiority Beneath Black Peoples’ Feet: Archiving and Reading the African Past, Present, and Future in World History” Moyn, Samuel, and Andrew Sartori, eds. Global Intellectual History. Columbia University Press, 2013. 11. Ibid., 207. 12. Chávez, John R. “Aliens in their native lands: The persistence of internal colonial theory.” Journal of World History 22, no. 4 (2011): 785-809. ATTENTION AUTHORS

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World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 31 News From Around the World 1919-1920

The Honolulu Advertiser Honolulu, Hawaii 16 Jan 1920 • Page 1

The Sandusky Star-Journal Sandusky, Ohio 13 Aug 1919 • Page 3

The Tampa Times Tampa, Florida 15 May 1919 • Page 1

Edmonton Journal Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 12 Jun 1919 • Page 9

The Age The Times Melbourne, Victoria, Australia London, Greater London, England 13 Apr 1920 • Page 6 10 Dec 1920 • Page 9 World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 32 Highlighted Lesson Plan Inquiry and Axial Age Religion: The Rise of Christianity as a Case Study

David Neumann | Cal Poly Pomona | [email protected]

As Jerry Bentley pointed out long ago, religious can be seen in the deeply philosophical Upanishads, the transformation is one of the key features of cross-cultural passionate Hebrew prophetic books, earnest Confucian interactions and hence of world history.1 And while world treatises on social order, and esoteric Daoist texts. history teachers recognize this reality and routinely teach In the following lesson plan, I model a case study of about religion, they often do so with a certain sense of Axial Age religious growth by focusing on the expansion of anxiety. This stems from a variety of concerns—about Christianity in the first few centuries. Christianity may not appropriate accuracy, the potential of offending adherents seem like the obvious choice for detailed examination in a of particular religions, or, from the opposite side, worries world history course, as it is the dominant religious tradition about accusations of proselytism.2 But it is possible to in the United States and elsewhere, and giving extensive teach about religion in a nuanced way that helps students time to it might seem to reinforce a Eurocentric narrative engage with it thoughtfully. Taking a cue from a century- of world history. But there are two problems with such long tradition of religious sociology that began with Émile an assumption. First, early Christianity was not a Western Durkheim and Max Weber, teachers can frame understanding phenomenon. The Jesus movement began as a Jewish sect from a functional perspective (e.g., how religion operates in a in Palestine, influenced by Iranian cosmic dualism. It first given setting, what tools and benefits it offers adherents) and took root in Syria, Mesopotamia, Turkey, and Egypt before present religion as a social phenomenon. At the same time, spreading around the rest of the Mediterranean basin and they can encourage their students to practice the historical across central Asia.9 Second, though I only have anecdotal thinking skill of empathy,3 viewing religion from an “emic” evidence for this claim, I suspect that in many world rather than an “etic” perspective.4 In this way, students can history classrooms, Christianity suffers from the adage that see the complexity of religious traditions and avoid being familiarity breeds contempt. Because many teachers assume reductionist or dismissive of the views of its practitioners, their students already know about Christianity, and because then or now.5 Rather than trying to explore every religion’s they often have so many less familiar religions to teach, they growth in detail, a more strategic tact is to provide a few may devote less instructional time to Christianity. But strong case studies—studies that may feel extravagant given the recent evidence suggests that the American public as a whole time constraints of the survey classroom, especially with knows little about Christian religious tenets and history.10 upcoming changes to the course timeline. But the alternative Five features of the lesson’s approach are worth noting is to talk about everything—including complex dynamics here. First, in considering the rise of Christianity in the like religion formation—in broad generalities, a trap many context of the Roman Empire, the lesson highlights what AP World History teachers work hard not to get caught in. was distinctive about this new religion in comparison with Though there are a number of places that religion might its neighbors. In my experience, this approach differs in a be studied in depth, it makes sense to invest instructional couple of ways from the manner in which religion is often time in exploring developments during coverage of the treated in world history courses. The focus in teaching about so-called Axial Age. Philosopher Karl Jaspers coined this religion often falls on comparison and similarity. And the term in 1949, but he was influenced by predecessors like spread of Christianity can of course be fruitfully compared Max Weber and even Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.6 The with similar phenomena, such as the spread of Buddhism. label, generally widely embraced by scholars,7 refers to a Indeed, placing early Christianity under the Axial Age transformation across much of Eurasia during the several umbrella is an explicit acknowledgement of such similarities. centuries on either side of the Common Era. It represented Still, the unique features of each cannot be ignored entirely. a shift toward a transcendent consciousness—a sense that In other words, comparison is about difference as well as ultimate reality might be beyond (rather than within) the similarity, and it seems wise to emphasize distinctiveness as cosmos. The ultimate good was no longer simply human a counter to the global survey course’s pressure to focus on flourishing on earth, but salvation or at least personal the heuristically-useful pattern of similarities. transformation through the cultivation of virtue. Whereas Also, narratives often emphasize syncretism, the blending deities had not been viewed previously as favorably disposed of two or more religious traditions to form something new. to humans—hence the need to placate them through various And of course this is part of the Christian story as well. offerings—Axial Age religions assumed divine benevolence. But if this storyline is emphasized too strongly or too soon, Priests or shamans had served as mediators who placated the it distorts the phenomenon of early Christianity, where gods, but in Axial age religion, ethical responsibility came to many people in the ancient Mediterranean actively joined a be universalized, falling on all individuals alike. In assuming distinctive new religious tradition that sometimes made them a view of ultimate reality as at odds with what is given and subject to hostility from both Greco-Roman and Jewish apparent, these traditions explored existential questions groups.11 Syncretism is often the long-term consequence about human nature and the cosmic order.8 Such questions of cultural adaptation that occurs alongside, and especially

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 33 long after, a new religion’s incompatibility with a dominant secondary source: demographic evidence, particularly cultural tradition is fully recognized, as in the introduction of reconstructions based on sociological modeling. When Buddhism to China.12 historians provide scholarly reconstructions of events and Second, this lesson applies an inquiry approach to processes in the modern era, they are often confronted students’ understanding of the subject. A range of education with an embarrassment of riches in the volume of available scholars who embrace an inquiry model, whether they source material. Not so for the ancient past, especially when apply that label or a synonym, all accept a constructivist attempting to learn about marginal groups like early Christ understanding of student learning. Socio-cultural theory in followers, who left few texts apart from New Testament particular emphasizes notions of knowledge constructed documents and virtually no artifacts.25 As a general rule, by students collaboratively and through the use of various “Owing to the paucity of quantifiable evidence, demographic “tools,” particularly linguistic tools.13 Equally important and conditions in the ancient world are at best sporadically closely related, education scholars who focus on inquiry documented and can be reconstructed only in the most “believe that knowledge and skill are structurally organized basic terms. Tombstone inscriptions, skeletal remains, and and domain specific,” so they teach students ways of literary accounts are the most widely available sources of thinking that are distinctive to the historical discipline.14 demographic information. In addition several hundred How Students Learn: History in the Classroom, the definitive census returns, birth certificates, and death declarations from study of cognitive psychology research on student learning, Greco-Roman Egypt have survived on papyrus scrolls.”26 In acknowledges that a disciplinary approach is fundamentally using demographic data, then, this lesson draws students’ linked to questions of epistemology. Educators need to attention directly to the many uncertainties of the ancient uncover and then to critically engage the well-formed, past and the need to make projections using limited data, though often erroneous, epistemologies students carry into sociological and anthropological models, and bold inference. the classroom.15 Thus, inquiry fundamentally emphasizes Finally, this lesson “adapts” the primary and secondary “meaning over memory,”16 and history teachers “occupy a key texts students read. In addition to editing the documents position between two communities organized around history for length, I omit ellipses, paragraph breaks in the original knowledge and learning,” mediating the historical knowledge text, and indications of changes in capitalization. Even more of the academic community to the classroom community.17 boldly, on occasion I slightly revise wording to increase The most obvious way to adopt an inquiry stance is to frame readability. In citing the source, I consistently mark it as instruction around a meaningful, open-ended question that “adapted” so students know it is not verbatim from the represents an authentic issue in the discipline. In their many original (for comparison, see the Appendix for the texts publications on backwards design, Wiggins and McTighe that have been edited for length but otherwise unchanged). have emphasized the use of such questions for many years;18 I would argue that this strategy differs only in degree rather more recently, history-specific examples of such questions than in kind from editing primary or secondary sources for have been available as well.19 The question of how a new length, or from the ways professors routinely summarize and rather marginal religion survived and grew rapidly in the the argument of a scholarly monograph in a history lecture. classical period fits those criteria. The ethical issue is the same: has the instructor faithfully Third, the lesson makes use of secondary sources as represented the essence of the original in an effort to make it well as primary sources. For many history educators, primary more accessible to students? My approach is in line with the sources have sometimes become a fetish and a panacea. But strategy advocated by Wineburg and Martin in “Tampering as I have pointed out elsewhere, a good case can be made with History:” for the need to routinely incorporate secondary sources Adapt? True, skilled teachers have long selected and alongside, and in conversation with, primary sources in excerpted primary sources for classroom use. But we an effort to deepen students’ disciplinary understanding: advocate here something more radical. We are urging “Direct exposure to historians’ arguments and interpretive teachers to physically alter sources: to change their frameworks allows students to encounter authentic historical syntax and vocabulary; to conventionalize their spelling, thinking in action, and begin to practice such thinking capitalization, and punctuation-even rearranging themselves. As students encounter historians’ arguments, sentence sequences, if necessary- so that eleventh graders they also learn to recognize the ways that present concerns reading at a sixth grade level might benefit from some drive the questions historians ask about the past, which of the flavor, cadence, feel, and ethos of John Smith’s helps them understand that rather than recovering the past, (or Augustine’s, or Jefferson’s or Frederick Douglass’s) historians construct it.”20 Peter Lee, one of the lead authors words. of How Students Learn, advocates student assessment of We are unabashedly urging teachers to tamper with secondary accounts as a key historical thinking skill. Teachers history.”27 can ask students to “assess the relative merits of alternative accounts by asking the right questions. What are the accounts In their Reading Like a Historian curriculum, Wineburg claiming to tell us? What questions are they asking? Are they and his associates have modeled the resulting instructional dealing with the same themes? Are they covering the same possibilities that are opened up by such an approach.28 And time span? How do they relate to other accounts we accept for what it’s worth, the College Board follows the same and to other things we know?”21 In recent years, a number practice in its exams. Compare, for example, the College of authoritative guiding documents—Common Core Board AP World History Course and Exam Description Standards,22 the C3 Framework,23 AP History Disciplinary practice exam’s use of a primary source like Sir Bartle Frere Practices and Reasoning Skills24—have made the same case. and a secondary source such as Ronald E. Powaski with the Fourth, this lesson makes use of a specific type of original text, and the adaptations will be immediately clear.29 World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 34 A final note: because this lesson uses a large number of theory to history pedagogy, see Haenen, Jacques, Hubert Schrijinemakers, texts organized around different themes, teachers interested and Job Stufkens, “Sociocultural Theory and the Practice of Teaching Historical Concepts,” in Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context, in a shorter version of this lesson might want to create a ed. Alex Kozulin, et al. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). more streamlined version by reducing the number of topics 14. William D. Rohwer, Jr. and Kathryn Sloane, “Psychological or the number of sources within some of the topics. Perspectives,” in Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Forty-Year Retrospective, ed. Lorin W. Anderson and Lauren A. Sosniak (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Notes 1994), 60. See also David Pace, introduction to Decoding the Disciplines: Helping Students Learn Disciplinary Ways of Thinking (San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 2004), 1. 1. Jerry Bentley, “Cross-Cultural Interaction and Periodization in 15. Committee on How People Learn: A Targeted Report for World History,” The American Historical Review 101, No. 3 (June, 1996): Teachers, How Students Learn: History in the Classroom (Washington, D.C.: 749-770, especially 755; Donald Johnson and Jean Johnson, Universal National Academies Press, 2004). Religions in World History: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam (New York: 16. Peter Stearns, Meaning Over Memory: Recasting the Teaching of Culture McGraw-Hill, 2007). and History (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994). 2. On teacher anxiety, see AAR Religion in the Schools Task Force, 17. Peter Seixas, “The Community of Inquiry as a Basis for Guidelines for Teaching about Religion in K-12 Public Schools in the United States Knowledge and Learning: The Case of History,” American Educational (American Academy of Religion, 2010), 17. For additional suggestions Research Journal 30 (1993): 319-20. about how and why to teach about religion, see David Neumann, “‘I Just 18. Among many examples, see Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, Want to Do God’s Will:’ Teaching Martin Luther King, Jr. as a Religious The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units (Alexandria: Leader,” The Social Studies 109, No. 1 (2018): 45-56. ASCD, 2011), 70-88. 3. On empathy as a historical thinking skill, see, e.g., O. L. Davis Jr., 19. Kathryn M. Obenchain, Angela Orr, & Susan H. Davis, “The Past “In Pursuit of Historical Empathy,” in Historical Empathy and Perspective as a Puzzle: How Essential Questions Can Piece Together a Meaningful Taking in the Social Studies, eds. O.L. Davis Jr., Elizabeth Anne Yeager, and Investigation of History,” The Social Studies 102, No. 5 (2011): 190-199. Stuart J. Foster (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001). 20. Dave Neumann, “Secondary Sources in History Classrooms: 4. These terms were coined by linguist Kenneth Pike in 1954. The Disciplinary Frameworks and Student Learning,” Social Education 79, No. emic approach, as explained in a recent text, “investigates how local 4 (2015): 204. people…perceive and categorize the world, their rules for behavior, 21. Peter Lee, “Putting Principles into Practice: Understanding what has meaning for them, and how they imagine and explain things.” History” in How Students Learn: History in the Classroom (Washington, D.C.: In contrast, the etic approach focuses on the “observations, categories, National Academies Press, 2004), 60-61. explanations, and interpretations” of the anthropologist. See Conrad 22. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Kottak, Mirror for Humanity (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006), 47. Council of Chief State School Officers, Common Core State Standards 5. Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was published for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and in 1905 and Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life was Technical Subjects (Washington, D.C.: National Governors Association, published in 1911. In the twentieth century, religious sociology became 2010), 60-61. Standards 3 and 5, apply to secondary as well as primary a booming field, with Robert Bellah, Peter Berger, and Robert Wuthnow sources. “Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance among the leading theorists. Tasks”, Common Core State Standards, 131-132, make clear that CCSS 6. On Jaspers and predecessors who influenced him, see Hans Joas, descriptions of secondary texts do not refer to textbooks. Available “The Axial Age Debate as Religious Discourse,” in The Axial Age and online at http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf Its Consequences, edited by Robert N. Bellah and Hans Joas (Cambridge: 23. National Council for the Social Studies, The College, Career, and Harvard University Press, 2012), 9-11. Civic Life (CJ) Framework/or Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for 7. See Robert N. Bellah and Hans Joas, “Introduction,” in The Axial Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Age and Its Consequences, 1. Spring, Md: NCSS, 2013), 48. 8. Charles Taylor, “What was the Axial Revolution?,” in The Axial 24. The College Board, AP World History: Course and Exam Description Age and Its Consequences, 30-46. (New York: The College Board, 2011). This document is available at 9. On this point, see Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming http//media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-world- of Global Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 16-17. history-course-and-exam-desricption.pdf. 10. For example, just over half of the public knows that the Golden 25. With respect to the question of sources, the situation has Rule is not one of the Ten Commandments, and less than half can name changed little from the description of Abraham J. Malherbe, Social Aspects the four Gospels or know that Martin Luther inspired the Reformation. of Early Christianity (: Fortress Press, 1983), especially 11-20. See Pew Research Center, “Americans’ Knowledge of the Bible,” April 26. “Ancient World, Demography of,” Encyclopedia of Population 12, 2017, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/14/5- (Detroit: Gale Research Group, 2003), https://www.encyclopedia.com/ facts-on-how-americans-view-the-bible-and-other-religious-texts/ social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ancient- ft_17-04-12_scripture_bible_knowledge1/; and Pew Research Center, world-demography, accessed October 27, 2018. U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, September 28, 2010, http://www. 27. Sam Wineburg and Daisy Martin, “Tampering with History: pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/ Adapting Primary Sources for Struggling Readers,” Social Education 73, 11. On opposition to the early Christian movement from both No. 5 (2009), 212. groups, see John M.G. Barclay, Pauline Churches and Diaspora Jews (Grand 28. Stanford History Education Group, Reading Like a Historian, Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016). available at https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons, accessed October 12. Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Old World Encounters: Cross- 18, 2018. Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford 29. AP World History Course and Exam Description (College Board, University Press, 1992), 8. 2017), 202, 212; Sir Bartle Frere, The Speeches and Addresses of Sir H.B.E. 13. See Mark Windschitl, “Framing Constructivism in Practice as the Frere, G.C.S.I., K.C.B., D.C.L. (Bombay, 1870), 243-44); Ronald E. Negotiation of Dilemmas: An Analysis of the Conceptual, Pedagogical, Powaski, The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 Cultural, and Political Challenges Facing Teachers,” Review of Educational (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 1-2. Research 72 (2002): 131-175. For a specific application of sociocultural

Editor’s Note: In an effort to save space, the various Issues in the Lesson Plan that follows run continuous. For teachers who wish to use the activities in class, a “cut-and-paste” would work to get each Issue on separate handouts.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 35 Why Did Christianity Succeed? David Neumann Pomona, California [email protected]

Introduction

World history regularly includes the study of major religions, because religion is essential to interpreting and understanding various cultures.1 As sociologist Rodney Stark points out, any religion that survives and grows is extremely unusual. “Probably no more than one religious movement out of 1000 will attract more than 100,000 followers and last for as long as a century. Even most movements that achieve these modest results will become no more than a footnote in the history of religions.”2 Global religions, those that have spread around the world from their place of origin, are often called “universal” because they are available to people from any racial, ethnic, or national group. Scholars have identified several features shared my most global religions: • A founder who provides a new unified belief system • Worship focused on an all-powerful deity who is both transcendent and accessible • A promise of salvation through a specific pathway • An intermediary to provide guidance toward salvation • Attention to everyday problems, not just instruction about great spiritual mysteries.3 Examining a specific global religion as a case study can provide insight into how such religions grow from humble circumstances to become powerful cultural forces. Christianity offers just such a case study. It started as a small sect in Palestine during the Roman Empire, at a time when the existing religions seemed perfectly satisfactory. “Since paganism had served the religious needs of the Greco-Roman world for centuries,” Stark observes, “its demise must have involved extraordinary factors.”4 Within three centuries of its founding, Christianity had grown dramatically, becoming the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. In this activity, we will investigative this question:

How did a tiny, unknown religious movement from the edge of the Roman Empire replace paganism and become the dominant faith?5

Activities Stations You and your group will explore five different stations, each focused on a specific theme that provides evidence related to the investigative question: • Women, Marriage, and Family • Urban Life • Epidemics • Ethics • Persecution

Sources At each station, you will find at least one document from each of the following types of historical evidence: • Primary sources: Documents from the first through third centuries C.E., written either by Christians or their pagan critics • Secondary sources: Interpretations of early Christianity by modern historians, sociologists, and scholars of religion • Demographic evidence: Interpretations of population patterns related to early Christianity by modern scholars using models based on the very limited statistical data available

Assessment After your group completes the data sheet by visiting all five stations, you will create an exhibit for the Museum of Ancient Roman History on the Rise of Early Christianity. Your exhibit must include the following elements: World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 36 • A title for your exhibit and a subtitle that captures your thesis in 6 to 10 words • A paragraph of 3 to 5 sentences that introduces visitors to your exhibit and frames early Christianity as an emerging “global religion” • A selection of 5 documents o the documents you select should best reflect your thesis o they must include at least one document from each category—primary, secondary, and demographic o a caption must be provided for each document that interprets the document and relates it to your thesis

Alternative assessment Each group reviews only one station and completes the exhibit for that station, following all instructions above, except that rather than selecting 5 documents, the group must explain each document present at that station.

Notes 1. AAR Religion in the Schools Task Force, Guidelines for Teaching About Religion in K-12 Public Schools in the United States, 2010, https://www.aarweb.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Publications/epublications/AARK-12CurriculumGuidelines.pdf, 14. 2. Rodney Stark, “Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 11, No. 2 (1996) 133. 3. Donald Johnson and Jean Elliot Johnson, Universal Religions in World History: The Spread of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam to 1500 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007), 6. 4. Rodney Stark, “Antioch as the Social Situation for Matthew’s Gospel,” in Social History of the Matthean Community: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to an Open Question, ed. by David Balch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 190. 5. This is adapted from Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 3.

The Growth of Early Christianity

To help get you started, your teacher will practice the first set of evidence, “Growth of Early Christianity” with the class together.

What evidence indicates that Christianity grew rapidly in the Roman Empire between its origins, ca. 30 CE and the end of the Third Century CE?

Primary Source “It is my rule, Sir, to refer to you all matters where I feel doubtful. Having never been present at any trials concerning those who profess Christianity, I am unacquainted not only with the nature of their crimes, or the measure of their punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an examination concerning them. In the meanwhile, the method I have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians is this: I asked them whether they were Christians. If they admitted it, I repeated the question twice and threatened them with punishment. If they persisted, I ordered them to be at once punished. For I was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, obstinacy certainly deserved correction. They affirmed that their only error was that they met on a stated day before it was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, binding themselves by a solemn oath never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word. After this, it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal. After receiving this account, I judged it necessary to find out the real truth by torturing two female slaves who were said to officiate in their religious rites. But all I could discover was evidence of an absurd and extravagant superstition. I deemed it expedient to adjourn all further proceedings in order to consult you. For it appears to be a matter highly deserving your consideration, as great numbers must be involved of all ranks and ages and of both sexes. In fact, this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread its infection among the neighboring villages and country.” —Pliny, Roman governor of Bithynia, to Emperor Trajan, 112 CE, Letters 10.96-97 (adapted).

Secondary Source “Considered from various angles, it is clear that in the first three centuries Christianity spread across a considerable geographical area, and attracted a growing number of adherents, including men and women, younger and older people, and individuals of various economic and social statuses. Tacitus referred to "vast numbers" of Christians in Rome in 64 World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 37 CE, against whom Nero directed his wrath after the fire there that year. Already by the 60s the young Jesus-movement comprised a sufficient number of adherents to enable them to be identified and targeted. Christianity continued to grow in numbers during this lengthy period. In comparison with the many other religious groups of the time, this was unique. For there simply is no new religious group of the time that had the same growth sustained over such a long time. And it is the rare religious group that becomes trans-local, and even fewer that sustain their growth beyond the first few years or decades. The evidence reveals that early Christianity included a good many individuals of varied social and economic levels, among them those who had property and possessions, those with some level of education, and some with respectable social status. We probably have to allow for a variety of factors that moved people to become Christians in this period.” — Larry W. Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2016), 44-46 (adapted).

Demographic Evidence

TABLE Christian Growth Projected at 40% per Decade

Year Number of Christians Percent of Population*

40 1,000 0.0017

50 1,400 0.0023

100 7,530 0.0126

150 40,496 0.07

200 217,795 0.36

250 1,171,356 1.9

300 6,299,832 10.5

350 33,882,008 56.5

*Based on an estimated population of 60 million

—Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 7.

Epidemics How did Christians’ behavior during the outbreak of epidemics contribute to the growth of the new movement?

Primary Source

“Beloved brothers, what a great thing is it, how pertinent, how necessary, that pestilence and plague which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the righteousness of each one, and examines the minds of the human race, to see whether they who are in health tend the sick; whether relations affectionately love their family members; whether masters pity their languishing servants; whether physicians do not forsake their begging patients; whether the fierce suppress their violence; whether the greedy can quench the insatiable passion of their craving by the fear of death; whether the haughty bend their neck; whether the wicked soften their boldness; whether, when their dear ones perish, the rich, even then bestow anything and give, when they are to die without heirs. Even if this mortality conferred nothing else, it has done this benefit to Christians and to God’s servants, that we begin gladly to desire martyrdom as we learn not to fear death. This is training for us, not death: it gives the mind the glory of fortitude; by contempt of death they prepare for the crown.” —Cyprian, Christian Bishop of Carthage, “Mortality,” ca. 252 CE (adapted).

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 38 Secondary Sources

“One advantage Christians enjoyed over pagans was that the teaching of their faith made life meaningful even amid sudden and surprising death. Even a shattered remnant of survivors who had somehow made it through war or pestilence or both could find warm, immediate and healing consolation in the vision of a heavenly existence for those missing relatives and friends. Christianity was, therefore, a system of thought and feeling thoroughly adapted to a time of troubles in which hardship, disease, and violent death commonly prevailed.” —William H. McNeil, Plagues and Peoples (Garden City, NJ: Anchor Press, 1976), 108 (adapted).

“During great epidemics people will prefer explanations which assert that such events reflect underlying historical intentions, that the larger contours of life are coherent and explicable. Not only were the philosophers of the time unable to provide such meanings, but from the point of view of classical science and philosophy these events were indeed beyond human control, for no useful medical courses of action could be suggested. The philosophers of the period could think of nothing more insightful than to ‘prattle vaguely about the disappearance of virtue’.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 80 (adapted).

Demographic Evidence “Some hypothetical numbers may help us grasp just how much impact Christian nursing could have on mortality rates in these epidemics. Let us begin with a city having 10,000 inhabitants in 160 C.E., just before the first epidemic. Let us suppose that 40 of this city’s inhabitants are Christians, while 9,960 are pagans—a ratio of 1 Christian to 249 pagans. Now, let us assume an epidemic generating mortality rates of 30 percent over its course in a population left without nursing. Modern medical experts believe that conscientious nursing without any medications could cut the mortality rate by two-thirds or even more. Imposing these mortality rates results in 36 Christian and 6,972 pagan survivors in 170 C.E., after the epidemic. Now the ratio of Christians to pagans is 1 to 197, a substantial shift. Thus an immense Christian gain would have occurred without their having made a single convert during the period. But these same trends ought to have resulted in many converts. For one thing, if, during the crisis, Christians fulfilled their ideal of ministering to everyone, there would be many pagan survivors who owed their lives to their Christian neighbors. For another, no one could help but notice that Christians not only found the capacity to risk death but were much less likely to die.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 89-90 (adapted).

Women, Marriage, and Family How did Christianity’s views about women, marriage, and family life contribute to the growth of the new movement?

Primary Source “To the servant of God offspring is necessary! For our own salvation we are secure enough, so we have leisure for children! Burdens must be sought by us for ourselves which are avoided by the majority of the Gentiles, who are compelled by laws to have children. —Tertullian, Christian writer from Carthage, to his wife, ca. 207 C.E. (adapted) Secondary Sources

“Classical writers recognized that Christianity was unusually appealing to women because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large. Relatively high rates of intermarriage existed between Christian women and pagan men, and this would have generated many ‘secondary’ conversions to Christianity.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 95 (adapted).

“Some earlier scholars thought that other new religions in the Roman Empire might have succeeded to a status like that enjoyed by Christianity, but this was never in the cards. For one thing, the exclusion of women certainly made that unlikely. These associations seem to have been like a kind of men’s club, functioning perhaps essentially as a male-bonding association, and only males were admitted. —Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016), 84 (adapted).

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 39 Demographic Evidence

“Many programs were instituted to promote fertility. But nothing worked. As Tacitus tells us, ‘childlessness prevailed.’ As a result, the population of the Roman Empire began to decline noticeably during the last years of the Republic, and serious population shortages had developed by the second century, before the onset of the first great plague. A primary cause of low fertility in the Greco-Roman world was a male culture that held marriage in low esteem. Men in the Greco-Roman world found it difficult to relate to women. As Beryl Rawson has reported, “one theme that recurs in Latin literature is that wives are difficult and therefore men do not care much for marriage.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 115-117 (adapted).

Urban Life How did Christian behavior in crowded Roman cities contribute to the growth of the new movement?

Primary Source “It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that everyone should worship according to one’s own convictions. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion. A Christian is an enemy to none, least of all to the Emperor of Rome, who he knows to be appointed by God and so cannot but love and honor; and whose well-being moreover the Christian must desire, with that of the empire over which he reigns.” —Tertullian, Christian writer from Carthage, to Scapula, Proconsul of Africa, ca. 212 C.E. (adapted).

Secondary Sources

“Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 161 (adapted).

“A Christian congregation was from the first a community in a much fuller sense than any corresponding group of Isis or Mithras devotees. Its members were bound together not only by common rites but by a common way of life. Love of one’s neighbor is not an exclusively Christina virtue, but in this period Christians appear to have practiced it much more effectively than any other group. The Church provided the essentials of social security. But even more important, I suspect, than these material benefits was the sense of belonging which the Christian community could give.” —E. R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), 136-137 (adapted).

Demographic Evidence

“Most people lived in tiny cubicles in multistoried tenements. One scholar has calculated that in Rome there was “only one private house for every 26 blocks of apartments,” and suggests that this ratio was typical of Greco-Roman cities. Within these tenements, the crowding was extreme—the tenants rarely had more than one room in which ‘entire families were herded together.’ To make matters worse, cooking was done over wood or charcoal braziers, which were also the only source of heat and ‘dread of fire was an obsession among rich and poor alike.’ It is all well and good to admire the Romans for their aqueducts and their public baths, but we must not fail to see the obvious fact that the human and animal density of ancient cities would place an incredible burden even on modern sewerage, garbage disposal, and water systems. Aqueducts brought water to many Greco-Roman cities, but once there it was poorly kept and quite maldistributed. Worse yet, the water was often very contaminated. Upon closer inspection, the notion that Greco-Roman cities enjoyed efficient sewers and sanitation also turns out to be largely an illusion. Given limited water and means of sanitation, and the incredible density of humans and animals, most people in Greco- Roman cities must have lived in filth beyond our imagining.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 151-153 (adapted).

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 40

Ethics How did Christian views about ethics and morality contribute to the growth of the new movement?

Primary Sources

“Finally, brothers, we urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. But concerning love of the brothers you have no need to have any one write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. But we urge you, brothers, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, so that you may command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody.” —Paul, Letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, ca. 50 CE

“There are two Ways, one of Life and one of Death; but there is a great difference between the two Ways. Now the Way of Life is this: First, you shall love God who made you; secondly, love your neighbor as thyself; and all things you would not have done to you, do not do them to another. Now the teaching of these two words of the Lord is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you; for what thanks is there if you love those who love you? Do not even Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and bodily lusts. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also, and you will be perfect. If anyone forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two; if any one takes away your cloak, give him also your tunic; if any one takes from you what is yours, do not ask it back, as indeed you cannot. Give to everyone that asks of you, and do not ask for it back, for the Father wills that from our own blessings we should give to all.” —The Didache, an anonymous Christian treatise, ca. 100 CE

Secondary Sources

“In the ancient Roman setting, a single high or ultimate deity was posited above and behind all the particular deities. But this high deity was almost entirely inaccessible and disinterested in the world. Since the high god was not approachable, you were to continue to address yourself to the various particular deities for favors and needs. But, drawing on its Jewish roots, early Christian teachings tended to posit one deity categorically distinct from all else, who was also characterized notably as loving the world and humans. This deity sought a loving relationship with people, in which a corresponding love for this deity was the central responsibility. This love for God also demanded expression in love for other people, even love for one's enemies.” — Larry W. Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2016), 124-125 (adapted).

“What was meant by ‘religion’ in the Roman period typically focused on ritual actions and responsibilities involving sacrifice, altars, shrines, and observances of appropriate days of the month or year. Roman-era religion did not typically have much to say on what we might term ‘ethics,’ dos and don’ts,’ or more simply ‘behavior’ or ‘conduct’. —Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016), 154- 155 (adapted).

Demographic Evidence

“It was not simply the promise of salvation that motivated Christians, but the fact that they were greatly rewarded here and now for belonging. Thus while membership was expensive, it was, in fact, a bargain. That is, because the church asked much of its members, it was thereby possessed of the resources to give much. For example, because Christians were expected to aid the less fortunate, many of them received such aid, and all could feel greater security against bad times. Because they were asked to love others, they in turn were loved. And if Christians were required to observe a far more restrictive moral code than that observed by pagans, Christians—especially women—enjoyed a far more secure family life.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 188 (adapted).

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 41 Persecution How did Christians’ responses to persecution paradoxically contribute to the growth of the new movement?

Primary Sources

“The truth is, I am afraid it is your love that will do me wrong. For you, of course, it is easy to achieve your object; but for me it is difficult to win my way to God, should you be wanting in consideration of me. Grant me no more than that you let my blood be spilled in sacrifice to God. I am writing to all the Churches and state emphatically to all that I die willingly for God, provided you do not interfere. I beg you, do not show me unseasonable kindness. Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts, which are the means of making my way to God. God’s wheat I am, and by the teeth of wild beasts I am to be ground that I may prove Christ’s pure bread.” —Ignatius, Christian Bishop of Antioch, Epistle to Romans, ca. 110 CE (adapted).

“The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and even willingly give themselves into custody, most of them. Furthermore, their first lawgiver [Jesus] persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshiping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws.” —Lucian, Greek playwright from Syria, Passing of Peregrinus, a satire on Christianity, ca. 165 CE (adapted).

Secondary Sources

“If Christians from early days had members, friends, and relatives in high places—often within the imperial family—this would have greatly mitigated repression and persecution. Hence the many instances when Christians were pardoned.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 46 (adapted).

“Every effort was made to ensure that the group would witness events leading up to the martyrdom. It was not uncommon for fellow Christians to visit the accused in their cells and to bring food and clothing to make the imprisonment more bearable. There were even celebrations to dramatize the forthcoming test of faith. All martyrs were on stage. Those who could take the pressure were assured of eternity, at least in the memories of the survivors. What was distinctive about martyrdom was not only promise of reward in the hereafter, but the certainty of being memorialized in this world. The martyr saw before dying that he or she had earned a place in the memories of survivors and in the liturgy of the church.” —Eugene Weiner and Anita Weiner, The Martyr’s Conviction: A Sociological Analysis (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 80-81 (adapted).

Demographic Evidence

“Persecutions rarely occurred, and only a tiny number of Christians ever were martyred—only ‘hundreds, not thousands’ according to one scholar. Indeed, commenting on Tacitus’s claim that Nero had murdered ‘an immense multitude’ of Christians, another scholar wrote that ‘a few hundred victims would justify the use of this term, given the horror of what happened.’ There was surprisingly little effort to persecute Christians, and when a wave of persecution did occur, usually only bishops and other prominent figures were singled out. Thus for rank-and-file Christians the threat of persecution was so slight as to have counted for little among the potential sacrifices imposed on them.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 179-180 (adapted).

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The World History Bulletin is seeking quality essays, lesson plans, and classroom activities for inclusion in upcoming issues: Volume XXXV Number 2 (Fall 2019): Issue Focus: Transglobal Voyages: Five Centuries since the Epic Voyage of Fernão de Magalhães and Juan Sebastián Elcano. Deadline: 15 September 2019. Guest Editor: Paul V. Adams. Volume XXXVI Number 1 (Spring 2020): Issue Focus: The Ottoman Empire: Five Centuries since the Accession of Kanunî Sultan Süleyman. Deadline: 15 February 2020. Guest Editor: TBD. Volume XXXVI Number 2 (Fall 2020): Issue Focus: Sport in World History. Deadline: 15 September 2020. Guest Editor: Mauricio Borrero. For all issues, essays and classroom activities are also sought which deal with any aspect of the teaching of world history. Interested parties should direct their inquiries to Micheal Tarver, WHB Editor-in-Chief, at [email protected]

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 42 Student Template for Analysis and Discussion of Each Issue

Issue: ______

Text Evidence Explanation Primary Secondary Demographic

Connections between these sources:

Appendix Original Text of Adapted Primary and Secondary Sources in Order of Appearance The Growth of Early Christianity

“How did a tiny and obscure messianic movement from the edge of the Roman Empire dislodge classical paganism and become the dominant faith of Western civilization?” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 3.

“It is my invariable rule, Sir, to refer to you in all matters where I feel doubtful; for who is more capable of removing my scruples, or informing my ignorance? Having never been present at any trials concerning those who profess Christianity, I am unacquainted not only with the nature of their crimes, or the measure of their punishment, but how far it is proper to enter into an examination concerning them…In the meanwhile, the method I have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians is this: I asked them whether they were Christians; if they admitted it, I repeated the question twice, and threatened them with punishment; if they persisted, I ordered them to be at once punished: for I was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction…They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a stated day before it was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, binding themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of any wicked design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal. From this custom, however, they desisted after the publication of my edict, by which, according to your commands, I forbade the meeting of any assemblies. After receiving this account, I judged it so much the more necessary to endeavor to extort the real truth, by putting two female slaves to the torture, who were said to officiate' in their religious rites: but all I could discover was evidence of an absurd and extravagant superstition. I deemed it expedient, therefore, to adjourn all further proceedings, in order to consult you. For it appears to be a matter highly deserving your consideration, more especially as great numbers must be involved in the danger of these prosecutions, which have already extended, and are still likely to extend, to persons of all ranks and ages, and even of both sexes. In fact, this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread its infection among the neighbouring villages and country.” —Letters of Pliny, trans. by William Melmoth, revised by F.C.T. Bosanquet, available at Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 43 “Considered from various angles, thus, it is clear that in the first three centuries Christianity spread across a considerable geographical area, and attracted a growing number of adherents, including men and women, younger and older people, and individuals of various economic and social statuses. As noted, this growth in adherents likely varied from place to place. Tacitus referred to ‘vast numbers’ of Christians in Rome in 64 CE, against whom Nero directed his wrath after the fire there that year (Ann. 15.44). If, as most historians judge, Tacitus's report is to be taken as based on sound information, then already by the 60s the young Jesus-movement comprised a sufficient number of adherents to enable them to be identified and targeted. Although the rate of growth likewise may have varied across the three centuries in focus here, the remarkable thing is that Christianity continued to grow in numbers during this lengthy period… In comparison with the many other religious groups of the time, this was, to say the least, unusual. Indeed, although historians are often loathe to use the term, we probably have to say it was unique. For there simply is no new religious group of the time that had the same growth sustained over such a long time. And, as specialists in new religious movements have noted, it is the rare religious group that becomes trans-local, and even fewer that sustain their growth beyond the first few years or decades… The evidence that early Christianity included a good many individuals of varied social and economic levels, among them those who had property and possessions, those with some level of education, and some with respectable social status, makes unsound older theories of "deprivation" to account for converts. Even the more recent theory of "status inconsistency" is inadequate, at least in accounting for those converts who already had social status. As we shall see later in this discussion, we probably have to allow for a variety of factors that moved people to become Christians in this period.” —Larry W. Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2016), 44-46.

Epidemics

“And further, beloved brethren, what is it, what a great thing is it, how pertinent, how necessary, that pestilence and plague which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the righteousness of each one, and examines the minds of the human race, to see whether they who are in health tend the sick; whether relations affectionately love their kindred; whether masters pity their languishing servants; whether physicians do not forsake the beseeching patients; whether the fierce suppress their violence; whether the rapacious can quench the ever insatiable ardour of their raging avarice even by the fear of death; whether the haughty bend their neck; whether the wicked soften their boldness; whether, when their dear ones perish, the rich, even then bestow anything,3502 and give, when they are to die without heirs. Even although this mortality conferred nothing else, it has done this benefit to Christians and to God’s servants, that we begin gladly to desire martyrdom as we learn not to fear death. These are trainings for us, not deaths: they give the mind the glory of fortitude; by contempt of death they prepare for the crown.” —Cyprian, On the Mortality, trans. by Philip Schaff, available at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05. iv.v.vii.html

“Another advantage Christians enjoyed over pagans was that the teachings of their faith made life meaningful even amid sudden and surprising death. Release from suffering was, after all, much to be desired, in principle if not always in practice. Moreover, even a shattered remnant of survivors who had somehow made it through war or pestilence or both could find warm, immediate and healing consolation in the vision of a heavenly existence for those missing relatives and friends who had died as good Christians. God’s omnipotence made live meaningful in in time of disaster as well as in time of prosperity; indeed untoward and unexpected disaster, shattering pagan pride and undermining secular institutions, made God’s hand more evident than it was in quiet times. Christianity was, therefore, a system of thought and feeling thoroughly adapted to a time of troubles in which hardship, disease, and violent death commonly prevailed.” —William H. McNeil, Plagues and Peoples (Garden City, NJ: Anchor Press, 1976), 108.

“…I am not here disputing that survival was in fact substantially random or that the epidemics had natural causes. But I do claim that people will prefer explanations which assert that such events reflect underlying historical intentions, that the larger contours of life are coherent explicable. Not only were the philosophers of the time unable to provide such meanings, but from the point of view of classical science and philosophy these events were indeed beyond human control, for no useful medical courses of action could be suggested. Indeed the philosophers of the pored could of nothing more insightful than to anthropomorphize society and blame senility. As Cochrane put it, “while a deadly plague was ravaging the empire…the sophists prattled vaguely about the exhaustion of virtue in a world growing old” ([1940] 1957: 155).” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 80.

“Some hypothetical numbers may help us grasp just how much impact Christian nursing could have had on mortality rates in these epidemics. Let us begin with a city having 10,000 inhabitants in 160 C.E., just before the first epidemic. In chapter 1, I calculated that Christians made up about .4 percent of the empire’s population at the time, so let us suppose that 40 of this city’s inhabitants are Christians, while 9,960 are pagans—a ratio of 1 Christian to 249 pagans. Now, let us assume an epidemic generating mortality rates of 30 percent over its course in a population left without nursing. Modern medical experts believe that conscientious nursing without any medications could cut the mortality rate by two-thirds or even more. So let us assume a Christian mortality rate of 10 percent. Imposing these mortality rates results in 36 Christian and 6,972 pagan survivors in 170 C.E., after the epidemic. Now the ratio of Christians to pagans is 1 to 197, a substantial shift… World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 44 Thus an immense Christian gain would have occurred without their having made a single convert during the period. But, as noted, these same trends ought to have resulted in many converts. For one thing, if, during the crisis, Christians fulfilled their ideal of ministering to everyone, there would be many pagan survivors who owed their lives to their Christian neighbors. For another, no one could help but notice that Christians not only found the capacity to risk death but were much less likely to die.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 89-90.

Women, Marriage, and Family

“To the servant of God, forsooth, offspring is necessary! For our own salvation we are secure enough, so that we have leisure for children! Burdens must be sought by us for ourselves which are avoided by the majority of the Gentiles who are compelled by laws, whoa are decimated by abortions.” —Tertullian, To His Wife, 1.5, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989).

“Although some classical writers claimed that women were easy prey for any ‘foreign superstition,’ most recognized that Christianity was unusually appealing to women because within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large (Fox 1987; Chadwick 1967; Harnack 1908, vol. 2)… …I will also build a case for accepting that relatively high rates of intermarriage existed between Christian women and pagan men, and will suggest how these would have generated many ‘secondary’ conversions to Christianity.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 95.

“But, contrary to notions of some earlier scholars that Mithraism might have succeeded to a status like that enjoyed by Christianity under Constantine, this was never in the cards. For one thing, the exclusion of women certainly made that unlikely. Also, in some features, Mithraic associations seem to have been like a kind of freemasonry or men’s club, functioning perhaps essentially as a male-bonding association, and only males were admitted. —Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016), 84.

“In 59 B.C.E., Julius Caesar secured legislation that awarded land to fathers of three or more children, though he failed to act on Cicero’s suggestion that celibacy be outlawed. Thirty years later, and again in the year 9, the emperor Augustus promulgated laws giving political preference to men who fathered three or more children and imposing political and financial sanctions on childless couples, upon unmarried women over the age of twenty, and upon unmarried men over the age of twenty-five. These policies were continued by most emperors who followed Augustus, and many additional programs were instituted to promote fertility. Trajan, for example, provided substantial child subsidies (Rawson 1986). But nothing worked. As Tacitus tells us, ‘childlessness prevailed’ (Annals 3.25, 1989 ed.)…As a result, the population of the Roman Empire began to decline noticeably during the last years of the Republic, and serious population shortages had developed by the second century, before the onset of the first great plague. …A primary cause of low fertility in the Greco-Roman worlds was a male culture that held marriage in low esteem….For the fact was that men in the Greco-Roman world found it difficult to relate to women. As Beryl Rawson has reported, ‘one theme that recurs in Latin literature is that wives are difficult and therefore men do not care much for marriage’ (1986: 11).” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 115-117.

Urban Life

“It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that everyone should worship according to one’s own convictions… It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion…A Christian is enemy to none, least of all to the Emperor of Rome, who he knows to be appointed by God, and so cannot but love and honor; and whose well-being moreover the Christian must desire, with that of the empire over which he reigns.” —Tertullian, To Scapula, 2, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peadbody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994).

“…Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity (cf. Pelikan 1987:21).” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 161.

“A Christian congregation was from the first a community in a much fuller sense than any corresponding group of Isiac or Mithras devotees. Its members were bound together not only by common rites but by a common way of life and, as Celsus World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 45 shrewdly perceived, by their common danger...Love of one’s neighbor is not an exclusively Christina virtue, but in this period Christians appear to have practised it much more effectively than any other group. The Church provided the essentials of social security: it cared for widows and orphans, the unemployed, and the disabled; it provided a burial fund for the poor and a nursing service in time of plague. But even more important, I suspect, than these material benefits was the sense of belonging which the Christian community could give.” —E. R. Dodds, Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety: Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), 136-137.

“...in fact, though, most people lived in tiny cubicles in multistoried tenements. Carcopino has calculated that in Rome there was ‘only one private house for every 26 blocks of apartments’ (1940:23), and suggests that this ratio was typical of Greco- Roman cities. Within these tenements, the crowding was extreme—the tenants rarely had more than one room in which ‘entire families were herded together’ (Carcopino 1940:44). To make matters worse, Greco-Roman tenements lacked both furnaces and fireplaces. Cooking was done over wood or charcoal braziers, which were also the only source of heat;…because windows could be ‘closed’ only by ‘hanging cloths or skins blown by rain’ (Carcopino 1940:36), the tenements were sufficiently drafty to prevent frequent asphyxiation. But the drafts increased the danger of rapidly spreading fires, and ‘dread of fire was an obsession among rich and poor alike’ (Carcopino 1940:33). …It is all well and good to admire the Romans for their aqueducts and their public baths, but we must not fail to see the obvious fact that the human and animal density of ancient cities would place an incredible burden even on modern sewerage, garbage disposal, and water systems. …Aqueducts brought water to many Greco-Roman cities, but one there it was poorly kept and quite maldistributed…Worse yet, the water was often very contaminated… Upon closer inspection, the notion that Greco-Roman cities enjoyed efficient sewers and sanitation also turns out to be largely an illusion… Given limited water and means of sanitation, and the incredible density of humans and animals, most people in Greco- Roman cities must have lived in filth beyond our imagining.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 151-153.

Ethics

“Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. But concerning love of the brethren you have no need to have any one write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brethren throughout Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, so that you may command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody.” —1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Revised Standard Version

1. There are two Ways, one of Life and one of Death; but there is a great difference between the two Ways. 2. Now the Way of Life is this: First, Thou shalt love God who made thee; secondly, thy neighbor as thyself; and all things whatsoever thou wouldst not have done to thee, neither do thou to another. 3. Now the teaching of these [two] words [of the Lord] is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you; for what thank is there if ye love those who love you? Do not even Gentiles the same? But love ye those who hate you, and ye shall not have an enemy. 4. Abstain from fleshly and bodily [worldly] lusts. If any one give thee a blow on the right cheek turn to him the other also, and thou shalt be perfect. If any one press thee to go with him one mile, go with him two; if any one take away thy cloak, give him also thy tunic; if any one take from thee what is thine, ask it not back, as indeed thou canst not. 5. Give to every one that asketh thee, and ask not back, for the Father wills that from our own blessings we should give to all. —The Didache, translated by Philip Schaff (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1885), available at http://www.catholicplanet.com/ebooks/ didache.htm

“In the ancient Roman setting, there was what modern scholars have sometimes labelled ‘pagan monotheism’ in which a single high or ultimate deity was posited above and behind all the particular deities. But typically in pagan philosophical tradition this high/ultimate deity was seen as so transcendent as to be almost entirely inaccessible, and even disinterested in the world and humanity. Moreover, positing this deity seems to have made no impact on the cultic duties that were to be observed. Indeed, since World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 46 the high god was not approachable, you were to continue to address yourself to the various particular deities for favors and needs. But, drawing on emphases in its Jewish matrix, early Christian teachings (of the more familiar sorts) tended to posit one deity equally august, and even categorically distinct from all else (including other heavenly beings), who was also characterized notably as loving the world and humans. Furthermore, this deity sought (and even demanded) a loving relationship with people, in which a corresponding love for this deity was the central responsibility. But, still more, this love for ‘God’ also demanded expression in love for other people (e.g., Mark 12:28-34; 1 John 4:7-12), even love for one's enemies…” — Larry W. Hurtado, Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? Milwaukee: Marquette Univ. Press, 2016), 124- 125.

“Recall that what we mean by ‘religion’ in the Roman period typically focused on ritual actions and responsibilities involving sacrifice, altars, shrines, and observances of appropriate days of the month or year. Roman-era religion did not typically have much to say on what we might term ‘ethics,’ ‘dos and don’ts,’ which I will refer to here more simply as ‘behavior’ or ‘conduct.’ —Larry W. Hurtado, Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016), 154-55.

“It was not simply the promise of salvation that motivated Christians, but the fact that they were greatly rewarded here and now for belonging. Thus while membership was expensive, it was, in fact, a bargain. That is, because the church asked much of its members, it was thereby possessed of the resources to give much. For example, because Christians were expected to aid the less fortunate, many of them received such aid, and all could feel greater security against bad times…Because they were asked to love others, they in turn were loved. And if Christians were required to observe a far more restrictive moral code than that observed by pagans, Christians—especially women—enjoyed a far more secure family life.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 188.

“If, as is now believed, the Christians were not a mass of degraded outsiders but from early days had members, friends, and relatives in high places—often within the imperial family—this would have greatly mitigated repression and persecution. Hence the many instances when Christians were pardoned.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 46.

Persecution

“The truth is, I am afraid it is your love that will do me wrong. For you, of course, it is easy to achieve your object; but for me it is difficult to win my way to God, should you be wanting in consideration of me….Grant me no more than that you let my blood be spilled in sacrifice to God…. I am writing to all the Churches and state emphatically to all that I die willingly for God, provided you do not interfere. I beg you, do not show me unseasonable kindness. Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts, which are the means of making my way to God. God’s wheat I am, and by the teeth of wild beasts I am to be ground that I may prove Christ’s pure bread.” —Ignatius, Epistle to the Romans, in The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch, translated by James A. Kleist (New York: Paulist Press, 1946), 81-82.

“The poor wretches have convinced themselves, first and foremost, that they are going to be immortal and live for all time, in consequence of which they despise death and even willingly give themselves into custody; most of them. Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they are all brothers of one another after they have transgressed once, for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws.” —Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus 13, available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/peregrinus.html

“Every effort was made to ensure that the group would witness events leading up to the martyrdom. It was not uncommon for fellow Christians to visit the accused in their cells and to bring food and clothing to make the imprisonment more bearable. There were even celebrations to dramatize the forthcoming test of faith… All martyrs were on stage. Some suffered remorse and recanted but those who could take the pressure were assured of eternity, at least in the memories of the survivors. What was distinctive about martyrdom was not only promise of reward in the hereafter, but the certainty of being memorialized in this world. The martyr saw before dying that he or she had earned a place in the memories of survivors and in the liturgy of the church.” —Eugene Weiner and Anita Weiner, The Martyr’s Conviction: A Sociological Analysis (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 80-81.

“…persecutions rarely occurred, and only a tiny number of Christians ever were martyred—only ‘hundreds, not thousands’ according to WH.C. Frend (1965:413). Indeed, commenting on Tacitus’s claim that Nero had murdered ‘an immense multitude’ of Christians, Marta Sordi wrote that ‘a few hundred victims would justify the use of this term, given the horror of what happened’ ((1986:31)…There was surprisingly little effort to persecute Christians, and when a wave of persecution did occur, usually only bishops and other prominent figures were singled out. Thus for rank-and-file Christians the threat of persecution was so slight as to have counted for little among the potential sacrifices imposed on them.” —Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 179-180.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 47 GLOBAL CROSSROAD: Colonial Rangoon as Immigrant City

Angelo P. Coclanis | Solebury School (PA)| [email protected] Peter A. Coclanis | University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | [email protected]

Globalization is marked by relative and Midwest. And, muddying things Such scholars—Hugh Tinker many increases of transnational flows of one further, some fairly sizeable “mill” years ago, and more recently Dirk type or another—capital, products, cities in Massachusetts—Fall River Hoerder, Adam McKeown, and S. S. people, etc.—over a sustained period. and Lawrence—had foreign-born Amrith—have provided impressive Recent elections in the United States populations that exceeded New York’s evidence demonstrating that the and Europe have demonstrated rather during much of the period. whole world was in motion during this emphatically that during our current Extending our gaze a bit—to the period, and that Asia and Asians were phase of globalization the transnational Western Hemisphere as a whole—we very much involved in the process, flow of people, particularly in the form find that the foreign-born population particularly populations from southern of immigration, has become one of the in rapidly-growing Buenos Aires was China and South Asia. Not only was hot-button issues of the day. greater in percentage terms than there large-scale intra-Asian migration Not for the first time either. During was the case in New York during during this period, but also very sizable the last great era of globalization, this period. More specifically, the movements of Asian populations between about 1870 and 1920, percentage foreign-born in New York (both free and unfree) to other immigration also surged, leading, as City topped out during this period at parts of the world, mostly notably is the case today, to increased social about 44.5 percent (1870) and was to the Americas and eastern Africa. stresses in receiving areas, particularly a little less than 41 percent in 1910, Indeed, if one employs McKeown’s cities. Parts of this story are very well while in Buenos Aires, the foreign- broad definition of “long-distance known, most notably, the flight of born percentage of the population was migration,” population movements in millions of Europeans to cities in 52 in 1895, and 50 percent in 1914. Asia between 1840 and 1940 were far North America—New York, Boston, Although Buenos Aires was not New greater than “long-distance migration” Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee and the York, whose population was over 5 involving Western countries. And one like—where they encountered all kinds million by 1915, it was nonetheless a of the most significant destinations of difficulties for lengthy periods of big, big city, whose population in 1915 for intra-Asian population movements time before acculturating and finding exceeded 1.6 million. during the period was Burma after the acceptance as “Americans.” However instructive these data country came under British control One “immigrant city,” New York, is from the Western Hemisphere— between 1826 and 1886. often seen as the symbol, even the avatar and they are instructive indeed—our Once under British control, the of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth understanding would presumably be southern part of the country, known as century immigration, and is believed further enhanced by broadening our Lower Burma, was quickly deforested by many to have been the most heavily purview further still, which is a central and transformed into an agricultural immigrant city in the world at the time. aim of this piece. Here, we take a brief landscape suitable for the cultivation of Why this belief? Maybe because of the look at a case from Southeast Asia— paddy rice. Lower Burma was located size and scale of NYC, its position as Rangoon in Burma (Myanmar)—during in the heart of the South/Southeast an intellectual/cultural/media mecca, the same period, which is instructive on Asian rice belt, and the British quickly or even because of the Statue of several levels. Not only was this fast- saw that, if adequate supplies of labor Liberty; who knows? Certainly, there is growing city (the population of which in the sparsely populated region could no doubt that the huge city did receive had reached 500,000 by 1940) perhaps be found, it could become a world- large numbers of immigrants during the most-heavily immigrant large city class platform for the production and that period. in the entire world during this period, exportation of rice. In short order, such That said, recent research has made but a sense of the history and long- labor was in fact found, mostly migrants clear the fact that there are problems term effects of intense immigration from Upper Burma (which came under with both our empirics and our there at once enriches and complicates formal British control in 1886) and judgments. Although New York may long-standing immigration narratives from South Asia (southern India, and have been the most heavily immigrant developed in (and for) the West. in what is now Bangladesh and Sri huge city in the United States, other For some time now scholars of Lanka). Most of the migrants worked significant cities—San Francisco and El Asia and experts on global migration in rural parts of Lower Burma, but, as Paso, for example—had foreign-born have been telling those who have the rice export economy developed, populations during that period that in listened that the prevalent Western view many found jobs in Rangoon (now percentage terms rivaled New York’s of migration and immigration during Yangon), Lower Burma’s capital and and generally surpassed other urban the late nineteenth century and early principal port. The vast majority of the centers in the “immigrant” Northeast twentieth century is at best incomplete. migrants to Rangoon was comprised World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 48 of South Asians, and they soon came Like many metropolises in to dominate the population of the developing countries, Yangon’s rapidly growing city, where they found population has skyrocketed over the employment mainly in the burgeoning past few decades. Unlike the situation in entrepôt’s port complex and rice mills. the late nineteenth and early twentieth For example, the 1907 photograph century, when South Asians were to the right (from the United States considered central, even vital to Lower Library of Congress) shows freight Burma by the British, they are now handlers in Rangoon standing in front considered rather more anachronisms of the thousands of tons of rice which than vital assets in Yangon by the they have unloaded. Burmese, in a sense, stigmata attesting By the early twentieth century, to the much detested colonial and Rangoon, in fact, had a higher immigrant past. proportion of foreign-born in its population than did New York, and, *. The data in the graph were compiled from in case anyone is wondering, a higher some legitimacy, that they being Noriyuki Osada, “Housing the Rangoon proportion than Buenos Aires as well. marginalized and even pushed out Poor: Indians, Burmese, and Town Planning Moreover, in Rangoon immigrants of their own capital, and tense—and in Colonial Burma,” Institute of Developing consistently comprised a majority of sometimes violent—episodes arose Economies, Chiba, Japan, IDE Discussion the total population of the city—almost intermittently between immigrants and Paper No. 561, March 2016, Figure 3, p. 19; 60 percent in 1910—until World War natives through the remainder of the Censuses of India, Burma Reports, 1901, 1911, II, while in New York the immigrant colonial period. After independence 1921, 1931; U.S. Censuses, 1900-1931, New York proportion of the population topped in 1948, “outsiders”—i.e., non- City; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau out in this period, as we have seen, at Burmese—faced increasing hostility of the Census, Nativity of the Population about 44.5 percent in 1870, before in the country, and, over time, many of Urban Places Ever Among the 50 Largest gradually falling off. The percentage of South Asians left Rangoon and other Urban Places Since 1870, March 9, 1999, Rangoon’s total population comprised parts of Burma and returned to their Technical Paper 29, Table 22, [https://www. by immigrants from South Asia alone own homelands. census.gov/population/www/documentation/ between 1901 and 1931 ranged between That said, there are still a sizable twps0029/tab22.html] (accessed May 27, 2017). 45.4 and 52.3, which percentage number of South Asians in Yangon. Also see O. H. K. Spate and L. W. Trueblood, is greater than the total immigrant Unlike the case a century ago, they now “Rangoon: A Study in Urban Geography,” proportion of the total population of comprise a tiny proportion of the city’s Geographical Review 32 (January 1942): 56-73, New York City at any time during this ever- growing population. South Asians esp. pp. 59-61; Donald M. Seekins, State and period, as can be seen in Figure 1. now comprise perhaps 3-4 percent of Society in Modern Rangoon (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), p. 39; John L. Christian, “Burma Divorces India,” Current History 46 (April 1, 1937): 82-86, esp. p. 82. Note that the percentage of Rangoon’s population comprised by South Asian immigrants alone was 50.1 in 1901, 52.3 in 1911, 49 in 1921, and 45.4 in 1931. See Osada, “Housing the Rangoon Poor,” Figure 3, p. 19.

References

Amrith, Sunil S. Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013. Hoerder, Dirk. Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. McKeown, Adam M. Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of As in New York, Chicago, Buenos Yangon’s swelling population, which, Borders. New York: Columbia University Aires, and other “immigrant” cities, the according to the 2014 census—the Press, 2008. newcomers faced a tough time in colonial first in over 30 years—now exceeds Tinker, Hugh. A New System of Slavery: The Rangoon. Not just backbreaking work, 5.16 million in the central city itself Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830- poverty, poor housing and sanitation and 7.36 million, if “rural” parts of 1920. 2d ed. London: Hansib Press, either. The native Burmese felt, with Yangon are included. 1993. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 49 Book Review Section Yi Guolin Book Review Editor Arkansas Tech University [email protected]

Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn country. In another example, while commentary on the original and offers Battuta to India, the Spice Islands, Gibb’s edition is “The hens and cocks his own thoughts on as well as minor and China. Translated by Noël Q. in China are very big indeed, bigger corrections to earlier translations by King; Edited by Albion M. Butters. than geese in our country, and hen’s others. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener eggs there are bigger than our goose The quality of the translation is Publishers, 2018). Hardcover eggs. On the other hand their geese are based not only on his training in classics $64.95. Paperback $24.95. 228 not at all large” (283), King translates it and the languages such as Arabic and pages. as “The roosters and hens of China are French, but also his fascination and very plump. Their hen’s eggs are larger personal connections with the hero. Yi Guolin than our goose eggs, but their geese According to Albion M. Butters, the Arkansas Tech University are not fat” (154). King’s translation editor of this volume, King not only reads smoother and more euphonious had familiarized himself with Battuta’s The Travels of Ibn Battuta to India, the due to the coherent sentence structure travels in Africa, but also claimed to Spice Islands, and China (Princeton, and the thoughtful selection of words have visited every major identifiable NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2018) like “roosters” rather than “cocks” place that Battuta has gone in the East translated by Noel Q. King features the and “plump” rather than “big.” It is (12). The passion and dedication of final part of the travel by Ibn Battuta, nice that King in his translation uses the translator are always the recipe for the greatest traveler of the 14th century more colloquial phrases that are more excellence, which can be reflected in and the most famous one from the accessible to the readers. However, the well-thought-out prose. Muslim world. A sequel to Ibn Battuta English readers won’t be able to tell In summary, this book provides in Black Africa (Said Hamdun and Noel whether he has distorted the original professors and students an invaluable King, London: Rex Cullings, 1975) that taste of the text or has toned down the primary source for topics related to covers Battuta’s experience from 1327 biases of Battuta himself unless they world history, Middle East history, or to 1341, this volume deals with his can read the original Arabic text. Asian history. The colloquial language journey between 1342 and 1349 when Another difference between the has also opened it up to a broader he went through India, the Maldives, editions of King and Gibb is that in audience who are interested in the Sri Lanka, China, and then back to the the section about China, King starts cultural exchanges and trade networks Middle East and northern Africa. with the paragraph about Chinese in the old world before the Great In comparison to the edition ceramics, while omitting a paragraph Discovery. translated by H. A. R. Gibb (Ibn Battuta about Battuta’s introduction to the land Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354, of China as well as its rivers and fruits London, Broadway House, 1963), etc. (Gibb, 282). The translator has the language of this volume is more not provided any explanation for this colloquial. For example, in Gibb’s omission. Book Reviewers edition, Battuta describes the Chinese What is unique about this volume as follows: “The Chinese themselves is that the translator has added many Needed are infidels, who worship idols and subheadings for different sections. burn their dead like the Hindus.” These subheadings can function as If you are interested in reviewing (283) Whereas King’s translation is, useful landmarks for readers to browse materials for the World History “The Chinese are non-believers. They the contents and provide them with Bulletin, send you name, area worship idols and cremate the dead, just opportunities to pause and chew on of interest, and email address to as the Indians do” (155). In comparison the meanings of the text. In addition, either Guolin ([email protected]) or to “infidels,” the use of “non- the translator or editor has inserted Micheal ([email protected]). believers” is more neutral and carries several illustrations, such as pepper less bias against the Chinese. Similarly, harvesting in India (18), junk ships in “cremate” signifies more respect to China (69), and a kind of exotic fish the dead than the impassive “burn.” from Maldives (79), etc. Even though Moreover, even though “Hindus” these illustrations have been adopted are the majority of the population in from various archival sources, they India, the word “Indians” focuses less have made the texts interesting to read. on religion and instead highlights the The translator also uses close to one ethnic identities of the people in that hundred footnotes where he makes World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 50 THE BANANA BUSINESS: Tracing the Contours of a Tropical Fruit Commodity in World History Cynthia Ross |Texas A&M University – Commerce | [email protected]

of caloric Editor’s Note: The essay below is written with energy, dietary a general audience in mind and works well for fiber, and educators who are looking to revise lesson plans and carbohydrates lecture materials with new content. In particular, as well as vital the author notes content that can be used in world history survey classes, global environmental history nutrients like classes, and in U.S. History survey courses that vitamins A, a discuss vertical integration. full range of B vitamins, vitamin C, Introduction calcium, and potassium. In 2017, the average American Due to their consumed almost 29 pounds of nutritional bananas annually, mostly for breakfasts qualities and the and snacks, making it the most fact that banana popular fruit in the United States. plants produce That popularity extends around the fruit year- world, with 67.5 million metric tons of round, bananas bananas produced every year—more are the primary than any other fruit consumed on earth. nutrition source In fact, after wheat, rice, and corn, for millions of bananas are the fourth largest food people in sub- crop in the world. Yet the top three Saharan Africa banana producing countries – India, who do not China, and Brazil - offer almost none have easy access of the fruit for export as it is grown to cereal grains by small-scale farmers and consumed such as rice, locally. Though bananas grow in over corn or wheat. 100 countries, only 10-15 percent of The place of the world’s banana crop is actually bananas in some societies, like Family on a banana plantation in Uganda, 1936. Photograph by G. traded on a global market. The primary Eric Matson. Source: United States Library of Congress. exporters for the world market are that of Uganda, Ecuador (which provides 30 percent of is so important are not traded globally because they are the total global exports alone), Costa that the word ‘matooke’ means both highly perishable, making it impossible Rica, Colombia, Honduras, Panama, ‘food’ and ‘banana’ when translated to get them to distant markets. Indeed, Guatemala, and the Philippines. The from Swahili. The word “banana” today there is only one single species banana’s worldwide ubiquity relies on itself derives from the West African of banana that dominates the entire historical developments in industrial word for the fruit (baanana), and points global market due to its transportability transportation technology and to the long history of connections that and shelf life—the bright yellow Giant informal imperialism in these exporting brought this fruit to bellies around the Cavendish that consumers are familiar countries. world. with from Los Angeles to Sydney. Bananas consumed in the United There are over 1000 different Although similar in appearance States and Europe are mostly sweet varieties of banana that vary in size, to a palm, the banana plant is not a dessert bananas that are eaten raw, color, shape, and taste, though only tree but a type of fast growing giant and this type of banana makes up the about 20 of these are cultivated herb from the orchid and lily family largest percentage of bananas sold commercially. Some are just the size of (Musaceae). Rather than a solid mass human fingers and are bright yellow, on the world market. However, as of wood, the trunk is a pseudostem much as 80 percent of the bananas while others may be over 12 inches made up of a tightly wrapped bunch grown worldwide are the denser, drier long, red in color, or have a distinct of overlapping leaves. It grows very cooking bananas frequently referred tangy vanilla flavor. Others may have fast, with a fully mature plant reaching to as plantains or vegetable bananas, large hard seeds that permeate the fruit, 15 to 30 feet ready to produce fruit which can be boiled, fried, ground into making it difficult to eat. Some types of in about one year. The male bloom, a flour, or treated as any other starch. All bananas, like the Micronesian kufafa, dark red conical shaped flower called bananas provide an excellent source World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 51 the banana heart or banana blossom fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in occur until the technological advances is eaten raw or steamed in many the Garden of Eden was the banana, and industrialization of the nineteenth Southeast Asian countries and India rather than the apple that appears in century. Maritime entrepreneurs used but, being extremely perishable, it is later versions. Alexander the Great schooners to bring small and irregular not usually available outside the region. reportedly came across this unusual shipments of bananas from the Within just a few days of the female fruit growing in India in 327 BCE Caribbean and Panama to ports in New flowers blooming, the stem bearing the during his long military campaigns, Orleans and New York beginning in the flower beings to produce between ten and enjoyed the taste. By 200 CE, the 1860s, but this trade was insignificant and fifteen clusters of banana fruits Chinese historian Yang Fu wrote of on a global scale. Then, in 1870, called hands, the berries of the plant. banana plantations existing in southern Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker of the Each of these hands carries 18 to 20 China. However, consumption of the Telegraph, a seaman and entrepreneur bananas that grow upwards in a bunch fruit there was very limited, and most from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, sailed from the stem. A single banana plant people considered bananas as rare and through the Caribbean on his way can produce about two hundred fruits exotic. back from delivering machinery to per growing cycle. After fruiting the Islamic armies and merchants Venezuela. When he arrived at Port plant’s pseudostem replaces itself and eventually encountered bananas in their Antonio in Jamaica, Baker was looking begins to prepare for the next cycle of travels to South and Southeast Asia for something to transport and sell growth and fruiting. beginning in 650 CE. Arabic merchants back in the United States. Merchants on Bananas were one of the first engaged in trading slaves, ivory, gold, the dock introduced him to the banana fruits domesticated by humans, about and bananas spread the fruit all over and, without much financial risk, Baker 7000 years ago. This early genetic Africa via trans-Saharan and maritime purchased 160 green bunches of this manipulation, by crossing different trading routes along the southeastern unknown and unrecognizable fruit varieties of wild bananas to achieve African coast and Madagascar. The for about a penny each. His schooner desired characteristics, created a fruit banana was quickly adopted by local arrived in Boston less than two weeks that was sweeter, softer in texture, populations due to its high nutrition later where he sold the now perfectly and importantly, seedless. By making content and its ability to grow large ripe yellow bananas for two dollars a the preferred bananas seedless, early amounts of fruit on very small pieces bunch, making a handsome profit. human societies necessitated the of land. By the tenth century, bananas Baker undertook many more future involvement of humans to grew along the banks of the Nile in voyages to Jamaica, eventually propagate the fruit. Rootstocks, called Egypt and some areas of Palestine. By relocating there, and others began to rhizomes, are taken from mature the time Portuguese explorers landed get involved in the trade. Soon bananas plants and are transplanted into new on the West African coast in Guinea were arriving at ports in Boston, New soil that gets plenty of rain, has good in 1402, bananas extended across York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In drainage, and very warm weather year Africa’s tropical regions. Within just a 1895, Baker formed a partnership with round. The tropics, therefore, provide few years, the Portuguese established Andrew Preston and together they perfect growing conditions. These the first banana plantations in the founded the Boston Fruit Company. rhizomes send out new shoots, called Canary Islands and West Africa, with Within just twenty-five years of the suckers, that are genetically identical the intention of feeding their growing first bananas reaching American ports, clones of the original source. These slave populations. the fruit was so popular that almost eventually become fruit bearing plants After Europeans arrived in the one hundred fruit companies could that continue to thrive for decades Americas, the Portuguese friar Tomás de not keep up with the demand. Still, unless uprooted, diseased, burned, Berlanga transported banana rhizomes bananas were considered rare enough or chemically killed. This method across the Atlantic and planted them on that Goodholme’s Domestic Cyclopedia of of propagation is very important the island of Hispaniola in 1516. From Practical Information (1889) provided because of recurring disease threats there, bananas spread throughout the a description of how to eat bananas to the world’s banana production. A Caribbean, Central America, and Brazil stating, “Bananas are eaten raw, either disease that affects one affects them by successive explorers, slavers, traders, alone or cut into slices with sugar and all, a situation that has the potential to and missionaries. They reached Mexico cream, or wine and orange juice. They impact the diets of billions of people. in 1531 and Florida by the nineteenth are also roasted, fried or boiled, and century. Despite the centuries-long are made into fritters, preserves, and involvement of the Portuguese and marmalades.” Origins and Spread of Bananas Spanish in the spread of bananas, Another American, Minor Keith, the fruit remained largely unknown had been exporting bananas from Bananas originated in mainland in most of Europe. Due to its highly Costa Rica to New Orleans, using Southeast Asia, near the modern perishable nature, banana plantations a railroad he built that speeded the country of Malaysia, and over time only fed local populations from slaves delivery of bananas from the plantation spread into the tropical areas of the to priests. to the waiting ships. Keith, like other Indian sub-continent. One of the ‘banana barons’ operating in Central earliest recordings of the fruit is found and South America, were assisted by in a Buddhist Pali text written in India Bananas as a Commodity friendly governments that provided about 600 BCE. In many of the ancient land for plantations in exchange for translations of the Christian Bible, the Banana trade over long distances did not development in the form of railroad World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 52 systems. By the 1880s, Keith’s cities and were then loaded onto trucks on postcards and in schools. Doctors enterprise dominated the banana trade bound for local markets. By the time became paid proponents of bananas in Central America, reaching as far they reached grocers just a few days as wholesome nutritious foods. Finally, south as Colombia. However, due to away from the shore, many of the harnessing the ability of radio and, financial difficulties he began to look bananas were overripe or rotten, and later, television to reach mass audiences, for a strong partnership. In 1899, Keith, lost any profit potential. This was an United Fruit (renamed Chiquita Brands Preston, and Baker merged their banana unacceptably long distribution chain International in 1985) wrote catchy exportation ventures into one company for such a time-sensitive crop. The jingles to create a consumer base loyal called the United Fruit Company. With adoption of steamship technology to a specific brand of banana. that, United Fruit became the largest by the growing banana empires and By 1900, United Fruit had their company of its kind in the world with wireless communication between the new fleet of steamships arriving at a fleet of ships, established markets in company headquarters in America, the American ports much faster than the the most populated cities in eastern and ships at sea, and the banana plantations old schooners ever could. These ships southern United States, and hundreds considerably reduced the amount of were quickly dubbed the Great White of thousands of plantation acres and travel time and increased the tonnage Fleet, due to coatings of white paint railroads in Jamaica, Panama, Costa of goods transported. The effect of that reflected the sun to maintain an Rica, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, and these technologies, in turn, increased optimum temperature for bananas. Hispaniola. the consumer demand for bananas and The allowances for transportation and By the late nineteenth century, other caused an extension of the plantation storage time for bananas were further banana entrepreneurs were focused on system to meet that demand. increased with the introduction of markets in Europe, particularly Great The question remains, how did refrigerator ships in 1903. Indeed, many Britain. Thomas Fyffe, a London-based bananas become so popular by the early burgeoning technologies were key food wholesaler, began importing twentieth century? First, bananas were factors in driving the banana market to bananas from the Canary Islands in often the only fresh fruit available unimagined prosperity. Since bananas 1878, and by 1883 he and his business in small markets during the winter must be harvested while still green, partner purchased land to be converted months, due to refinements in the producers developed precision systems into more banana plantations in the shipping process. Second, banana for processing them - from picking, Canaries. Regular high-volume banana companies were also among the first sorting, washing, packing, shipping, to trade between Britain and its Caribbean in the fruit industry to market their forced ripening with ethylene gas just colony of Jamaica began in 1901 products directly to consumers. In before going onto market shelves. with the merger of Fyffe’s importing addition to print advertisements, they By the 1920s, United Fruit and its company and Elder Dempster’s encouraged stronger banana sales competitor Standard Fruit (now Dole steamer service, as Elders & Fyffes using coupons and direct advertising Food Company) not only controlled Limited. The next year, the global banana market United Fruit purchased 45% but held a dominant of Elders & Fyffes capital stake in the entire fruit after the company fell on industry. Indeed, just a hard times. Importantly, decade later more people this gave Elders & Fyffes in Central America access to alternative banana worked for United Fruit plantations, a strategic than for any other single business decision at a time company. This economic when entire crops were often power translated into wiped out by hurricanes. immense political power Innovations in shipping in Central and South and climate-control American countries, technology—products of with company interests increasingly complex waves controlling the futures of industrialization— of countries like Costa ultimately secured the Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, banana’s place as a global Honduras, and Panama commodity. Nineteenth- for decades. These century schooners took exploitive neo-colonial almost two weeks to travel relationships based on between the Caribbean and keeping costs low became harbors along the Eastern so synonymous with the Seaboard of the United banana industry that the States, and often longer term ‘banana republic’ to European destinations. became associated with Workers—likely from the United Fruit Company—in a banana- From the point of origin, packing warehouse place ripe bananas in special boxes for the ride the Central and South bananas traveled by rail to to the retailer. Central America, 1948. Source: United States Library American dictatorial distribution centers in major of Congress. regimes, many of which World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 53 were installed and supported by 1970s, the company suffered through dominate the industry, including companies like United Fruit and backed a period of financial mismanagement Chiquita Brands International (formerly by political interests in the United and was near ruin. In addition, the U.S. United Fruit Company), Dole Food States. As an example of its control Securities and Exchange Commission Company (formerly Standard Fruit in the region, United Fruit renamed was investigating a series of bribes Company), Fyffes Limited (including the Guatemalan hub of their industry paid by United Brands in exchange for Geest, Turbana, Coplaca, Cape, and Bananera and assumed control of reduced taxes to the then-President Outspan), and Del Monte Foods. postal services for the country. Latin of Honduras, Oswaldo López Due to stricter regulations, reform, American journalists began to derisively Arellano—a scandal referred to in the and greater transparency, some refer to United Fruit as El Pulpo (The media as ‘Bananagate.’ In 1974, the of the most ruthless and corrupt Octopus) due to its economic and chairman, Eli Black committed suicide practices of the banana industry have political machinations throughout the by jumping from the 44th floor of the disappeared. The lasting effects of the region. Pan Am building in New York City exploitation practiced in the twentieth World War II brought a few where the company’s headquarters century are, however, still being felt significant changes to the banana were located. in the former ‘banana republics,’ and industry. British imports of bananas In reality, accusations of bribes the status of workers’ rights remain from Jamaica came to a virtual to officials, not paying their share of a deeply contested issue. Evolving standstill due to the demand for taxes, exploitation of workers, and concerns about national security and transport ships for the war effort. aggressively consolidating monopolies terrorism have also become part of the Britain compensated its growers with a were nothing new for any of the major banana’s story. In 2007, the U.S. Justice lump sum of £800,000 and encouraged banana companies. The ruthless tactics Department fined Chiquita $25 million crop diversification to help stabilize of the banana empires in Central and for having ties to the United Self- the economy. At war’s end, Jamaican South America encouraged the rise of Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) dominance of the British banana trade workers’ unions, but their strikes were from 1997 to 2004. The agreement with had ended as other Caribbean growers violently put down by state police forces AUC, to provide employee protection quickly outpaced them. under company influence. Socialist and in violent banana harvesting areas, United Fruit political influence communist parties in the region also was similar to other arrangements and money also contributed to the frequently referred to the imperialist made with the Revolutionary Armed U.S.-backed overthrow (in 1954) of abuses of United Fruit and others Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the the democratically elected socialist when campaigning. Finally, political National Liberation Army (ELN), president of Guatemala, Colonel writers and activists in countries rival insurgent groups operating in Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, by Colonel dominated by the banana industry Colombia-- all of which are on the U.S. Carlos Castillo Armas. In fact, the such as Carlos Luis Fallas (Costa Rica), State Department’s Foreign Terrorist banana industry was quite fearful of Ramón Amaya Amador (Honduras), Organizations list. As of 2018, criminal any popular communist or socialist and Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala) charges against Chiquita are pending in movements that effectively mobilized also called for increased independence Colombia for the same issue. workers or promised land redistribution from foreign influence by denouncing Due to increased competition in banana-producing countries. They the banana corporations, as did Gabriel among large conglomerate grocers that worked at the highest levels of state and García Márquez (Colombia) and Pablo reduced profit margins over the last two international bureaucracy to see banana Neruda (Chile). decades, banana growers also receive a interests come first in the minds of In the early twenty-first century, lower wholesale price for their product. politicians. By the late 1950s, however, bananas remain a central commodity Modern banana plantations with United Fruit was seeing a steady decline for billions of people. Exported complex, mechanized procedures and in its shares. This was compounded by bananas are transported on ships state-of-the-art scientific equipment Fidel Castro’s nationalization of all much larger than the early steamers, for maintaining banana crops are company holdings in Cuba in 1959. relying on diesel electric engines and capital intensive investments, requiring Though United Fruit did loan banana carrying up to 5,000 tons of bananas, an enormous initial investment in transport ships to the U.S. Central compared to the 50 ton capacity ships capital and expertise to send out the Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the at the turn of the twentieth century. very first shipment of fruit. Apart failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in Bananas found in most neighborhood from Chiquita-, Dole-, Fyffes-, and 1961, the company was unsuccessful in supermarkets around the world hung Del Monte-owned and operated recouping their losses from the Cuban from the banana plants of Latin banana plantations, almost all other government and the United States America or the Philippines less than large plantations are run by wealthy declined to take any further action in 20 days before. After harvesting, they landowners. These landowners may Cuba. are graded for quality, washed, cut into increase local competition for the global In the late twentieth century, United smaller bunches and packed in boxes market in the coming years. Recently, Fruit changed hands several times and weighing forty pounds each. 250,000 some banana growers in Colombia, went through a series of name changes, of those boxes are loaded into ships Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, becoming United Brands in the 1970s refrigerated to 58°F, destined for Ecuador, Jamaica, Peru, and Windward and Chiquita Food Corporation in 1985. shores all over the world. Islands have become certified as ‘fair In the same period, the power of the Several large corporations with trade’ growers, meaning the producers corporation began to wane. During the multiple subsidiaries continue to are paid a fair price for their product. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 54 Tension does however remain over expedient marriage gave Keith, and countries, but most were unsuccessful. bananas as a commodity, especially United Fruit, access to larger amounts On 12 November 1928, just a few between the European Union (EU) of land for plantations and railroads, decades after United Fruit established and the United States. For most of and they subsequently began acquiring plantations in Colombia, estimates of the twentieth century and well into the other fruit companies in the country. between 11,000 and 30,000 workers twenty-first, the EU imported most In Honduras, banana companies began to strike near Santa Marta, of its bananas from former colonies controlled both the fruit industry and on the Caribbean coast. Less than in the Caribbean like Jamaica and the the railways early on, and in 1910 staged one month later, on 6 December, , and guaranteed a coup to obtain preferential treatment the Colombian Army opened fire growers prices above the global market from the newly installed government. on the striking workers in the town rates. Due to pressure from the World Almost a century after the initial of Ciénaga, claiming the organizers Trade Organization, especially the incursions of banana companies into were communist revolutionaries. A United States, the EU made significant Latin America, the lasting economic young Colombian political leader, changes in these indirect subsidies and political influence of these banana Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, member of the that took effect in 2007, which may conglomerates also contributed to the Liberal Party and highly critical of ultimately favor U.S. banana producers violence that resulted in the Guatemalan the indirect imperialism of the United in Central and South America in the Civil War, killing an estimated 200,000 States through United Fruit, defended long term. Guatemalans from 1966 to 1996. the workers’ rights and called for Banana company manipulation government accountability. He claimed of land rights to maintain market that General Carlos Cortés Vargas had Economic and Political Impacts dominance was one of the most acted under direct instructions from volatile political issues during much of the banana company when giving the The lasting effects of ‘banana the twentieth century. Claiming that order to shoot. In response, Cortés republics’ and the right-wing dictatorial hurricanes and other natural disasters Vargas argued that he had given the regimes that sustained them have had required them to hold large tracts of order to prevent the imminent landing far-reaching consequences for the undeveloped land for possible future of U.S. ships along the Colombian political and economic futures of these use, banana companies successfully coast, which would have amounted to a banana-producing states. Some regimes kept arable land out of peasant hands. foreign invasion to protect Americans maintained the government and social In particular, United Fruit discouraged and the interests of United Fruit. systems modeled on older forms of highway construction in Guatemala The Colombian Army brutally Spanish colonial rule. This included a that could have affected its monopoly put down the strike; a letter written by small, wealthy governing class at the of transportation that relied on Joseph Caffery, the U.S. Ambassador to top of the social hierarchy and a large railroads. Ultimately, controlling land Colombia, indicated over one thousand uneducated and impoverished peasant use allowed the banana companies strikers and a handful of soldiers were class at the bottom, the latter supporting to prevent any governmental land killed. The political scandal that ensued the entire structure with their labor. redistribution to peasants eager to from the “La masacre de las bananeras” Some ‘banana republics’ styled enter the banana trade. This company helped to end forty-four years of themselves as democratic regimes with control of land rights amounted to Conservative Party rule in Colombia presidents, but most did not consist long-term indirect imperialism, as after President Miguel Abadía Méndez of democracy in any real sense. Other maintaining governmental concessions was voted out of office in 1930. dictators friendly to banana interests required ongoing political corruption Gaitán rose to national prominence ruled as iron-fisted military dictators. and company involvement in regional through populist appeals and an anti- Regardless of the trappings of rule, politics. imperialist message directed at the all of these servile dictatorships were The presence of banana companies banana companies. When running most interested in achieving power and in Latin America was not destructive for president in 1948, Gaitán was wealth for themselves at the expense in every sense. Infrastructure buildup assassinated, sparking rioting in the of their countrymen and women. to increase company profits occurred streets of Bogota. This violence, Indeed, the Central and South in many countries. American banana known as “Bogotazo” was the beginning American banana trade directly led to companies built cities, schools, and of La Violencia, a decade-long violent vast commercial empires that built up improved roads but, most importantly, struggle between political factions or tore down governments according laid thousands of miles of railroad track across the Colombian countryside that to company interests. In addition to and built major ports for sea-going ended in 1958. Indeed, throughout the the role played by United Fruit in the vessels. This stimulated other sectors twentieth century, banana companies overthrow of Guatemala’s president of the economy and provided greater and the right-wing dictatorships they in the 1950s, banana interests collided transportation for the population. supported were quite fearful of popular at other times with legitimate politics. Banana companies were often the communist revolutions occurring For instance, in the early years of the largest employers in the region, even in banana exporting countries, Costa Rican banana trade, Minor Keith though wages were low and working with Colombia being no exception. married Cristina Castro Fernández, conditions harsh. Communist guerrilla movements like daughter of the former Costa Rican There have been attempts by FARC, however, have argued that President, José María Castro Madriz governments, unions, and workers to the massacre near Santa Marta and (1847-49, 1866-68). This politically control the banana companies in some other events linked to the influence World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 55 of United Fruit and other companies commercialization of the banana crop, replacement for the Gros Michel. directly spurred the development of as low marsh lands were drained and After billions of dollars in research communism. forests cleared to make room for larger and development the Giant Cavendish banana plantations, creating what is (Musa acuminata ‘Grand Nain’), a known as a monocrop. As noted slightly smaller banana, eventually came Social and Cultural Impacts above, banana plantations quickly to replace the Gros Michel as it was encompassed hundreds of thousands resistant to Panama disease. Presently, Bananas have changed every society of acres in Central American countries the Cavendish is the primary product that grows them, either for local use or just two decades after the establishment of Chiquita Brands International. In commercially. Many of those societies of global fruit companies. the early 1990s, another strain of the that rely on bananas as the primary Monocropping is one of the fungus was found in Asian plantations nutrition source are dependent on year- most hazardous practices in terms of Cavendish bananas and quickly round production of the crop grown of food security. It not only leaves destroyed plantations in Australia, by small farmers to avoid starvation. A the cultivating community at greater Taiwan, and much of Southeast Asia. poor harvest year, destructive storms, risk of starvation should imports Indeed, thriving plantations in Malaysia fires, or plant diseases could mean of food necessities not arrive, but it were completely gone within five years disaster for people who depend on the also increases the risk of economic of discovering the fungus. There is also fruit in parts of India and sub-Saharan instability if the commercialized crop fear that this fungus, or others like it, Africa. Societies that produce bananas fails. Indeed, something disastrous did may spread to the non-commercial for export are also dependent on the happen soon after planting the first banana varieties that so many people banana as well as the banana companies bananas in Central America. In 1900, a rely on. Researchers are now quickly that employ them. fungus (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) looking for another replacement The lives of American banana transmitted through soil and water was species that will not only be resistant executives who lived in these exporting first detected in Panama and swiftly to the fungus but also be acceptable countries differed greatly from the swept through many plantations across to a global market that has come to lives of the plantation workers. the region. Coined “Panama disease,” expect their bananas to be the same Banana plantations featured gated this fungus proved to be so deadly in supermarkets from Milwaukee to and guarded living compounds for because of the way commercial bananas Hong Kong. As yet, they have had very executives overseeing production, are propagated through transplanting limited success. including large Euro-American style rhizomes. This makes all bananas of a Finding a replacement for the houses, swimming pools, horse racing particular species genetic copies of one Cavendish will not lessen the continuing tracks, and an assortment of luxury another; thus, when a disease affects impact on the environment caused goods and services. While banana one plantation it can easily spread to by banana monocropping. Beginning workers of today are treated far better millions of others because they than they were 50 or 100 years ago, lack resistant properties. global attention continues to focus on The most devastating spread employment conditions, living spaces of disease among bananas provided by the companies, and the occurred during the first half redress of grievances. of the twentieth century. The effects were so disastrous that the banana sold in markets Environmental Impacts today is a completely different species than the fruits bought Environmental issues have been part at the supermarket in 1960. The of the banana’s commodity history Gros Michel (Musa acuminata since its earliest introduction to world ‘Gros Michel’) was the primary markets. Ecological changes, including commercial banana in Europe the effects of monocropping—the and the United States beginning growing of one crop to increase in the nineteenth century productivity for a commercial market— through the 1950s. It was a the use of pesticides, shifting land large species that had a thicker rights, and carbon emissions from skin and creamier texture than transportation are among the most the bananas today. Despite the important environmental problems strategy of moving plantations associated with banana production, to new land every 10 years, and with consequences that are already clearing more rain forest in the affecting a large percentage of the process, Panama disease quickly global population. ravaged plantations across Prior to the 1870s, most banana the Caribbean and Central Developing fruits of a Cavendish banana. Photo from Wiki Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; plantations in the Caribbean America. By the early 1960s, the File:Bananenblüte.JPG; Created: 8 February 2008. were converted sugar plantations. primary importers were almost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavendish_banana#/ This changed after the increasing bankrupt while trying to find a media/File:Bananenbl%C3%BCte.JPG World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 56 with attempts to control the airborne References fungus Mycosphaerella fijiensis—which causes the disease Black Sigatoka— Arias, Pedro, Cora Dankers, Pascal Liu, and Paul Pilkauskas. World Banana Economy, 1985- in the 1920s, large corporations like 2002. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2003. United Fruit began to use pesticides Bucheli, Marcelo. Bananas and Business: The United Fruit Company in Colombia, 1899-2000. to safeguard their crops. Bananas are New York: New York University Press. 2005 Caffery, Jefferson. “Letter from the United States Ambassador to Colombia to the United highly susceptible to a variety of insects States Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg regarding the Santa Marta strike.” January and disease, necessitating frequent use 16, 1929. of fungicides and pesticides; as often Goodholme, Todd S. Goodholme’s Domestic Cyclopedia of Practical Information Illustrated. New as forty times per year. The use of York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1889. such large amounts of chemicals over Koeppel, Dan. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World. New York: Penguin. millions of acres can have negative 2007. impacts on the long-term health Liu, Pascal and Sabine Altendorf. Banana Market Review, 2017. Rome: Food and Agriculture of banana workers, ground water, Organization of the United Nations, 2018. soil, areas of runoff, and wildlife. May, Stacy and Galo Plaza. The United Fruit Company in Latin America. Washington, D.C.: These effects, added to widespread National Planning Association. 1958. deforestation, contribute to severely Reynolds, Philip Keep. The Story of the Banana. Boston: United Fruit Company. 1921. Tucker, Richard P. Insatiable Appetite: The United States and the Ecological Degradation of the declining soil fertility and biodiversity Tropical World. Berkley: University of California Press. 2000. which are critical to a sustainable Wilson, Charles Morrow. Empire in Green and Gold: The Story of the American Banana Trade. environment. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1947. In response to changing governmental policies and consumer demand, many of the large banana exporters are investigating more sustainable practices. This includes requiring banana plantations to reduce pesticide use and work towards soil Among the various conservation. Smaller growers have representatives who begun to produce organic bananas that gathered in Paris to rely on more traditional methods of discuss peace were insect and fungus control, such as crop the men shown here: rotation or planting other beneficial Clockwise from the top plants among the bananas, rather than Chinese Foreign Minister relying on synthetic agrochemicals. Lu Zhengxiang; Edvard Still, some organic practices, such as Beneš representing moving plantations to drier areas that Czechoslovakian are less susceptible to fungus continues independence, and to destroy tropical rain forests and Unknown delegates biodiversity. from Portugal. Source: Despite the slowly increasing role United States Library of of small growers in banana exporting Congress. countries, the future of the banana will still lie in the hands of multinational corporations like Chiquita and Dole. Hybridizing technologies and genetic manipulation to develop disease- resistant bananas in carefully controlled laboratory settings costs tens of millions of dollars every year that locally based researchers simply cannot afford. While the plight of the banana workers may be better today in some respects than it was a century ago, and the grossest neo-colonial excesses of companies like United Fruit may be receding into history, the true costs of global banana consumerism may be very high indeed. The lives of hundreds of millions that rely on bananas for their daily food and livelihood hang in the balance.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 57 Portrait of Sir Robert Laird Borden (1854-1937), Canada’s ninth Prime Minister. Painted by Sir William Orpen (1878- 1931) during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Credit: Library and Archives Canada / Acc. No. 1991-76-1/ C-11238.

Poster showing two Red Cross nurses, one cradling in her arms a child on a litter, between the flags of Japan and the United States. Source: United States Library of Congress.

The First Pilgrimage to Notre Dame de Lorette after the War of 1914- 1918 by Mary Riter Hamilton. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1988-180-77.

“The Lamb from Slaughter” cartoon shows Henry Cabot Lodge, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, escorting a battered figure on crutches (drawn as a rolled up scroll and labeled “Peace Treaty”) out of a room labeled “Operating Room, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.” Conservative senators had grave concerns over the provisions of the Treaty of Versailes that ended the first World War and provided for the establishment of the League of Nations. When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally reported the Treaty to the full Senate on September 10, they included 45 amendments and reservations. President Wilson refused to accept any of the reservations and the Treaty was eventually rejected on November 19, 1919. Created by Clifford Kennedy Berryman. Published:Evening Star, September 10, 1919. Source: United States Library of Congress.

World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 58 Detail from print by Bruno Guards of the French Republic at the Palace of Goldschmitt, 1914. Source: Versailles during the Treaty signing. Stereocard United States Library of published in 1923 by Keystone View Company, with Congress. accompanying text (shown below). Source: United States Library of Congress.

Die Wiege des Völkerbundes (The Cradle of the League of Nations) by Olaf Gulbransson. Cartoon appeared in the magazine , 11 March 1919. Print shows Woodrow Wilson seated with his hand on a coffin which looks like a cradle. In the background, David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau watch. Text beneath the cartoon: “Die Wiege ist gut gewählt für ein totgeborenes Kind.” (The cradle is well chosen for a stillborn child.) Source: United States Library of Congress.

Above: Clemenceau, Wilson and Lloyd George leaving Palace of Versailles after signing peace treaty. Stereocard published in 1923 by Keystone View Company, with accompanying text (shown below). Source: United States Library of Congress. Right: Propheten einer neuen Welt (Prophets of a New World). Cartoon shows Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson caricatured as Moses and his brother (Aaron) standing with two tablets representing the ten command- ments (i.e., Wilson’s fourteen points). Cartoon clipped from an unknown German newspaper. Source: United States Library of Congress. World History Bulletin • Vol XXXV • No. 1 • Page 59 Source: United States Library of Congress. Lithograph Print — by B. Crétée — showing satirical map of Crétée — showing Lithograph B. Print — by Germany including England as ships, Europe in 1914 that depicts national symbols and stereotypes to represent countries, II of Nicholas as Tsar Marianne riding a cockerel the German pokes at French as a bull charging bull. Russia

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