The First World War: Analysis and Interpretation, Volume 2

Description

This volume is the result of an international conference held at Sapienza University of Rome in June 2014, which brought together scholars from different countries to re-analyse and re-interpret the events of the First World War, one hundred years after a young Bosnian Serb student from the Mlada Bosna, Gavrilo Princip, lit the fuse and ignited the conflict which was to forever change the world. The Great War--initially on a European and then on a world scale--demonstrated the fragility of the international system of the European balance of powers, and determined the dissolution of the great multinational empires and the need to redraw the map of Europe according to the principles of national sovereignty. This book provides new insights into theories of this conflict, and is characterized by internationality, interdisciplinarity and a combination of different research methods. The contributions, based on archival documents from various different countries, international and local historiography, and on the analysis of newspaper articles, postcards, propaganda material, memorials and school books, examine the role of intellectuals and artists in the conflict, the issue of minorities and nationalities, the economy, and international relations and politics, in addition to specific case studies such as Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Caucasus and the Middle East. Table of Contents Chapter Five: Nationalities and Minorities The Jews of Eastern Europe and the Great War in the Documents of the Joint Distribution Committee Ideological Debate on the Aspects of Jewish Identity during the Great War Stirring the Pot The War to End all Wars and Then What? The First World War in the Russian Muslims’ Perception Inorodtsy and the Great War The Impulse of the Great War on Georgian Identity Development Language and the Yugoslav Unification of 1918 The Easter Rising WWI and the Birth of the International System for Refugees’ Protection Chapter Six: Intellectuals and Historiographical Debate “The Manifesto of the Ninety-Three!” Intellectuals in the Great War Loyalty to the Habsburgs or Slavic Solidarity? Masaryk’s Dilemma in 1914 War, Peripheral Countries and Core Intellectuals Between Regeneracionismo and Generación del 98 The Turkish Intellectuals and the Great War Pacifist Writers and Soldier Writers in Romania of the Great War The Great War in Literary Awareness Works of Serbian War Painters and Photographers on European Picture Postcards (1916-1918) Italian Federalists and the First World War The Theatre and the First World War Decentralizing Political Powers Chapter Seven: Politics and International Relations The Great War within the Neorealist Theory of IR Italian Diplomacy Confronts the Irredentist Movement at the Eve of the Great War Italy and France in the Austro-Serbian Crisis of July 1914 Strategic Background of Greece’s Participation in the Great War (1914-1917) War and Empire The Sixtus Affair Neutral Nations, Institution Building and Security Sector Reforms during WWI Geopolitical Changes Before and After WWI Latin America and the Constituent Dimension of the First World War Chapter Eight: Economy and War War, Economy, and Pacifism in the Thought of Rosa Luxemburg Industrial Mobilization and Economic Governance in Italy during the First World War The Path of Economic Policies Dressing up in Time of War Chapter Nine: Russia and the Ottoman Empire A Review of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce’s Performance within the Context of Economic Affairs between the Two Countries in the Early Stage of the Great War The Ottoman Empire towards the War The Energetic Issue as a Key Factor of the Fall of the Ottoman Empire Chapter Ten: The Caucasus and the Middle East The Interests of German Concerns WWI According to the Documents Preserved in the National Archives of Georgia The Caucasian Front and Azerbaijan during the First World War Central Asia 1915–1919: New Rules for the Great Game Identity, Culture and Modernity within the Fall of the Ottoman Empire Conclusion A Difficult Postwar Period