Imperial Forces Research Articles

Mauss on the First World War as trauma and turning point

The First World War, which has been a terrible ordeal for the two main Europeans societies in the conflict—Germany and France—and for the 8 million individuals who had been mobilized in a war of mass killing, has been also an ordeal for Marcel Mauss: deaths of members of his family, friends, and colleagues. From on September 3, 1914 to January 1919, Mauss, volunteered, has been mobilized: interpreter to a combat unit, the Twenty-seventh British Division; officer-interpreter third-class and detached Fifth Australian Division (Australian Imperial Force), etc. We may think the World War have been a trauma and a turning point in Marcel Mauss’ life and work. My paper, which is based on a considerable documentation (interviews, archives, correspondence, manuscripts), is divided in three parts: before, during, after the war.

“Politics Are Quite Beneath the Concern of the Average Billjim”: Politics and the First World War Anzacs, 1914–1918

The politics of Australia during First World War have been analysed in depth by many scholars, but little attention has been paid to the politics of the soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Though often assumed to have been not interested in politics, this article demonstrates that they engaged in politics at multiple levels. They were concerned about decision making and power relationships within the AIF, in international circles and within the British empire. They were also active on a range of domestic political issues, particularly around volunteering and conscription, but also with other federal, state, and local issues. They engaged in the politics of shaping the “digger” legacy. Pre‐war ideologies, particularly on class issues and religion, were influential in shaping soldier political engagement and responses. Far from being political innocents, the Anzacs showed themselves to be interested and active in a range of political arenas.

The Forgotten Narratives: Mobilization, Recruitment and Wartime Experiences of World War Two African Servicemen from Southern Rhodesia, (Colonial Zimbabwe) c.1939–1945

Abstract This article discusses the mobilization, recruitment and wartime experiences of Africans who participated in the Second World War. Centred on the accounts of ex-servicemen, their families, and friends, this article argues that some Africans were either hoodwinked or forced to join the imperial forces. Consequently, they began to question their position as colonial subjects in the war. Their experiences revived anticolonial sentiments and abetted the rise of labour activism and mass nationalism in the colony during the war. The bulk of the material for this article was obtained from written family records, oral histories, and archival sources.

When the Ruling-Class Parties Harden

Iqra Angurah elucidates the strategic role in the Indo-Pacific in the context of the New Cold War and, in particular, the country's close ties to the forces of multinational capital and Western imperialism. The alignment of the Global North and local elites underscores the need for a popular, socialist, and anti-imperialist movement among the Indonesian working class.

Wretched Lives in a Westernised African Country: the Obstacles Towards Development of Communities in Botswana

This paper is necessitated to advance the narrative that due to westernisation of the economy of Botswana, which is an African country that is glorified for its economic success, rural development has been grossly compromised. The infiltration of westernisation has led to the undermining and removal of economic activities that were pivotal for the development of rural communities. Due to westernisation the economic, political and social performance of rural communities were taken as not germane for western development and consequently discarded by the newly independent government. The paper promulgates the view that communities in Botswana through rural development could improve their living conditions economically, politically, technologically and socially, but are submerged in poverty because of the strong believe that indigenous knowledge was an impediment to economic, political, technological and social progress. The imperialist forces have persistently and aggressively presented western knowledge as a panacea for rural development despite its inappropriateness in some cases. The rural areas that cherished indigenous knowledge systems that were tested and utilised over a period of time, allowed the communities the opportunities to perfect them and pass them from generation to generation. The westernisation process has denied the rural communities in Botswana to promote the advancement of what sustained them before they got colonised and Christened. The discarding of traditional schools for instances, incapacitated the rural communities, as they lost the system that enhanced skills transfer, promoted industriousness and self-efficacy amongst the recipients. The importation of western religions detached the rural areas in Botswana from the traditional values that were inculcated on young adults from generation to generation. The traditional leaders got disempowered, leading to their non-participation on matters of community importance, such as land distribution and control of other valuable resources such as the rapacious annexation of livestock from rural communities by urban livestock rustlers. The paper takes particular interest in the role the traditional leaders used to play in fighting poverty amongst the communities through protecting resources from unbridled greed by politicians and foreigners. The invasion of communities through the enforcement of inherited western laws disempowered traditional leaders by placing them under full control of politicians and foreign corporations. The independence of Botswana meant the replacing of colonisers with western trained leaders, who invidiously upheld western values, with the deliberate effort to transform communities into becoming Eurocentric.

Blood, obsidian, and the Teotihuacan cult of the mirror

Abstract Drawing upon iconological theory, this article argues that mirrors and blood were regarded as a conceptually linked pair within the imperial ideology of Teotihuacan, Mexico from the second century onward. The relationship between blood and mirrors is shown to have codified with the construction of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan's third largest edifice. This monument's facade was adorned with hundreds of monumental sculptures of oracular mirrors, some number of which incorporated actual mirrors formed of obsidian. I demonstrate that the Teotihuacan mirror sign took obsidian, a form of black volcanic glass that was intensively worked in the city, as a key referent. This monument was also the site of a historically large human sacrifice of more than 200 individuals, an event argued here to have involved bloodletting with obsidian knives and blades. I note that Teotihuacan interest in the mirror icon increased in concert with the city's residents’ application of the reflective material of obsidian to warring and other blood-spilling behaviors. The mirror icon evoked both obsidian as a radiant material, as well as obsidian's potential for application to forceful martial actions. The article concludes that this icon in part signified imperial force, which was made real through the weaponization of the smoking glass.

Decolonizing moana stomachs: recipes for food sovereignty from Oceania

Colonialism, militarization and contemporary corporate food regimes have eroded the food sovereignty of the populations of Oceania. Such phenomenon named gastro-colonialism, has not only shaped local foodways with tinned and processed food, building a taste for it, but also made islands dependent from external food provisioning. In order to stress the relevance of the food sovereignty paradigm as a new arena for the emergence of collective actions in Oceania, this article analyzes firstly, the food sovereignty concept within the wider sovereignty issue, highlighting the plural and interconnected nature of sovereign-ties. Secondly, by analyzing the imperial forces accountable for such food dependency, it addresses the case of Tonga where the inalienability of the land could possibly shape a food sovereign milieu. Lastly, through a selection of indigenous artists, poets and writers bringing forward Hau‘ofa legacy it illustrates possible “recipes” that could be scaled up to decolonize moana foodscapes.

The Secret Diplomacy of Turkish Nationalists and The Soviets In 1919

Following the Treaty of Mudros, a pivotal moment in the history of the weakened Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalist forces emerged and initiat-ed a struggle for national liberation. To achieve success in this endeavor, it became imperative to establish a strategic alliance with a party that shared common interests with Turkish nationalists and was amenable to providing military assistance. In this context, amidst the conflict against imperialist forces, Soviet Russia emerged as the sole viable guarantor of survival. The Bolshevik leadership, recognizing the need for an ally in the south, perceived the Kemalist revolution as a means of propagating socialism and replacing pan-Islamist ideologies with revolutionary nationalism. This paper delves into the historical events at the onset of the national libera-tion movement in Turkey. Its primary objective is to identify the key individ-uals involved in negotiations between the Kemalist Turks and the Bolsheviks and to elucidate the dynamics of these negotiations. The study employs qual-itative research methods, particularly descriptive and historical event inter-pretation methods, to substantiate hypotheses and contextualize the alliance between the Bolsheviks and Turkish nationalists. Furthermore, this research endeavors to ascertain the negotiators’ identities through an analysis of pri-mary sources. Through a rigorous examination of historical facts and analysis, our study concludes that the alliance between the Bolsheviks and the Kemalist Turks was forged out of mutual interest. The initial meeting between Georgian Chekists and Turkish nationalists in Havza played a pivotal role in forming this alliance, which, in turn, had profound ramifications for global geopolitics and the fate of the South Caucasus.

An Afrocentric Ecoreading of ‘Coloniality of Power’ in Prophet Hosea’s Narrative

This work examines the environmental challenges occasioned by Samaria’s ‘imperial singleness’ in prophet Hosea’s text from an African perspective. The interaction between the ‘seat of power’ in Samaria and imperial forces in Hosea’s time appears to have negatively influenced Israel’s attitude towards land use (Hos 12:1, 2; 1 Ki 21:1–28; 2 Ki 9:26). Such interface becomes evident in a shift, by Samaria’s ‘seat of power’, from Yahweh’s prescribed land-use policy to those of their imperial masters—Assyria and Egypt. Despite Israel’s liberation from Egypt by Yahweh during the exodus (Hos 11:1), their susceptibility to treaty alliances with these imperial forces remains vivid in Hosea’s narrative (Hos 7:1–16; 12:1–2). Echoing the words of Ngwa, such an alliance seemingly classifies Samaria’s monarchy as a ‘localised imperial singularity’ and a ‘single hero’ as against the ‘communal oneness with the divine, humans and the earth itself’. This ‘localised imperial singleness’ and its effect on Israel’s land was subjected to a critical engagement premised on the principles of interconnectedness and the voice of the earth, while a combination of Mburu’s African Hermeneutics and Kavus’ Ecological Hermeneutics is employed for the purpose of critical decolonial discourse.

Caring for Waterscapes in the Anthropocene: Heritage-making at Budj Bim, Victoria, Australia

Abstract Australian waterscapes were fashioned to meet human needs during the ancient Aboriginal past through the construction of weirs, fish traps and small dams and accompanying socio-cultural practices and institutions. Exemplary amongst Australian water cultures was that of the Gunditjmara of western Victoria, who for thousands of years practiced a sophisticated form of swamp engineering and eel farming in the volcanic landscapes of Budj Bim. Within 150 years of European colonisation, frontier violence, dispossession and hydrological alteration had put an end to the most extensive and oldest aquaculture system in the world. Recent land and water restitution measures enacted in collaborative partnerships with the wider watershed community have enabled the Gunditjmara to restore the Budj Bim wetlands and rebuild their nation. This process entails re-storying engineering and eeling: cultural practices and connections are being retold to gain recognition for the capacity to negotiate change and adapt to geological, climatological and imperial forces. Critical theory and concepts relating to waterscapes, hydro-social relations and the Anthropocene assist in interpreting the resilient efforts of a rural community to retrieve its history and find new ways to care for the past as well as the future.

Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North: Investigating Stereotypes and the Dehumanizing Effects of Colonialism

Long before colonialism emerged as an imperial project, cultural stereotypes and myths have fed the Western discourse about the Orient. Even during the medieval ages and Renaissance period, the discourse about Muslims and Islam was deeply informed of the distorted images, fabricated views, and overgeneralizations rooted in racial and religious prejudices. These myths were popularized through European art and literature to construct a particular narrative later used to legitimize the imperial designs and economic control of the native people. The research views this dehumanization of people and the vicious cycle of psychological trauma as a direct result of colonial enterprises by imperial forces. Using anti-colonial theories and postcolonialism as a framework of the study and building on the works of anticolonial theorists like Fanon, Memmi, and Césaire, the research seeks to investigate how these dehumanized images form the core of imperial designs and how colonialism dehumanizes people, distorts perspectives, engenders alienation and perpetuates a cycle of psychological violence across cultures and regions.

Kwame Nkrumah's Vision for African Unity: A Protection against any Colonial Policy in Africa

The present study investigates Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-African visionfor African unity. Through a historical perspective, the study reveals that Nkrumah insisted that the advantage of having aunified military will be to assure our own security, defense and to achieve freedom for every part of Africa. It is also one of the ways to eliminate European military presence and standing armies in our countries, as well as to eradicate the imperialist forces which are engineering our division and seeking to make Africa a war-ground of contending interest. Nkrumah also believed that the “world peace is not possible without the liquidation of colonialism and the total liberation of Africa.” The paper recommends that the African people must think of Nkrumah’s vision today in order to seek the way for the total liberation of Africa, if not Africa will remain under the European, American and the Asian domination.

DIPLOMATIC STRUGGLE FOR MAINTAINING THE REVOLUTION AND STRENGTHENING THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT IN VIETNAM FROM SEPTEMBER 1945 TO THE 1946 PRELIMINARY AGREEMENT

After the successful August 1945 Revolution in Vietnam, the imperialist forces and reactionary henchmen in Vietnam conspired together to attempt to overthrow the newly established revolutionary government and destroy the achievements of the Vietnamese revolution. In this extremely dangerous situation, relying on the revolutionary momentum and strength of the newly liberated nation, the diplomatic struggle was soon deployed with clever and flexible strategies and measures that contributed to an important part in creating a temporary pause in order to maintain and strengthen the revolutionary government and to take advantage of preparing the strength for the national resistance war. The article focuses on clarifying the process of peaceful diplomatic struggle with Chiang Kai-shek's army in North Vietnam and stepping up the resistance against the French colonialists' re-invasion in South Vietnam by the Indochinese Communist Party and the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The process of diplomatic struggle was deferred with France, coming to a preliminary agreement on March 6, 1946, pushing Chiang Kai-shek's army out of Vietnam.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0056/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

War, resistance, and memory in Libya’s oral history project

ABSTRACTThis article examines the Libyan Oral History Project, an archive created in the 1970s to record the memories of mujahidin involved in anti-Italian resistance in Libya. Though it was not the original intention of the archive, this article argues that the memories of the mujahidin contribute to an effort among historians to reconceptualise the global significance of the First World War. A careful reading of the accounts of the mujahidin reveals a chronological continuity from the initial struggle against the Italian occupation to armed warfare against European forces throughout the region in the interwar era. By interpreting the First World War from the southern coast of the Mediterranean, we gain new appreciation for the significance of the war not just as a conflict among empire, but also as the beginning of a longer struggle between imperial forces and anti-imperial resistance.

The ‘Sunshine Song’: The Biography of an Australian Imperial Force (AIF) Soldiers’ Chorus

The deep links between music and war demonstrate the centrality of music in wartime. However, most soldier compositions are ephemeral, lost because of their topicality and limited circulation. This article explores the history and significance of the ‘Sunshine Song’, a popular chorus with Australians in World War I. It further distinguished itself by making the transition to the civilian repertoire, something few war songs accomplished, remaining in circulation until at least the mid-1960s. This article offers an analysis of its merits, and its place in history as a rare surviving successful Australian wartime chorus.

Laudable Madness: Seizing Life from the Teeth of Death

This essay zooms in on the story of the Palestinian body condemned to suffer unspeakable injustices so that a system based on inequity keeps working for the few. It relies on poetic texts written or performed by those whose bodies are controlled by the interrelated forces of settler colonialism, authoritarianism, and imperialism. The storms these forces unleash and the prices they exact in terms of human life cement the condition of the body whose life bears witness to the fall of justice. The essay argues that these poets practice what we would like to call “seizing life from the teeth of death” wherein their determination to fight oppression exceeds national and regional boundaries to embrace and learn from the indigenous nations in the United States.

The cinematic universe of copaganda: world-building and the enchantments of policing

ABSTRACT What happens if we interpret representations of policing as a shared cinematic universe? What continuities emerge between stories of the formal institution of the police, vigilantism, and settler and imperial force? What contradictions become evident within logics of policing, and how are these contradictions resolved, cementing the role of police in political order? A cinematic universe suggests a different aesthetic relation than the idea of a genre. The aim is not to establish a common narrative structure, but to detail a condition of order that holds together despite its tangents and tensions. Police films hold together in much the same way, attempting to reconcile the production of racial capitalism with liberal imaginaries. By framing police films as a cinematic universe, I demonstrate how attachments to policing work not only through ideology but also through enchantment. Appeals to police as guarantors of safety, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, rely on immersion in a world in which force and pacification are subsumed by police stories of dramatic tension, humor, and moral triumph. The ideology that sustains policing today works through a process of world-building, whereby sprawling elements of a cinematic universe reveal new details and intrigues of enforcing imperial, capitalist order.

Trooping the (School) Colour

Trooping the (School) Colour

A Single Imperial Army? The Development of Australian Army Staff Training in an Imperial Context, 1919–1939

This article examines the development of Australian staff training across the interwar period. Focussing on the establishment of the Australian Command and Staff School in Sydney in 1938, this article argues that whilst still relying on British educational institutions, the Australian Army developed its own progressive form of officer education which reflected British and Dominion educational lessons from the First World War. By doing so, this article challenges our understanding of the interconnectivity of imperial forces and proposes a more nuanced, networked approach to officer training across the interwar period accounting for local defence priorities and national policies.

Mobility in an Age of Imperialism, Nation-Building, and Revolution: Kawata Masazō's Late-Nineteenth-Century Pacific World

Throughout the nineteenth century, the forces of imperialism, nationalism, and revolution were changing the world's geopolitical landscape at the same time that steamships enabled unprecedented mobility in the Pacific. This article examines Kawata Masazō's life and news reports to ask what he can tell us about how travel, foreign encounter, and intellectual exchange intersected with East Asian geopolitics just prior to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War in the summer of 1894. Kawata's micro-historical perspective shows that the unique nexus of relationships among Japan, Korea, and China were embedded in the deeply intertwined and contradictory tensions of imperialism, nationalism, and revolution that were playing out across multiple societies in the Pacific world. His story also shows that travel and imperialism are not always, or only, mutually supporting.