Republican Period Research Articles

Imports and Market Integration in the Roman Mediterranean

The degree and nature of integration that existed within Roman economies is a crucial but so far unresolved question within the study of ancient economic history. This paper aims to test the level of market integration in the Roman Mediterranean by comparing amphora distributions from the late Republican period and Principate with those of Late Antiquity in Rome, three northern Adriatic cities (Aquileia, Padua, Verona) and Ephesus with the predicted transport costs provided by ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World. The intention is to analyze whether price determined the distribution of staple goods in the Roman Empire, as it does in a modern market economy environment, or whether other factors (e.g., state orders, elite connections etc.) were more important in shaping ancient economic practices.

A WELL-KNOWN RESEARCHER OF THE HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. For the 70th Anniversary of the Czech Historian Professor Jan Rychlík

The purpose of the article is to highlight the contribution of the Czech historian and ethnologist Professor Jan Rychlík to the study of the history of Central and Eastern Europe. The research methodology was aimed at the analysis of the scientist's main publications on the history of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The applied research principles of historicism, scientific objectivity and systematicity contributed to highlighting the main aspects of J. Rychlík's diverse scientific work. The authors of the article note that for J. Rychlík history became one of the priority objects of scientific study after the Velvet revolution of 1989, when, under the conditions of democratization, historians of Czechoslovakia gained freedom of scientific creativity. Among the relevant research topics was the issue of relations between Czechs and Slovaks in 1918-1992. The scholar thoroughly researched their individual stages and, in particular, the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic 1918-1938 - one of the few democratic states of Central and Eastern Europe at that time. J. Rychlík deeply analyzed and assessed the trends of socio-political, economic, and cultural development of various regions of the First Republic, the peculiarities of interethnic relations, its international position, noted the positive role of this state in the history of the Czechs, Slovaks and Ruthenians-Ukrainians of Transcarpathia. Summarizing Czech-Slovak relations in general for the years 1918-1992, J. Rychlík considered one of the main reasons for the termination of the Czechoslovak state at the end of 1992 to be the failure to create a political Czechoslovak nation. The field of scientific interests of J. Rychlík also includes the national histories of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which resulted in the publication of a number of monographs on the past of the states of the region: Bulgaria (2000), Macedonia (2003), Croatia (2007), Slovenia (2011), the Czech Republic (2013), Ukraine (2015, 2022), Slovakia (2023), where the researcher was a co-author. In the conclusions of the article, the authors stated that J. Rychlík is one of the leading contemporary Czech researchers of the history of Central and Eastern European countries. The contribution of J. Rychlík to the study of the history of Czech-Slovak relations from 1918 to 1992 is especially significant. Jan Rychlík's extensive work on the history of the Czech and Slovak state is an important basis for further study of the past of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in different periods.

The features of the theoretical training of the ancient Roman military

The purpose of the article. To investigate the specifics of the training of senior officers of the Roman army in the Late Republican period and the Early Principate. To outline the peculiarities of the study of military theory by the senior command staff of the legion, as well as to prove the probability of the existence of specialized libraries among the Roman elite, which consisted of the works of Greek and Roman authors of the genre of military literature. Research methodology. The research methodology: comparative, analysis, synthesis and analytical analysis. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the problem of military education in Ancient Rome was comprehensively investigated for the first time. In particular, the peculiarities of the study of the theory of military affairs not only by representatives of the highest military command — those from the nobility, but also by "new people" (homines novi) — representatives of the riding class (equites) are analyzed. Conclusions. It has been proven that the senior officers were not illiterate in military affairs and quite successfully coped with the assigned tasks — both in the administrative field and on the battlefield. It is also determined that the responsibilities of the senior officers of the Roman army, in particular military commanders, in addition to knowledge and skills in the field of military art, also included understanding the psychology of ordinary soldiers and the art of eloquence (rhetoric). The latter was acquired not so much from experience as from studying the works of Greek orators and philosophers.

School Music Education Legislation in the Late Qing and Early Republican Periods

School Music Education Legislation in the Late Qing and Early Republican Periods

Parliamentary debate and the construction of the national characteristics of Swedish parliamentarism

ABSTRACT This article examines how the characteristics of parliamentary debate were discussed in Sweden between the late nineteenth century and the Second World War, covering the period of parliamentary democratization and the interwar crisis of democracy. Focusing on the comments on the nature of parliamentary rebates in the printed press, as well as the ways in which MPs comment on debate while they speak in parliament, this article shows that there is a remarkable continuity in the ways in which Swedish parliamentary debate was viewed, as a compromising negotiation in parliamentary committees was elevated to a national characteristic of Swedish parliamentary culture both by the conservative critics of parliamentary democracy and the social democratic and liberal defenders of democracy. What was in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth centuries characteristically a conservative argument in favour of safeguarding the quality and independence of the working procedures of parliament against the consequences of democratization was in the 1930s turned into an argument against the threats that political extremism and totalitarian ideas posed to parliamentary democracy. The study shows that the Swedish style of parliamentary debate was continuously contrasted with the pro et contra style of debate in the British Parliament, which was deemed unsuitable to the Swedish constitutional tradition even if it sometimes gained support as an ideal type. The main examples of debates on parliamentary procedures discussed in the study deal with the question of open voting and the rights of the Speaker to regulate debates.

Divine Medicine: Healing and Charity Through Spirit-Writing in China

This study traces the evolution of religious healing practices associated with divine presence in China, from pre-modern traditions to the modern use of spirit-writing for obtaining divine prescriptions. It examines the continuity and transformation of these practices from the late imperial period to contemporary times. It argues that healing through divine prescriptions obtained via spirit-writing challenges the perceived dichotomy between religion and science, demonstrating that they have complementary roles, rather than being strictly opposing categories. For members of Jishenghui 濟生會, a lay Buddhist charity devoted to the Buddhist god Jigong 濟公 in Republican China, religion and scientific medical practice were integrated as complementary elements of daily life, combining doctrinal beliefs, ritual practices, and moral self-cultivation. This study examines how Jishenghui used spirit-writing to obtain and distribute divine prescriptions and medicines, demonstrating that the organization’s philanthropic activities and social standing were enhanced by the integration of religious beliefs with medical and charitable practices during the Republican period. This study bridges existing research on the histories of spirit-writing and Chinese medicine, and the distinctions made between “Buddhist medicine” and “Daoist medicine”. The article contends that, for ordinary people, no strict distinction existed between Buddhist and Daoist healing practices; instead, a shared religious culture regarding illness and healing was predominant. By contextualizing key analytical concepts such as “divine medicine”, especially “divine prescriptions” (jifang 乩方 and xianfang 仙方) within the broader history of Chinese medicine and religious practices, this article demonstrates the social significance of spirit-writing as a ritual technique to provide healing and charity by lay Buddhists in Republican China, and its enduring relevance in contemporary Chinese societies.

Navigating historiographical boundaries in the early Turkish Republican period: astrology, nationalism and Aydın Sayılı’s scholarship

This article explores two aspects of Aydın Sayılı’s scholarship: his focus on astrology and the impact of nationalist sentiments on his research. Sayılı, perhaps the first globally recognized PhD-holder in history of science, completed his degree at Harvard in the early 1940s and established Turkey’s first academic chair in the field at the University of Ankara. His works addressed both international and local audiences, advancing the history of mathematics and astronomy in Islamic societies; his scholarship on Islamic observatories is still highly esteemed today. This study highlights Sayılı’s integration of astrology into discussions in the history of science, especially with respect to Islamic observatories, a significant choice in an era when astrology and related disciplines received minimal attention in Turkish historiography. While his approach to this discipline diverges from that of prevalent twentieth-century Turkish scholarship, Sayılı’s motivations were deeply intertwined with the nationalist sentiments of the early Turkish Republic, emphasizing ‘Turkish contributions to science’. His scholarship invites further examination of the intricate relationship between the historiography of science and nationalism, as well as of twentieth-century historicizations of astrological studies.

ADMINISTRATIVE, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF KARAŞAR, AN ALEVI-BEKTASHI SETTLEMENT IN BEYPAZARI

Karaşar is an example of the settlement of Alevi-Bektashi Turkmen groups in Anatolia during the early Ottoman period, and the earliest records of Karaşar date to the 15th century. In the Ottoman period, Karaşar was administratively located at the intersection of the borders of the provinces of Hudavendigar, Kastamonu and Ankara, and historically always remained a part of Beypazarı. Karaşar, which had a considerably higher population compared to a classical village settlement, became a subdistrict to which other villages around it were connected in the 19th century. In the Republican period, Karaşar became a town, and although it maintained this status for many years, today it is a settlement consisting of several neighborhoods. This study evaluates the economic and social structure of Karaşar, an Alevi-Bektashi settlement, on the basis of data from tahrir, population and temettuat books in the Ottoman Archives. In addition, the smuggling and banditry issues that have taken place in the history of Karaşar have been emphasized. The evaluations based on archives and research works are also supported by oral history data in Karaşar. The oral history data has been especially important in terms of the continuity of intangible cultural heritage and the control of local narratives with historical data.

Negotiating Empathy

This article proposes an ecocritical reading of two lithographs by Italian Brazilian artist Angelo Agostini to shed light on the tensions between the abolitionist movement and the animal rights movement in Brazilian visual culture. This question is never discussed in scholarship about nineteenth-century Brazil. Moreover, studies on the history of animal rights in the country focus on the republican period, when the first associations and laws for the protection of animals were created. This article, conversely, reconstructs the history of a seldom-remembered Society for the Protection of Animals, active between 1885 and 1890 in Rio de Janeiro, during the last years of the monarchy. Through visual documentation concerning this society and its negative local reception, I reflect on slavery’s connections to the animal rights debate during the last decades of the nineteenth century. I argue that two causes—abolitionism and animal welfare—were competing for visibility in this fundamentally unequal society. Artists like Agostini contributed to the polemic by using a combined aesthetic that questioned what they perceived as an incongruous situation: protecting animals before abolishing human slavery.

"He was a European, an educated man". Foreign contacts of Professor Adam Schaff (1913-2006) based on provenance analysis of selected copies from his book collection

The article presents the results of the research conducted on the topic “The private book collection of Professor Adam Schaff in the collections of the Joint Libraries of the Faculties of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Warsaw, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Polish Philosophical Society”[1]. Professor Adam Schaff (1913–2006) gathered an extensive book collection during his many years of academic work, falling during the Polish People’s Republic period. After his death, it was transferred to the Joint Libraries of WFiS UW, IFiS PAN, and PTF[2]. A. Schaff maintained contact with many foreign scholars specializing in philosophy and sociology, which directly influenced the analyzed collection. The article contains a qualitative, quantitative, and provenance analysis of this book collection. Provenance and bibliographic methods were used to study the characteristics of selected copies, making it possible to reconstruct Schaff’s contacts with the foreign scientific community. [1] Master’s thesis, supervisor: Prof. Jacek Puchalski, University of Warsaw, 2023. [2] Joint Libraries of the Faculties of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Warsaw, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Polish Philosophical Society (PB WFiS UW, IFiS PAN, and PTF) is the proper name of the institution established in the 1950s, which consisted of 3 combined libraries, with joint staff and premises, but separate assets and thematically complementary book collections in philosophy and sociology.

A Spatial Perspective on Modernization Venture in Turkish Novel: Changing Uses of Public and Private Spheres

The novel genre first appeared in Turkish literature in the nineteenth century, following the Westernization movements. Beginning with the “Tanzimat period (1860-1895)” and the subsequent periods of “National Literature (1911-1923)” and “Republican Literature (1923-1940)”, as identified by literary critics, novel became a medium where social and spatial issues and changes in everyday life were revealed. This study examines briefly the spatial changes that occurred in public and private spheres as a result of modernization endeavors during the late Ottoman and early Republican periods by looking at the literature and architecture of the period, and in reference to the three periods mentioned above. The periods of literary historiography mentioned above, correspond to the period under discussion and draw its chronological framework. It is argued in this context that, the interdisciplinary approach makes it possible to see overlapping and differentiating aspects in narratives and architectural practices regarding the perception and use of public and private spaces and corresponding daily life practices. The themes determined by the examination of novels representing the three periods of Turkish literature history are presented together with quotations from the sampled novels and brief architectural discussions, and the prominent aspects are discussed in both contexts.

Andrés Rodriguez: <i>Frontier Fieldwork: Building a Nation in China’s Borderlands, 1919–45</i>

The study of the relationship between the central government and the borderlands to the west of China during the Nationalist Republican period (1912–1949) is relevant to our understanding of today’s policies and controversies in the Tibetan regions and Xinjiang. In this way, Frontier Fieldwork, a historical study, is important for engaging with the evolving debate on the political orientation and practice of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in this domain. The western provinces represent the one remaining serious unresolved problem of national integration in Mainland China regarding the country’s minority nationalities.

Expansion and Restriction: Divergent Paths Towards Modernizing Family Laws in Japan and China, 1868–1930

Abstract Before their encounters with Western powers in the nineteenth century, Chinese and Japanese societies were deeply embedded in traditional family systems that formed the backbone of their social structures. However, with the onset of legal modernization, these nations adopted nearly diametrically opposed strategies for reforming their customary family laws. Primarily, Japanese legal reformers under the Meiji regime bolstered the family’s authority and emphasized its political role. In stark contrast, the Chinese legal reformers during the late Qing and Republican periods curtailed family authority and diminished its significance. While the modernization of family laws in Japan and China has been the subject of scholarly research respectively, the differences between the two countries and the reasons behind their distinct approaches have not been adequately explored. This Article seeks to fill this gap. Through a comparative analysis of the legislative histories of both countries, this Article argues that their divergent paths stemmed from differences in the historical functions of family systems and the modern political contexts encountered by legal reformers during the period of legal modernization. In Japan, the family system was historically politically connected with the state, and the Meiji regime solidified its control over this system through modern codification efforts. Consequently, Meiji political elites saw the integration of the populace into the new absolutist imperial regime as advantageous, leveraging the political loyalty of families to achieve this. In contrast, the Chinese family system had become politically disconnected from the state by the late imperial era. In the aftermath of the Republican Revolution, the Guomindang regime navigated a landscape of rival political forces that significantly challenged its authority. Political elites aimed to dismantle customary family laws to weaken the traditional family system, which they viewed as a threat to governmental centralization and societal unity. They also sought to project a modern, liberal image to garner wider political support.

Connecting the Nation and individuals: Scout uniforms in Republican China

ABSTRACT This study examines the functions and ideology of the Chinese Scout uniform during the Republican period (1912–1949). It begins by identifying four issues related to the British influence on Chinese Scout uniforms in early Republican China, which demonstrate efforts to integrate foreign and local cultures. By analysing the regulations and standards governing Chinese Scout uniforms, this research sheds light on the topics of children, childhood, education, and national identity during the Republican era. The Scout uniform was designed to establish a distinct identity among Chinese Scouts, fostering a sense of pride and integrity. Additionally, the Scout uniform’s unification and standardisation aimed to promote teamwork, with accessories like ribbons, badges, stars, and neckers effectively managing and categorizing Scouts. Equally significant was its political function. Regardless of the organisation responsible for Scouting in China at a given time, whether local Scout associations or the Kuomintang, patriotic commitment and national respect were equally emphasised. However, the Kuomintang placed greater emphasis on shaping Scouts’ minds and bodies for political purposes. This study enhances the understanding of how the Scout uniform connected the nation and individuals, influenced the development and organisation of the Scouts, and contributed to youth discipline in Republican China.

Pan Yuliang s Art Dissemination in the Republican Period (1928-1937)

From Pan Yuliang s return to the Republic of China in 1928 to her second trip abroad in 1937, her artistic career was in full swing. She actively organized solo exhibitions, art group exhibitions, and art society activities during this period. By studying Pan Yuliang s art dissemination during the Republic of China period, we will explore art dissemination activities and their relationship with cultural ecology.

Images of “the Republican Citizen” Designed in the Context of National Identity Construction in Türkiye during the Early Republican Period

Images of “the Republican Citizen” Designed in the Context of National Identity Construction in Türkiye during the Early Republican Period

Unraveling the Islamist nostalgia; Kulturkampf on urban space in Turkey

ABSTRACT Despite the wealth of literature examining the spatial policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, there has been a noticeable absence of comparative studies with the spatial concepts found within Turkish Islamism. This article suggests that the use of space as a political tool in cultural conflict has roots dating back to the nineteenth century, and that Islamism has perpetuated this tradition into the Republican period, particularly during the 1990s. By analysing the spatial policies and practices enacted by the AKP governments, valuable insights can be gained into the potential trajectory of Islamism in Turkey. The disparity between the Islamist conceptions of space in the 1980s and 1990s and the policies implemented during the AKP era not only underscores the controversies and conflicts surrounding space, but also provides an illuminating view of Islamist strategies.

Stabilization and Service: The Evolutionary Logic of Grassroots Governance in Guilin (1930-1944)

The Republican period was a time of intense social changes and complex conflicts in modern China. The New Gui system ruled Guangxi for 24 years after the rise of the National Revolution in the 1920s, and its grassroots construction experience provided a reference basis for the national government's local governance policy. Taking the removal of Guilin as a county and the establishment of a city in 1940 as the dividing line, the period of grassroots governance exploration in Guilin can be divided into the county government period and the municipal period. The historical background, mission objectives, value orientation, policy requirements, institutional arrangements and governance performance of Guilin's grassroots governance in different periods are different. Taking history as a guide, reviewing the experience of Guilin's grassroots governance during the new Guilin rule period is still of great significance for the current sustained promotion of Guilin's urban development and construction.

Himnuszperek a két háború közötti Csehszlovákiában Adalék a szlovákiai magyarok és a csehszlovák állam viszonyához

In the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic, Slovakia was an ethnically mixed territory, the scene of the meeting of Czechoslovak, Slovak, and Hungarian nation-building, among other things. From this point of view, the use of different national symbols, including national anthems, was a sensitive and much debated issue. This study attempts to outline the conflicts that the issue of national anthems had provoked between the state and its citizens, based on the archival records of county courts in Slovakia. The main focus of the paper is on the conflicts between the Czechoslovak state and the Hungarian population in Slovakia over the Hungarian national anthem. Based primarily on the county courts of the period and news reports in the contemporary press, the paper describes the court cases over the anthem and their outcomes. In doing so, it shows that the First Czechoslovak Republic, which was considered a liberal democracy, did not have a liberal attitude towards the use of symbols of national minorities at all.

Constructing Spaces of Knowledge in Türkiye: An Analysis of the Republican Period

This article critically examines the transformative commitment to modernization and nation-building in Turkish Republic, focusing on the pivotal role played by spaces of knowledge. The study begins with a theoretical analysis of the complex relationship between political power, knowledge and space. The concrete analysis starts with the examination of People’s Houses, envisioned as cultural and political centers spreading Republican principles and the new national identity. The analysis extends to museums established by the new regime, demonstrating their ideological underpinnings as spaces generating a specific knowledge on the nation through the collection of memories. The article then explores theaters, cinemas, and operas, emphasizing their contribution to shaping cultural policies of the new Turkish nation state. Shifting to libraries, it traces the historical evolution culminating in the establishment of the National Library in Ankara and its role in nation-building process. Throughout, the article delves into the complexities of preserving national identity through these spaces of knowledge, offering a comprehensive understanding of Türkiye’s modernization journey.