{"title":"The Confiscation of German Property Between Economic Nationalism and National Security (1918–1930) ","authors":"Cristiano La Lumia","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377917","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the confiscation of private property owned by German nationals in the Allied countries after the end of World War I, focusing on the relationship between expropriation, economic nationalism and national security in the postwar decades. Along with the desire for revenge, economic nationalism became the major driver behind the Allied policies, leading to transfers of property on an unprecedented scale. Through confiscation, policymakers of the ‘victorious powers’ not only intended to punish German civilians but also seized the opportunity to intervene in the economic and financial spheres in order to achieve economic security. Drawing on a broad body of expropriation laws, which concerned assets belonging to about one and a half million civilians, this article retraces how the Allies implemented the right to confiscation afforded by the Treaty of Versailles, providing an overview of policies, diplomatic controversies and figures related to confiscated property worldwide. Furthermore, the social and economic consequences of protracted economic warfare in peacetime are explored with an emphasis on the decline of the German presence in the Allied countries and the ensuing economic transformations. This article also highlights the limits of economic nationalism in reshaping the international economy. While some countries gradually lifted persecutory measures, especially after the mid-1920s, German companies and private citizens responded to economic warfare by devising a wide range of strategies to avoid the loss of property.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145077992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Algérie Française and Threats to the Memory of the Resistance","authors":"Reggie Kramer","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377964","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377964","url":null,"abstract":"During the Algerian War (1954–1962), French actors on all sides of the conflict framed their actions with reference to the memory of the Resistance during World War II. Proponents of <jats:italic>Algérie française</jats:italic> , the movement devoted to violently preserving Algeria as a French territory no matter the costs, by any means necessary, and despite their government's eventual acceptance of Algerian self-determination, were no exception. This article explores their memories of the Resistance as they expressed them in speeches, tracts and memoirs written in the context of the Algerian War. It contends that many <jats:italic>Algérie française</jats:italic> militants perceived the prospect of France conceding to Algerian independence as a threat to the causes for which they remembered the Resistance as having fought. They followed this line of thinking to its logical conclusion, perceiving Algerian decolonization as a threat to the memory of the Resistance itself and framing their militancy as a defense thereof. This article contributes to historical understanding of how the memory of the Resistance influenced militant behavior during the Algerian War and demonstrates that it was more divided than collective memory frameworks such as Henry Rousso's acknowledge. Moreover, it suggests that there is room for future theoretical innovation in understanding how individuals perceive and react to threats to memory.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Anti-Versailles to War Propaganda: The Aufklärungsausschuß Hamburg(-Bremen) and Propaganda in Swedish Newspapers from the Interwar Period to 1941","authors":"Andreas Åkerlund","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377951","url":null,"abstract":"This article deals with the Aufklärungsausschuß der Handelskammer Hamburg from 1932 renamed Aufklärungsausschuß Hamburg-Bremen and its work in Sweden. The Aufklärungsausschuß der Handelskammer Hamburg was founded as a reaction to the Treaty of Versailles and the French–Belgian occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, and its mission was to influence foreign opinion through planting articles in foreign press. Using the propaganda definition and approach suggested by Garth Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, this article analyses the network established and the propaganda method used by the Aufklärungsausschuß Hamburg-Bremen from the interwar period, over the establishment in Sweden in 1932/1933, and a few years during World War II. It also contains an examination of the content in distributed news material, both articles and photos, placed in Swedish outlets from 1933 to 1941.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072512","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pan-Nationalist Influences on Literary Croatian and Norwegian Bokmål: Two Case Studies Showing Contingency in Nationalism","authors":"Alexander Maxwell, Tim van Gerven","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377914","url":null,"abstract":"Language planners espousing pan-nationalism influenced the orthography of standard literary Croatian and Norwegian Bokmål. Specifically, ‘Slovak’ intellectuals Jan Herkel and Jan Kollár influenced the Croatian orthography of Ljudovit Gaj, and ‘Danish’ intellectuals Rasmus Rask and N. M. Petersen influenced Knud Knudsen's Bokmål. Slovaks and Danes influenced Croatian and Norwegian orthography because Croats and Norwegians imagined the ‘national language’ in pan-national terms: Slovaks participated as fellow Slavs, and Danes as fellow Norwegians. The influence of pan-nationalism helps problematize teleological narratives of ‘national awakening’, since the emergence of the ‘Croatian’ and ‘Norwegian’ literary languages cannot be analysed solely in terms of Croatian or Norwegian nationalism.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Conspiracy? The Role of British and American Bankers in the Belgian Monetary Crisis, 1925–1926","authors":"Simon Watteyne","doi":"10.1177/16118944251377956","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251377956","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on the negotiations between a consortium of British and American banks led by the Bank of England to help Belgian authorities stabilise their currency and return to the gold standard. It aims to understand how the involvement of these foreign bankers was essential for the Belgian government and central bank to justify a shift towards strict orthodox monetary and fiscal policies, but led to the spectacular failure of the Belgian left-wing government, the birth of several conspiracy theories, and the rise of the conservative right in the second half of the 1920s, as it happened in many other European countries.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"105 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145072471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leopold II, Kimpa Vita and the Local Decolonisation of the Belgian Public Space","authors":"Idesbald Goddeeris","doi":"10.1177/16118944251348781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251348781","url":null,"abstract":"Belgium's relationship with its colonial past is a complex one including celebration, forgetting, and recently re-evaluation. This article argues that, unlike what’s often thought, decolonization has not stopped in the past few years, but that especially the public space has gradually developed and reached new dimensions. Rather than at the national level, this development has taken place on a regional, and particularly local, level. This article examines a wide range of municipalities and cities, as well as the three regions within the Belgian federation (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels). Based on media articles and official documents, it analyses how local councils and regional governments have responded to frequent acts of protest against colonial monuments and street names, to what extent policies have changed, and which factors have contributed to these developments.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toppling Statues: Public Spaces, Heritage and Memory Cultures of European Colonialism. Introduction","authors":"Janne Lahti, José M. Faraldo","doi":"10.1177/16118944251349329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251349329","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144371286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Colonial Grandeur, Decolonisation and the Contested Histories of O Padrão dos Descobrimentos in Lisbon","authors":"Lotte Claerhout","doi":"10.1177/16118944251348782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251348782","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the complex legacy of colonialism in Lisbon, using the <jats:italic>Padrão dos Descobrimentos</jats:italic> monument as a focal point for contemporary debates on decolonisation and collective memory. By analysing this monument, which was originally erected during the authoritarian <jats:italic>Estado Novo</jats:italic> regime (1933–1974) to commemorate the Portuguese ‘Age of Discoveries’, this paper delves into the broader discourse of how colonial history is memorialised and its implications for Portugal's present-day attitude towards its colonial past. By critically examining the monument's narrative, symbols and the public's interaction with it, the study explores the tension between the historical valorisation of colonial achievements and the contemporary efforts to create a more nuanced understanding of the colonial era. It highlights the role of monuments in shaping collective memory, and the efforts to reinterpret and challenge the colonial narrative through activism and artistic interventions. The conclusion posits the <jats:italic>Padrão dos Descobrimentos</jats:italic> not just as a relic of the past, but as a dynamic site of memory that reflects ongoing debates about history, identity and decolonisation in Portugal. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of how colonial legacies are navigated in public spaces and memory, shaping national identity.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144479252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Putting Women on a Pedestal: Rethinking Female Inclusion in Colonial Monuments","authors":"Emma Dhondt","doi":"10.1177/16118944251348776","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251348776","url":null,"abstract":"As with many other types of public sculptures, there is a near-total absence of colonial monuments showing women, demonstrating a public failure to recognise their impact as colonisers and colonised people. When included at all, women are often portrayed as allegorical figures in colonial monuments. Their place is at the side-lines, serving and celebrating male colonial heroes. Indeed, very rarely is a woman at the centre of a colonial monument. But there are such monuments too. Two statues of Hannah Duston, an English colonist in North America, are illustrative examples of this; they have also become contested after the Rhodes Must Fall protests. However, recent attempts to decolonise public spaces have also increasingly tried to feminise them, not only by replacing contested monuments but by adding new female figures. This article examines how women have been included in colonial monuments by addressing both past and recent portrayals in different countries. It addresses questions of and relationships between colonial power, identity and gender, showing parallels and divergences in female inclusion in colonial monuments across different places and times.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144479230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘To the Homeland’: Settler Monument, Memory and the Finnish Colony of Petsamo on the Finnish–Russian Borderlands","authors":"Janne Lahti","doi":"10.1177/16118944251348777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/16118944251348777","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines a set of entanglements between settler memory and a monument in a nation that does not acknowledge that it ever had a colonial history. It looks at the efforts of exiled Finnish settlers to keep alive the memory of Petsamo as ‘their homeland’ through a monument they set up in Ivalo, Northern Finland, in 1985. Before being forced out of Petsamo, a province on the Arctic Ocean, by the Soviet Union in 1944, Finnish settlers tried to reshape Petsamo from a multi-ethnic borderland into a Finnish homeland for over two decades. Their settler memory is inscribed on and funnelled through this Ivalo monument, via claims of belonging and connection to a lost homeland. The monument set up by the settlers is meant to speak to their specific stories, their version of the past and of themselves. It serves settler purposes, declaring settler belonging to the broader public, to the nation and even to the world. It maintains and channels settler memory to future generations and remains uncontested and largely ignored in today's Finland.","PeriodicalId":44275,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Modern European History","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144479298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}