Colonial Wars

Forgotten war of the twentieth century, the Rif War (1921-1926) is the background to the graphic novel, L’Or et le sang, with a scenario by Fabien Nury – based on an idea from Maurin Defrance – and published from 2009 to 2014. The Rif War offers the authors an original background for their story of adventures and friendship, born in the trenches of the Great War, between an aristocrat and a Corsican gangster. This war was indeed key to the interwar period, both as a precursor to the colonial wars of the last century, and as a laboratory for the landing operations of World War Two. Drawn by the cartoonists Fabien Bedouel and Merwan Chabane, L’Or et le sang takes its characters in the fights of the Rifians for their idealistic “Republic of the Rif” against the French and the Spaniards, seeking independence not only against these two colonial powers but also against the Sultan of Morocco. If the story follows the Rif War chronology, several events highlighted by the cartoonists are not only anachronistic but also untrue : Franco is presented as a coward already conquering Spain, and the French Air Force as using gas bombing against the Rifian rebels. However, the graphic novel does not mention the most striking operation of the Rif War which was the first sea and air landing of history at Alhucemas Bay (1925). In-depth intelligence, joint communi­cations, elite troops, naval and air close-support, tanks landing, all these new tactics and weapons made Alhucemas landing a remarkable precedent for the combined operations of World War Two

Volume 1-Período de 1959 a 1973 De Cadete-Aluno, a partir de 1959, na Academia Militar e no Instituto Superior Técnico, ao regresso à Academia Militar, como Professor, em 1973. Incidência na comissão militar em Angola, de 1969 a 1971, com a Companhia de Engenharia 2580 Extracto do interior Diálogo com o Cor. Batalha, Inspector da Arma de Engenharia, em Santa Margarida e em Julho de1969, durante a formação da Companhia de Engenharia 2580. O Inspector chegou, viu o que queria ver, sem grandes insistências ou sobressaltos e, já no fim da manhã, viu o lema da Companhia inscrito no galhardete e leu-o "Rumos de Futuro" perguntando-me de seguida:-Então o que quer dizer este lema? O que é isto dos rumos do futuro? Eu respondi-lhe:-Bom, quer dizer que os de presente não levam a lado nenhum. Se não arranjamos uns diferentes para o futuro, não sei onde é que isto vai parar. Pareceu-me então que pretendeu de imediato verse livre daquela Companhia perigosa, pois deve ter tido a vaga sensação de poder parecer em conluio com o Inimigo, caso ali ficasse a debater aquele assunto.

22 de octubre de 1859. En una sesión extraordinaria en el Congreso de los Diputados, con el apoyo de todos los grupos presentes de la Cámara, el General Leopoldo O'Donnell, Presidente del Consejo de Ministros del Reino de España, declara la guerra al Imperio del Marruecos. O'Donnell tiene grandes esperanzas puestas en esta intervención, aprovechando un periodo de gran crecimiento económico, debido a la Guerra de Secesión Americana, y con planes que consisten en anexionar la ciudad marroquí de Tetuán, busca unificar a la dispersa opinión pública española y mostrarle al mundo que España reclama de nuevo su sitio entre las Grandes Potencias del s.XIX. En el anterior artículo "O'Donnell contra el Sultán I: Una Cuestión de Prestigio" se estudió las causas y preparativos que llevaron al Reino de España y al Imperio del Marruecos a la guerra, en éste se analizará el choque entre los ejércitos español y marroquí en el campo de batalla. La Guerra de África ha comenzado.

Tra le migliaia di italiani partiti a combattere in Libia nella Guerra italo-turca (1911-1912) e poi nel successivo lungo scontro con le milizie libiche vi fu anche l’allora capitano degli alpini Tullio Marchetti che visse nella “quarta sponda” fra 1913 e 1914. Egli raccontò la sua esperienza in numerosi scritti spediti ai parenti e in un lungo diario privato. Una narrazione rimasta fino a poco tempo fa  inesplorata  e  che  restituisce  oggi  un  Marchetti  a  tratti  inedito  rispetto all’immagine più conosciuta del comandante dell’Ufficio Informazioni della 1° Armata durante la Prima guerra mondiale.

A unique edited volume with contributions by South African  literary figures,  poets, historians, political scientists, sociologists, philosophers and linguists reflecting on the Anglo-Boer War/South African War (1899-1902), a war that entailed the use of concentration camps, reflected elements of total war and genocide and at times described as the "last of the imperialist wars" and by others erroneously as one of the last  of "gentlemen's wars". Copies available in libraries such as the University of South Africa (Unisa), Unisa Archives, University of Pretoria, Stellenbosch University, the Afrika Studie Centrum (ASC), Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Netherlands, the South African Military Academy library associated with the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town. Contributions by Bernard Magubane, Mogobe Ramose, Louis Changuion, Charl-Pierre Naude, Kay de Villiers, Rocky Williams, Vladimir Shubin, Apollon Davidson, Irina Filatova, Vernon February, Mariaan Roos, Arlene Grossberg, Petrus de Kock, Gert van der Westhuizen, Ina Snyman and Ian Liebenberg (Foreword by H Solomon).

A mediados del siglo XIX, las relaciones entre España y Marruecos estaban realmente tensas. Los ataques contra las ciudades españoles, de  Ceuta y Melilla y la piratería berberisca, hicieron muy difícil una reconciliación entre los países. La reacción española, debido a su inestable situación interna siempre fue débil e insuficiente. Pero todo cambia con la llegada de Leopoldo O’Donnell  y la Unión Liberal al poder en 1858. Aprovechando una serie de factores internos que permitieron poner la atención nacional en el exterior de las fronteras, En 1859, España declara la guerra a Marruecos. Este artículo busca analizar las causas del conflicto  y los preparativos españoles para el mismo.

Durante as últimas guerras que Portugal travou
em África (1961-1974), milhares de soldados africanos
incorporaram as Forças Armadas Portuguesas
(FAP). Se, por um lado, o recrutamento de africanos e
o tipo de organização militar implementado pelo poder
colonial serviram para dar resposta a exigências particulares colocadas pela guerra de guerrilha, por outro lado, a propaganda ideológica utilizou esse processo de africanização para promover a ideia de que Portugal desenvolvia uma política integracionista adequada a uma nação pluri-continental e pluri-racial, reforçando o discurso legitimador da manutenção do domínio português em África. O que se pretende com este artigo é apresentar uma reflexão acerca da utilização propagandística dos combatentes africanos das FAP na imprensa diária portuguesa publicada entre 1961 e 1974.

«Algeria. The War of Independence Fifty Years Later»

Andrea Brazzoduro (ed.)

Contributors: Roberto Bianchi, Giulia Fabbiano, Julien Hage, Jim House, Nicola Labanca, Amar Mohand-Amer, Irene Mordiglia, Gian Paolo Calchi Novati, Tramor Quemeneur, Éric Savarese

This book explores the lived memory of the Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974) through the analysis of thirty-six oral history interviews with ex-combatants of this conflict. The meanings that the combatants attributed to their war experiences then and now are the book’s analytical focus. This project seeks to answer the following questions: how has the public memory of this colonial conflict developed in Portugal from 1974 to approximately 2010? what issues does an oral historian encounter when conducting interviews with veterans on a past that remains traumatic for many? what were – and are – the most significant aspects of the war experience and its aftermath for the veterans? how do the veterans perceive their group identity and their historical situation? and what innovative perspectives does oral history offer to the historiography of the Portuguese colonial war?

Keywords:

Explore public memory after war
Provides a methodological approach to interviewing war combatants
Explores war trauma in history and memory, analyzing discrepancies between recollection and records

During the wars of the early modern age, deaths by disease tended to prevail over deaths in combat. This trend was particularly pronounced in the case of European troops operating in extra-European ecological contexts. As the pioneering works by Philip D. Curtin have shown, on this behalf the nineteenth century was a period of radical change: on the one hand, European empires expanded to Africa and Asia, on the other medical innovation transformed the epidemiological relation between Europe and the rest of the world, resulting in a clear decrease of mortality among European migrants moving to extra-European territories. In this context, the emergence of “tropical medicine” as a scientific field, the development of colonial projects and the reinforcement of military health services were deeply interconnected processes. Medical knowledge constituted a crucial resource for European powers: not only to provide for the health of their troops but also to create favourable conditions for an increasing number of settlers, entrepreneurs and civil servants. Later also improving the health of the native populations became a goal of colonial administrators, who perceived demographic growth as a crucial factor for enhancing the economic profitability of the colonies. Medicine, hygiene and (a certain) Western bodily discipline were celebrated as elements of the civilizing mission and sometimes employed as tools of social disciplining. However, it would be simplistic to interpret the history of colonial health as a unilateral transfer from European metropoles to colonized territories. The knowledge involved in the making of colonial medicine was not exclusively produced in the laboratories of tropical institutes and European hospitals: to a significant extent it was generated through social interactions in the colonies. Military doctors had limited infrastructural, pharmaceutical and human resources and often they had to cope with unknown diseases whose aetiology was still an unsolved question. Thus, inter-imperial cooperation, reciprocal transfers between European and non-European actors as well as the (mostly fragmentary but sill significant) appropriation of “native” therapies played a central role in the construction of colonial medicine.

Weapons are an essential element in warfare. But not all parties in armed conflicts have easy access to the legal gun market or sufficient financial resources, as was the case for the forces of the newly proclaimed Indonesian Republic during the Indonesian war of Independence (1945-1949). This colonial war is historically infamous for its extreme violent chapters of guerilla and counter-guerrilla tactics, and its political sensitivity and multisided perspectives, which this article cannot escape to reflect upon as well. 1 Weapons are inevitably an important source of violence, but surprisingly absent as a topic of research in historiography about this war. This article exemplifies how the Indonesian Republic could get its hands on weapons, venturing on the thin, controversial line between trade and smuggling at the final stage of the war.