The Scottish national Antarctic expedition (1902–04) and the founding of Base Orcadas

The history of the establishment of the scientific research station on Laurie Island, South Orkney Islands, is recounted. Its founding by the Scottish National Antarctic (Scotia) Expedition (1902–04) and the subsequent operation by Argentina resulted in it becoming the first all‐year‐round permanently‐staffed research facility in Antarctica. The networks of government and non‐government personnel involved in the rivalry between British and Scottish interests and aspirations and the transfer of the Laurie Island facility from the Scottish expedition to Argentine government control are investigated. The narrative is set against the background of the centennial celebrations of that transfer.     

History,distance and text: narratives of the 1853–1854 Perry expedition to Japan

In both the US and Japan, popular narratives recounting the story of Commodore Perry's 1853–1854 US naval expedition to Japan have played a key role in the textual negotiation of commonsense understandings of space, place, history, and geopolitics. We use the textual analysis of a range of US and Japanese popular narratives of Perry/‘black ships’ stories to read this negotiation in terms of concepts of proximity and distance. Discussing different ways in which the vastness of the Pacific Ocean has been dealt with textually, we comment on the ways in which narrative histories of these events relate to differing understandings of national identity and US–Japan relations. We argue that the history of US popular narratives displays a steady reduction of transpacific distance, with the story's focus shifting away from details of the ocean voyage and towards the creation of a metaphorical setting for US–Japan relations, a setting identified with a Japanese location but framed within a US point of view. Japanese narratives, meanwhile, have displayed two contrasting trends, both of which could be read as forms of resistance to US rhetorical appropriations of Japanese national space and history. On the one hand, narratives dealing with Japanese history in the context of a US–Japan rivalry have tended to remove the ocean and shorten transpacific distance, thereby reducing the significance of the Perry initiative; on the other hand, narratives setting Japanese history on the broader global stage have tended to highlight the ocean as a vast space of distances and opportunities.     

The French Ideology? Louis Dumont and the German Conception of the Nation

Abstract. This article examines the contribution of Louis Dumont to the study of German national ideology. In a series of essays over a ten-year period in the 1980s Dumont aimed at providing a selective intellectual history of modern Germany, which in the final resort would account for the emergence of Nazi Germany. By focusing on factors such as the predominance of holism, the idea of universal sovereignty and the introverted individualism of the Reformation, Dumont believes that it is possible to uncover the dynamics of modernity in Germany. This development he contrasted with that of France, in which a non-cultural definition of the nation prevailed and where holism was non-dominant. The article concludes with a critique of Dumont's narrow version of intellectual history and with the suggestion that only a proper historical sociology of modern Germany can explain Nazism.     

Vindication of the Fronde? The cost of Louis XIV's Versailles building programme

In the years after 1661, Louis XIV went some way to meetingpublic criticism raised during the Fronde. Yet the king refusedto concede the reduction of taxation. Instead, resources wereappropriated for a large land army and a navy, as well as forthe royal buildings programme. Though expensive, the Versaillesproject was affordable in years of peace. Expenditure on thechâteau of Versailles never amounted to more than 6 percent of annual total expenditure, while in most years the costdid not exceed 1 per cent. The ambitious exterior work for theproject put up the overall costs of the project from 67 to 92million livres.     

The origin and construction of pre-Hispanic mounds in the Upper Delta of the Paraná River (Argentina)

Pre-Hispanic mounds, known as “cerritos,” “cerritos de indios,” or “aterros” across southeastern South America, are one of the most conspicuous and well-studied cultural manifestations in lowlands archaeology. Nevertheless, in the Upper Delta of the Paraná River, mounds are rarely studied, and even their anthropic origin is under debate. This could be related to the fact that anthropogenic mounds are located on a floodplain where other “mound-like” natural geoforms (generated by fluvial processes) are also present. In addition to this, the natural geoforms also contain evidence of Holocene human occupation (sherds, bones, charcoal, humans burials, etc.), which can lead to interpretive errors of their origin and formation. Thus, this project set out to determine the genesis and evolution of these mounds and also to identify the cultural occupation and transformation of natural landforms found in the area. In this article, natural and anthropogenic systems and processes were identified and characterized through the application of proxy record analysis (i.e., sediment composition, stratigraphy, micromorphology, silica bodies and chronological analysis) at the Los Tres Cerros archaeological locality in the Upper Delta of the Paraná River of Victoria County, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina. This analysis allowed for the recognition of natural anthropogenic interfaces, such as the “pre-mound” occupation as well as evidence of cultural activities such as mound construction, between 1,000 and 500 ¹⁴C years bp. These findings were integrated into current research on the variability of mound construction during the Late Holocene in the lowlands of South America.     

The role of the AALD in preserving the Australia–US alliance

This article critically evaluates the agenda and strategy of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue (AALD) for protecting and strengthening the Australia–US alliance. Nominally an exercise in informal diplomacy dedicated to fostering mutual understanding, the AALD functions more like a pro-American lobby group as it seeks to preserve orthodox thinking and eschew dissenting perspectives. The AALD performs this function in three main ways: by carefully framing discussion and debate, by socialising Australian elites into the alliance orthodoxy and by serving as a ‘gatekeeper’ of the status quo.

本文对保卫、加强澳美联盟的澳美领袖对话提出批评。该对话虽然名义上只是加强共同理解的非正式外交实践, 但其作用更像是亲美游说集团,因为它要保持正统的思路,回避不同的观点。该对话用三种方式实现这一功能：小心地设置讨论和辩论;向澳大利亚精英灌输联盟的正统观;充当现状的守门人。     

The suppression of the Congo rebellions and the rise of Mobutu, 1963–5

ABSTRACT

The first years of the Congo as an independent state were marked by instability and rebellion as local nationalist struggles became embroiled in what NATO powers feared could lead to the loss of hegemony over the country and its vast mineral wealth, if not into a theatre of Cold War politics. This article focuses on the series of rebellions, including the Mulelist revolt and the Simba uprising, that took place in the Congo from late 1963 into 1965. Belgian, British, and US diplomatic and Congolese military sources are used to analyse the intervention of the West against the Congolese rebels, in support of the Congo government in Léopoldville headed by Prime Minister Tshombe and President Kasa Vubu. Belgian, US, and Congolese sources on this military campaign led by Belgian officers, known as ‘the Ommegang’, allow a detailed analysis of the planning and execution of the assault on the rebel stronghold Stanleyville by Belgian officers, white mercenaries and the forces of the Congo Army, including the decision to deploy Belgian parachutists, dropped by US aircraft. These events culminated in the coup that brought Mobutu to political power in Congo in November 1965, marking out the trajectory of the county's history for the next three decades.     

The idea of peace in the West, 500–1150

Most of the numerous peace traditions of the early middle ages developed within a framework of three dimensions: monastic, ecclesiastical, imperial. But after 1150 the equilibrium among these three views of peace became upset. The pax ecclesiae and the imperial peace were channeled into papal jurisdiction and the public peace of the lay powers. The monastic peace began to lose its influence upon society at large.     

Radiocarbon chronology and the correlation of hunter–gatherer sociocultural change with abrupt palaeoclimate change: the Middle Mesolithic in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt area of northwest Europe

Recent refinements in radiocarbon sampling procedures have enabled a more robust absolute chronology for the Mesolithic in the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt area of northwest Europe. These refinements have allowed for a new chronological sub-division of the Early and Middle Mesolithic periods. Results of this research have indicated that the Middle Mesolithic period was bound by two Early Holocene cooling events, one at 9300 cal. BP and the other at 8200 cal. BP. These results enable a critical evaluation of the role of chronological precision in the investigation of contemporaneity between abrupt climate change and hunter–gatherer sociocultural change. In this paper we focus on the variable chronological resolution of the Early to Middle and Middle to Late Mesolithic transitions in the RMS area, and the role of this variable resolution in our ability to investigate the contemporaneity of these two transitions with different Early Holocene abrupt cooling events. This paper highlights two central challenges facing archaeological investigations of the relationships between climate and culture change: first, the requirement of tight chronological overlap between climate and culture change events and consideration of leads and lags in ecosystem and subsequent human responses to climate change; second, the equifinality problem and the separation of the impact of gradual from punctuated environmental change on human societies.