Saved by the Civil War: African ‘Loyalists’ in the Portuguese Armed Forces and Angola's Transition to Independence

ABSTRACT

The article examines the trajectories of ‘loyal’ African troops in Angola before and after the demise of Portugal's authoritarian regime in 1974. It starts by placing the ‘Africanisation’ drive of the Portuguese counterinsurgency campaign in a historical perspective; it then explores the rocky transition from colonial rule to independence in the territory between April 1974 and November 1975, describing the course of action taken by the Portuguese authorities vis-à-vis their former collaborators in the security forces. A concluding section draws a comparison between the fate of Portugal's loyalists in Angola and the one experienced by similar groups in other ex-Portuguese colonies. The choice of Angola has the advantage of allowing us to look into a complex scenario in which the competition amongst rival nationalist groups, and a number of external factors, helped to produce a more ambiguous outcome for some of the empire's local collaborators than what might have been otherwise expected.     

公安部队组建初期组织体系和领导体制的历史考察(1949—1952年)

公安部队是武警部队的前身,是中国人民解放军的一个组成部分。中华人民共和国成立后,为了在全国范围内迅速建立革命秩序,巩固新生政权,在中央军委和公安部的领导下,逐步把地域性的公安武装和中国人民解放军担负公安任务的部队正式改编成“中国人民公安部队”。在军委公安司令部成立后,公安部队又进行了整编,组建了“中国人民解放军公安部队”和地方公安部队,逐渐接替全国内卫任务。随着边防公安组织和边防武装的建立,全国公安部队初步形成了正规公安部队、地方公安部队和边防公安武装的体制。为统一对国家内卫、边防斗争的领导,加强公安部队的建设,1952年,中共中央、中央军委决定将内卫、边防和地方公安武装统一整编为“中国人民解放军公安部队”,全部纳入中国人民解放军的建制序列。内卫、边防工作和公安部队的建设进入了一个新的阶段。     

On the Battlefront: Canadian Soldiers,an Imperial War,and America's National Pastime

“The moment our men get out of the trenches they begin to play baseball… .” ¹ 1. Coningsby Dawson, Living Bayonets: A Record of the Last Push (New York: John Lane Co., 1919), 129.

—Lieutenant Coningsby Dawson, an officer in the Canadian

Expeditionary Force during the First World War

The Great War is credited by some historians for giving direction to Canadian nationalism. Success on the battlefields provided many citizens with patriotic pride, as well as a sense of brotherhood as Canadian troops fought alongside the British in an imperial struggle. Despite an environment that favoured nationalism and imperialism, Canadian soldiers embraced America's national pastime. For many of the rank and file, baseball was an important part of their war experience. The commanding officers' support for sport, however, was essential to baseball's existence in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. Despite the enjoyment baseball brought soldiers, a handful of officers in the military's high command were apprehensive about sport's rising status. By 1917, after years of uncertainty about how to incorporate baseball into the soldiers' training regimen, the military could no longer ignore the need and role for sport in military life. Perhaps spurred by American entry into the conflict, the CEF issued a report that officially authorized baseball and like games.     

"旺代叛乱"述略

“旺代叛乱”是法国大革命中的一个重大事件。这一事件的发生,不能简单地归因于旺代农民的“愚昧”、“保守”。从最直接的现象看,它实起因于共和国政府的政策与农民的传统情感之间的冲突,共和国政府的过激政策无疑应负一定的责任。共和国政府对旺代农民的镇压,不仅是拯救共和国的胜利,而且也是恐怖政策的过火表现。在近现代世界历史中,“旺代叛乱”并非只是个别的现象。在革命或者现代化进程中,不难看到一部分农民或者一部分弱势群体因维护自身利益而陷入与掌握着“革命”话语权的政府相对抗的困境乃军绛埔汶种历史现象。萤新探讨“旺代叛乱”,有助于深入理解法国大革命以及世界历史中的“旺代现象”。     

Puppet troops revisited: A case study of the Northwestern Army during the Anti-Japanese War

After the Japanese occupation of North China at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist government adopted the strategy of using the regular army to develop the battlefield to the rear of the enemy in order to sustain a protracted war. As a result, the Northwestern Army, which was organizing anti-Japanese forces in North China, became the Nationalist government's main military force in the occupied area. However, caught between Japanese and Communist troops, the Northwestern Army surrendered to the Japanese for the purpose of self-preservation and thus became a puppet army. From a nationalist point of view, the collaborationists who covered up their self-serving motives and later defended their actions as a crooked path to national salvation had a negative image. In response to Communist expansion, the Nationalist government acquiesced in the measure of collaborating with the puppet troops to annihilate the Communists. To reinforce the battles at the front, the Nationalist government also attempted to plot anti-Japanese mutinies among the puppet troops, but its plan was never implemented. The Northwestern Army forces planned to build an alliance in order to survive as a third force both in the confrontation between the Chinese government and the Japanese army and in the confrontation between the Nationalists and the Communists. Yet, due to the tight control exercised by the Japanese in North China, it was difficult for the Northwestern Army to gain momentum as a third force. After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the Northwestern Army had to take sides in the Civil War, and this dilemma caused its final collapse.     

明代贵州军屯述论

明代的卫所屯田制度在贵州“蛮荒”之地的开发史上有着重要的一页。本文通过对贵州社会变迁史的回顾来突出论述明代军屯在贵州的具体实施状况以及所产生的巨大历史作用,这对今天贵州地方经济史的研究有着重要意义和价值。     

雍正、乾隆朝引见绿营武官分析

文章依据雍正、乾隆朝引见绿营武官的履历档案,分析了这一时期绿营武官的籍贯、民族等问题,并比较雍正、乾隆两朝的变化特点。揭示了旗人特别是满人的选官特权在乾隆朝更明显,任职比例大幅攀升,任职层级提高,且多在战略要地任职。陕甘籍官员以功绩、福建籍官员以水师技能也分享了选官特权。乾隆朝武官人事渐显因循化趋势,循资任职比例增多,避籍制度宽松、年龄增大。通过对出兵记录的分析,估算了这一时期出兵西北、西南和台湾的比例。     

‘The Key to India’: Troop Movements,Southern Africa,and Britain's Indian Ocean World, 1795–1820

Movements of people, goods, and ideas across the oceans of the world were the means by which British interests were cemented. This article focuses on one of those strategic and military transoceanic networks. It examines the pivotal role played by the Cape of Good Hope in supplying Britain's Indian Empire with troops: either recruited from existing garrisons or transferred in the case of security emergencies. Tracing the arcs of these connections, and understanding how and why they operated, helps to situate British networks of influence and interest in the Indian Ocean region. The views of people like Richard Wellesley and Robert Percival illuminate the political impulses and strategic considerations that circulated immediately before and after the British acquisition of the Cape. The evidence presented here contributes to our understanding of how the Cape fits into British Indian Ocean networks. In describing the close connection between the Cape and India, the article disrupts models of imperial networks that focus exclusively on London's relationship with colonial peripheries. And, finally, the article illustrates what it meant, in practice, to exert control and to sustain transoceanic networks and connections in the Indian Ocean in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.     

走近成吉思汗

成吉思汗由草原牧人而一跃成为＂世界皇帝＂。这是一个人间的奇迹。成吉思汗的蒙古帝国,其疆域横跨欧亚大陆。其武功之盛,占地之广,前无古人后无来者。秦皇汉武难与比肩。亚历山大、拿破仑亦不足匹配。＂只识弯弓射大雕＂的草莽英雄,如何能有此丰功伟业？而文武兼备者,如汉武帝、亚历山大者又何以无成吉思汗的丰功伟业？这中间必有认识的误区,也就是对成吉思汗＂文治＂的认识有不足。事实上成吉思汗不仅是蒙古文字的创立者,还是蒙古成文法的创立者,还是重视科技的炮兵部队的建立者。只有认清这三点,我们才能走近成吉思汗。     

Italian Colonialism in Africa as a Connected System: Institutions,Men and Colonial Troops

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades studies on Italian colonialism have shown remarkable vitality and many positive results. But in spite of this undoubted progress there still remain some limitations of approach that prevent any real outstripping of the interpretive schemes hitherto used. The research being conducted largely follows the nation state paradigm: the Italian colonies are viewed and studied as essentially independent entities, devoid of relations with the surrounding territories and, above all, between each of these and the others.

This article offers an interpretive scheme that stresses the intimate relationship among the Italian colonial possessions in Africa, their status as a system, by moving away from a representation that has always favoured a rigorously individualised treatment of Italy’s colonies. It emphasises three main levels of interconnection: administrative structures, officials and colonial troops. While the first two were also common to other colonial entities, the extreme recourse to the mobility of colonial troops was a distinctive feature of the Italian version and the main factor of interconnection among Italy’s territories.

Our analysis also enables us to better understand the place violence held in Italian colonialism. Along with analyzing the deportations, massacres and use of gas, we must consider the uninterrupted cycle of campaigns that from 1911 to 1941 Italy inflicted on its colonies. For the most part, wars were delegated to colonial troops who for thirty years, moving from one colony to another, made war and violence a fundamental aspect of the Italian colonial experience.