Occupation was a major experience of the Second World War for a large part of Europe and beyond, but the Great War had also been marked by multiple military occupations.

On the Western Front, Luxembourg, Belgium and North-Eastern France were occupied from 1914 onwards for a period of four years. On the Eastern Front, Poland, the Baltic countries, the Ukraine and other regions of the Russian Empire were in turn occupied. In the Balkans, Serbia and Montenegro were occupied, as well as the northeast of Italy during the last year of the conflict. To these quite stable occupations, one can add a multitude of changing or complex situations: in Galicia, in Albania, in neutral Greece, or in some sections of German territory. In some senses, the Allied military zones also comprised a form of occupation. Other occupations took place outside of Europe, in the colonies or in the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the end of the war in turn saw the appearance of new occupations: friendly occupations in the liberated territories; military occupations of the defeated countries,de factoor endorsed by a treaty; occupation by one of the warring factions during the civil wars that extendedthe global conflict. The list is not exhaustive: from 1914 onwards, examples of occupation were numerous and varied.

However, all of these situations were not isolated. They were connected to each other, by synchronic links from one conquered territory to another, as well as by diachronic links throughout the early 20th century. It is this "connected" nature of the experiences of occupation that this workshop intends to explore, via the starting point of the occupations of the Great War in Europe.

On the one hand, this exploration approaches the policy of occupation: Were these policies implemented primarily at the local level, or were they based on much reflection and applied to the entire territory? To what extent were they influenced by the Hague Convention, by the experiences of occupation from the pre-war period? Was the experience acquired in one occupied zone transferred elsewhere (for example from the Western front in 1914 to the Eastern front in 1915)? Was the experience gained in one time-period reused thereafter (for example from the First to the Second World War)? In addition, were the various occupiers inspired by methods of occupation used by the enemy? Or did they rely instead on the expertise of their allies? Did they theorize possible transfers of experience? Or were these transfers made at the moment of decision-making, through personnel transfers, or via what could be termed cultural heritage? What was the role of organized teaching in this regard?

On the other hand, the workshop will also deal with the point of view of the occupied: Did occupied societies draw on experiences and representations of other occupations (past or contemporaneous) to think through or justify their posture against the occupant? Did theexperiences of occupation lead to reflection on possible future occupations? What happened when the roles were reversed and that the occupied became the occupiers (for instance, regarding the definition of occupation objectives, the notion of revenge, or explicitly acting in opposition to previous policies...)? Were these experiences exported and used in more exotic locations?

These interrogations are intended to encourage thinking beyond each individual experience in order to conceive these occupations in terms of spaces of experimentation in synchronic or diachronic relationship with each other.

We invite researchers to send their paper proposal to Emmanuel Debruyne: emmanuel.debruyne@yahoo.fr.

Each proposal must contain a title and a summary of 300-500 words, and should be accompanied by the author’s CV. Authors will be informed of the selected papers at the end of February.

Travel costs (train or plane, second class), as well as accommodation for one night will be covered by the organisers within the limits of their budgetary possibilities.

Conference Language: English

Conference Organizers: Emmanuel Debruyne (Paris Institute forAdvanced Studies / Université catholique de Louvain) | Elise Julien (IRHiS - IEP de Lille) |  James Connolly (University of Manchester)

Venue: Institut d'études avancées de Paris, Hôtel de Lauzun, 17 quai d’Anjou, 75004 Paris

----------------------------------

Contact:

Emmanuel Debruyne

Université catholique de Louvain

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

1 Place Blaise Pascal

B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve

Belgique

emmanuel.debruyne@yahoo.fr