Journal Issue: University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal: Volume 4, Issue 1
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THE RISE AND FALL OF JUAN DOMINGO PERON: FASCISM , VIOLENCE, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ARGENTINA
Moore, Anne Francis
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Catholic Church sought to increase its involvement in public life, politics, and social issue throughout Latin America. In Argentina, this desire led to the Churches involvement—both directly and indirectly—in a series of coups, revolutions, and counter revolutions. At the same time, a fascist, nationalist movement began to form in Argentina, inspired in part by European fascists, though distinct in its deep-seated connection with Catholicism. This ideological movement, called nacionalismo, often conflated fascism with Catholicism, and posited violence as the ultimate expression of these beliefs. Nacionalista religious violence would not fully actualize until decades later during and in the years preceding Argentina’s Dirty War, but traces of it can be seen throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. In the 1940s, Juan Peron rose to power on a wave of fascism, however his increasingly populist and secularist leanings ultimately put him at odds with both the nacionalistas and the Catholic Church. His removal from office in 1955—orchestrated by Catholics in the military and supported by the Church—demonstrates the significant amount of influence Catholicism held in Argentina. The combination of the Catholic Churches growing political power and the innately violent nature of nacionalismo can help explain many of the social and political upheavals that occurred in Argentina throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. The emergence of this Catholic-fascist kinship contributed significantly to the overthrow of Peron in 1955 and the state terrorism that occurred during Argentina’s Dirty War in the 1970s, giving insight into the role that religion plays in government, politics, and revolution. The growing strength of both the Catholic Church and nacionalismo in twentieth century Argentina—fortified by their sympathetic, even cooperative relationship with each other—are essential components of both the rise and fall of Juan Domingo Peron, perhaps the country’s most influential politician of all time. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Catholic Church worked to increase its influence and involvement in public life, politics, and social issues in Argentina, following a global trend of Catholic revival. Meanwhile, the fascist nacionalismo movement, fundamentally linked to the Catholic faith, also began to form in Argentina—again following wider trends of fascism, particularly in Europe. Although not all clergymen were nacionalistas—indeed Catholicism often enabled leftist action like the labor movement—most nacionalistas used Catholicism to justify and support their actions, at times with clear endorsement and encouragement from the Church. The movement reached its height in the early 1940s, when Peron rose to power with the support of the Church and a legacy of fascist sympathies. However, his focus on social welfare and his popularity among the working classes quickly distanced him from the nacionalistas, and his burgeoning authoritarianism and secularism ultimately alienated the Catholic Church as well. The events leading up to Peron’s removal from office in 1955, which was orchestrated by nacionalistas in the military and supported by the Church and Catholic laymen, demonstrate the significant influence of Catholicism and fascism in Argentina. These two elements—Catholicism and fascism—were an underlying current, always moving and shaping the country in some way, and even coming to define Argentina’s fraught twentieth century.
THE THEATRICS OF PLACE: 18TH C. FANTASY AND GEORGE III AT THE GREAT PAGODA AT KEW
Fernacz, Nicholas P.
This paper examines two sites of eighteenth-century architecture, The Great Pagoda in London’s Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, commissioned for King George III, and the Qianlong Emperor’s Western Palace complex at Yuanming Yuan 圆明园 in Beijing. By looking at architecture that transports the beholder through nonnative modeling, this paper investigates the virtual realities constructed in the foreign imagination. Methodologically based upon the architect’s, Sir William Chambers, own architectural treatises (On the Art of Laying out Gardens Among the Chinese and Dissertation on Oriental Gardening), and Jonathan Hay’s book Sensuous Surfaces: the Decorative Object in Early Modern China, this paper finds that The Great Pagoda intended to craft an entirely Sinicized experience for the King in which the sights, sounds, smells, and especially the views of Chinese gardens were replicated to engender the site as a theatrical set. Likewise, the Qianlong Emperor could personify his British equivalent through European modes of viewing, artificially ruling over a European city, particularly at Hudong xianfahua 湖东线法 画 (Perspective Painting East of the Lake), a series of stage flats painted in trompe l’oeil to conjure a convincing street view. The findings of this paper complicate the traditional scholarly narrative which tends to simplify the colonizer/colonized relationship, restoring agency to China’s fetishistic gaze towards the West. King George III collected nonnative architecture, using structures as conduits for personal fetishization and diplomatic strategizing through a performance within the choreography of a Chinese garden space. Concurrently, the Qianlong Emperor held a mutually exotic gaze towards Europe, particularly at the site of pictorial and scopic techniques allowing him to revel in his comprehension of such nonnative visual tricks as trompe l’oeil. This mutual understanding of elite garden spaces obviates the need to hierarchically define Great Britain and China’s relationship, but instead insists upon their equivalency in navigating the ‘other.’
THE TRANSMUTATION OF THE DRAUGR: CHRISTIANIZING ICELANDIC MYTHOLOGY
Esten, Kathrine
If the dead will not stay dead, what can you count on? The better question may be: Why aren’t the dead staying dead? In this essay, I examine the draugr (pl. draugar), an undead creature of pagan Norse origin, as described before and after the adoption of Christianity in Iceland in 1000 CE. Featured prominently in pre-conversion folklore, the draugr often symbolized Icelandic fears of isolation, starvation, and darkness. However, The Sagas of Icelanders, written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, features a reimagined draugr. Intentionally, post-conversion draugar return from the dead in accordance with Catholic practice or lack thereof. The transmutation of the pagan draugr into a religious symbol took place to benefit ecclesiastical authority. Combining psychological and literary analysis of the draugr with historic developments in Iceland and the Catholic Church, I argue that Christian authors manipulated mythology to reaffirm Church authority in a troubled political time.
THE FRENCH COLONIAL ENTERPRISE, A CASE STUDY ON THE DISCOURSE OF EMPIRE: INSPIRED BY THE WRITINGS OF TOCQUEVILLE, SAID, AND GORDON
Chrzanowski, Michael
This essay explores the writings of Edward Said, Daniel Gordon, and Alexis de Tocqueville; each of these historians reflected on the concept of colonialism and its possible social, cultural, and political ramifications. Said is remembered as a prominent post-colonialist, and this is reflected in his criticism of European exoticization of the East in his book Orientalism. European notions of superiority, matched with a desire for intellectual accumulation of other cultures' knowledge, propelled colonialism forward in the nineteenth century. Alexis de Tocqueville's accounts on France's colonial mission challenge Said's notion of European superiority; Tocqueville was a civil servant, politician, and historian who held mixed feelings towards French colonial efforts. Tocqueville was concerned with French intentions and efficiency; it was important for colonizers to try to understand the people they sought to rule. Daniel Gordon, a critic of postcolonial scholarship, tries to dissect the language of colonial discourse employed by intellectuals like Said and Tocqueville, highlighting the contested space of reflections on colonialism in the twenty-first century. This work synthesizes the writings of these three intellectuals to craft a coherent understanding of colonialism, "civilization," and "Orientalism" concerning European interactions with non-Europeans.