VHO Workshop: A "Treshold of Crisis"?

Herzlich willkommen in der digitalen Tagungsmappe der VHO-Workshop 2023.

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A “Threshold of Crisis”? Local conflicts and transnational dynamics of crisis around 1900

The time around 1900 was characterized by a number of transformative processes that were perceived as crises and/or resulted in events labelled as crises. This workshop will take a closer look at the interdependence of local conflicts and transnational dynamics of crisis in the years before and after the First World War, from 1890-1923.  

Since the late 19^th Century, the emerging mass media, rapid globalization and increasing international tensions fostered not only the visibility of existing problems but also the creation of enlarged scenarios of threats and conflicts. Such scenarios often had effects on local conflicts, especially within empires. But even outside empires, a growing transnationalisation of conflicts influenced ideas about political representation, political rhetoric, or conflicts between labourers and employers.

For example, mass media and international cooperation of workers and employers contributed to the transnationalisation of conflicts by reporting on strikes or upheavals abroad or creating larger scenarios of conflict and crisis that created a link between the social question and other “threats” such as international tensions, labour migration, or democratic claims. An event like the revolution of 1905 not only had a strong impact on the Russian Empire itself (especially its border regions), but the transnational media echo generated by the revolution triggered a wave of protest movements that amalgamated calls for political reform, extension of the suffrage and social justice in other European countries and empires.

The revolution of 1917 had an even bigger impact, fostering a variety of violent local conflicts connected by national and transnational dynamics of crisis.

The workshop will discuss the relationship between local (or even personal) conflicts and transnational dynamics of crisis from a variety of perspectives, including political, economic,  social and media history. A main question will be, if one or more “thresholds of violence“ can be identified that marked the beginning of the particularly violent phase in European history around the First World War – be it from the perspective of historians or those who experienced such conflicts and crises.