Preliminary Programme

This paper focuses on nation-building and state/church relations in the Amazonian border region of Colombia in the period 1860-1930. In this period the Colombian (and Peruvian) state used religious orders to establish some administrative control. Specifically, this research focuses on the border region shared by Colombia and Peru; comprised of the departments of Caquetá and Amazonas on one side, and Loreto on the other. Here, two Catholic missionary orders who arrived to the region from Spain, adopted a prominent social, economic and political role. The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in Colombia and Augustinian order in Peru were heavily involved in education in the region. Due to a concordat signed by the Colombian government and Holy See in 1887, Capuchins established themselves in this region with the explicit aim to integrate local (often indigenous) communities into the Colombian nation.

This paper fits in the historiography which assesses the process of nation-formation using Anderson’s concept of the imagined community, but it will also be in conversation with literature which stress the importance of ‘popular nationalism’ in Latin America (Mallon, Sanders). It refers to a historiography that tries to understand the complex interaction of the state and popular actors at local levels. It will build on this literature to understand the role of the church, both at an institutional level and at the level of local communities. The paper aims to study this complex interaction at the local level of a border region which is in many ways peripheral to the Colombian state. In so doing, it will complicate current views on the role of the church in the formation of Latin American nation-states. It also hopes to provide a new perspective on the societal role of church orders like the Capuchin missions.

The paper will be based on archival research and historical fieldwork in the border region. It will mainly focus on Colombia, but due to the uncertain national boundaries in this period may also refer to the similar situation in Peru. On the basis of this research the paper aims to provide a better understanding of the role of the Catholic Church in the nationalization processes of Colombia and Peru around the turn of the 20th century. (Show less)

2016 marked the 180th anniversary of the birth of the Texas Republic and the 170th anniversary of the signing of the Oregon Treaty between the Great Britain and the United States of America. The successful Texas Revolution in 1836 meant the end of Mexican rule in the region and led to the American annexation of Texas in 1845, while the agreement of 1846 ended the joint British-American occupation of the Oregon Country and gave the territory in possession of the USA. The two events profoundly changed the geopolitical relations of the American continent. In my paper I propose to outline and compare the early 19th century history of what is now the American Southwest and the Pacific Northwest. The main focus will be on the different phases of American colonization and the formulation of communities in the borderland regions. What were the immigrants’ motives and expectations? Who were they? Where did they come from? How did they relate to and interact with the Native American population and other ethnic groups? Why did they decide to establish their own government? How did they do that, and what were its consequences? My presentation will also reflect on how the parallel events were interrelated and intertwined both in national and international politics and diplomacy. (Show less)

After the defeat in the War of Austrian Succession, in which the political, military and financial weaknesses of the Habsburg state had been revealed, the Habsburg monarchy was in a fundamental crisis. In response, Empress Maria Theresa intended a comprehensive state reform whose primary goal was to increase tax revenue to finance a powerful army. The basic principles of the reform, enforced against the vehement opposition of the elites of the estates, were a centralization of the composite monarchy and a restriction of the intermediate powers on the regional and local levels. So far, the focus of research on the Theresian reforms has been on central authorities and legal norms, while the concrete implementation of reform measures in the local context has hardly been explored.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the enforcement of state rule at the local level in the second half of the 18th century. In concrete terms, the implementation of various reform measures and their effects on rural areas will be investigated using the example of several manors in the Austrian and Bohemian lands. Different, functionally related aspects will be addressed: local practices in the systematic gathering of information by the state (eg in the creation of tax registers or in carrying out mapping projects and censuses), the cooperation and competition of local elites and state authorities in the implementation of the legislation on peasant subjects or the increasing involvement of local administrative units such as manors and parishes into the state administrative apparatus. (Show less)