War on the Frontier
Article
Article Title | War on the Frontier |
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ERA Journal ID | 210554 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Draper, Mario, Kerby, Martin and Baguley, Margaret |
Journal Title | Historical Encounters |
Journal Citation | 10 (2), pp. 1-11 |
Article Number | 1 |
Number of Pages | 11 |
Year | 2023 |
Publisher | University of Newcastle |
Place of Publication | Australia |
ISSN | 2203-7543 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.52289/hej10.201 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.hej-hermes.net/10-2/10.201 |
Abstract | This article explores current historical thinking regarding the ‘small wars’ fought on the frontiers of European empires during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By drawing on a variety of examples ranging from South Africa to Bolivia and Australia to the Congo, the authors identify three major themes - the expansionist aims of imperial governments often being shrouded in a veneer of benevolence, the brutal fighting that occurred when Indigenous populations challenged the loss of traditional lands, and the speed with which the ostensibly ‘civilised’ European colonists discarded battlefield norms when they waged what were in effect wars of annihilation. In a challenge to the thematic or narrow temporal boundaries that have traditionally dominated scholarship, the authors avoid characterising these wars in discrete national terms. For though every frontier conflict possessed its own unique character, there are broad similarities that can be explored through an analysis of European thinking regarding these ‘small wars’ and the violence and destruction that accompanied them. |
Keywords | European empires, Frontier Wars, Genocide, Small Wars |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 430313. History of empires, imperialism and colonialism |
Byline Affiliations | University of Kent, United Kingdom |
University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/z3q41/war-on-the-frontier
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