International Workshop: Armed Groups and Political Violence in Belle Epoque Europe

The workshop will be held at the DiSSGeA Department, Jonoch building, at n. 30, Via del Vescovado, Padova, Italy

Dal 12.12.2017 al 13.12.2017

From 12 to 13 December 2017 the University of Padova - DiSSGeA Department, will host an international workshop that is promoted in the framework of the ERC Stg Project PREWArAs - The Dark Side of the Belle Epoque. Political Violence and Armed Associations in Europe before the First World War (G.A. 677199). The initiative is dedicated to "Armed Groups and Political Violence in Belle Epoque Europe", it is coordinated by the Matteo Millan, Principal Investigator of the PREWArAs project, and particularly discusses the conventional image of the Belle Époque as a time of peace, progress and optimism.

In fact, the twenty years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War were a period in which the practice of organised violence was part of everyday life for thousands and thousands of male European men. Genuine paramilitary corps (such as the Ulster Volunteer Force), industrial protection groups, private police like the German Zechenwehr or the Italian Volunteer Workers, and countless shooting clubs and military training associations are all examples of the process of militarisation which shaped many European countries.

This workshop aims to address this largely understudied topic by bringing together young and senior scholars to focus on political violence and processes of militarisation in France, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the United Kingdom between the 1880s and 1914.