Research seminar of the group Comparative Political History. With Matteo Millan, on armed associationism in Europe before, during, and after the Great War.

Beyond the watershed?

Pre-1914 armed associations during the Great War, and in its aftermath

Armed associations were a common presence in pre-1914 Europe: thousands of male European citizens owned, handled, and used guns and rifles as members of various armed associations, from military youth groups and paramilitary units to civic militias, from company defence groups to shooting clubs. Handling guns was a means of instilling patriotic values in young men and preparing them to defend the country, but it was also a fully legitimized practice for preserving social hierarchies, order, and productivity. The outbreak of the First World War was a litmus test for the massive continental experience of armed associationism. On the one hand, such groups spent the years prior to the conflict preparing for war or preserving the social order against internal enemies; on the other hand, what they experienced once the war broke out was completely different from what they had expected. The paper’s aim is threefold. First, it offers a quick overview of armed associationism in pre-1914 Europe, outlining the various types, practices, and functions of armed associations. Second, it explores what happened to armed associations once the war broke out, highlighting transformations, adaptations, and disappointments. Third, it investigates the legacy of pre-war armed associationism in post-war Europe, in which a new kind of paramilitarism – much more violent and brutal – emerged and in which the threat of revolution seemed far more real. Despite the completely new context produced by the total conflict, through their endurance and legacy pre-1914 armed associations were able to overcome the watershed of the war experience and went on to influence post-1918 Europe.

Speaker: Matteo Millan (Università di Padova)

Discussant: George Souvlis (University of Ioannina)

Picture: Freikorps in Berlin, circa 1919 (Credit: Major a. D. F. W. Deiß, Weller Verlag/Berlin).