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This chapter examines the impact of colonialism on the “invention” of Vietnamese medicine (VM) in the first half of the twentieth century. It focuses more specifically on the legal framework dealing with VM in the interwar period, when Vietnamese nationalism was on the rise and French colonial authorities were assessing the “successes” and “failures” of the Assistance Médicale Indigène (AMI), the colonial health care system established in 1905. I argue that this invention was at the same time pragmatic, programmatic, and ideological; it aimed at “naturalizing” the AMI to adapt it to local medical needs within the imperial framework and French budgetary constraints. Bridging political, institutional, professional, and therapeutic spaces, this article brings into focus the process whereby VM was not only domesticated, but legally defined for the first time and given specific roles within the colonial health care system. Analysing the discourses framing VM as a “traditional,” “complementary,” and “natural” medicine, I explore the different meanings of science, toxicity, and tradition in this context, as well as the issue of accessibility to essential care. I emphasize the participation of the Vietnamese population, especially Vietnamese doctors and healers, in this process. In so doing, this article helps to reconsider the historiography of traditional medicine worldwide and underlines the importance of a postcolonial approach to a much-needed history of so-called complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Last but not least, it highlights the impact of colonialism on the framing of a “national medicine” that would play a crucial role in post-1954 Vietnam medicalization and nation building.

IN THE SPRING OF 1959, the UN press service and Canada's Department of External Affairs (DEA) announced that the "rivers, forests, cities and industries of western Canada and northwestern United States [would] serve as a laboratory in economic and social development for a new-type training center." (1) The Regional Training Centre for United Nations Fellows at the University of British Columbia would "enable trainees from underdeveloped countries to study and observe activities in fields such as hydroelectric power, water development, mining, forestry, land management, cooperatives, credit unions, social welfare, and public administration." (2) Press reports explained that the "unique international venture," involving the UN, the Canadian government, and UBC would be located in the Pacific Northwest because "in the past 50 years this area has experienced a most remarkable expansion of population and of economic development." (3) Infused with the postwar optimism associated with Canada's economic progress, British Columbia's resource boom, and international development, the announcement simultaneously highlighted and obscured a history and ongoing reality of settler colonialism and, more broadly, the extent to which Canadian participation in development assistance rested upon a foundation of Indigenous dispossession. This article explores how settler colonialism intersected with the UN's training centre at UBC, which is built on the territory of the Musqueam people. It uncovers what the Centre's origins and activities say about understandings of development after 1945, especially the Canadian dimension of this global history. Specifically, it interrogates development's pedagogical dimension. Situating "technical assistance" and efforts to identify best practices into the literature on imperialism and settler colonialism, it highlights how, notwithstanding progressive motivations, Canadian academic involvement in development efforts rested upon and reified settler colonialism at home and abroad. (4)

The objective of this research is to measure the impact of the Spanish Civil War on the attitude of the French Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union from 1936 to 1937. It takes shape in a political and journalistic opinion study based on a survey of three French daily newspapers attached to the Popular Front during the 1930s, namely L’Humanité, Le Populaire and L’Œuvre. The analysis is articulated through the events of 1936 to 1937 such as the ratification of the Franco-Soviet mutual assistance pact, the election of the Popular Front and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The impact of the conflict in Spain is in fact measured in the intensification of the political polarization in France which influence the attitude of de Popular Front about the collaboration with Soviet Union. Despite the advent of a new Popular Front government, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War elevated the political polarization between the left and the right in France, which started in 1934, at its peak. Without a strong coalition between the left and the center right, collective security led by the USSR could not succeed. While some journalists are tempted by the appeasement policy, others develop a more clear-sighted and realistic vision of the threat posed by Nazi Germany and the importance of a close Franco-Soviet relationship.

The main purpose of this text is to study the practices, the issues and the modalities of the animal diplomatic gift in the 13th century, especially during the reign of Frederick II, Henry III and Louis IX. The analysis is based on the presentation of the sociological and anthropological conceptualizations of the gift, particularly those of Marcel Mauss. They are used to understand the peculiarities of the animal diplomatic gift in the 13th century. Then, a research on animal descriptions of medieval bestiaries and encyclopedias is conducted to show the symbolic power and the physical and behavioral characteristics of the offered wildlife. Finally, several modalities of the donation are developed, such as the selection criteria and the wildlife preferences of the kings, the context and rules of the elaboration of a present and the movement of given animals. In addition, it is shown how the beasts and birds had a real use for the kings. Indeed, they staged their animals in order to appropriate their symbolism and show off their prestige and their greatness, at events or in the menageries.

In the 6th century, in the kingdom of the Burgundians, Avitus of Vienne composes a letter for his sister, the nun Fuscina. This consoling and eulogistic artwork is called De consolatoria castitatis laude. This text generates in us an understanding of the particular context of the virgo in the Christian society of Late Antiquity. Regarding the text, the purpose of the book is to show to the monacha that the virginal choice represents a way of escape and freedom, a reality that the spouse is unaware of. The duties of marriage, the dangers of motherhood, the troubles of the century, the widowhood and the mourning are all unknown to the virgin because she excludes herself to worldly obligations. The use of the Bible and several patristic references shape the legacy of religious mentalities which inspires Avitus in making an oriented speech on the virgo’s socio-religious distinctness.

This study compares methods of information gathering in two territories that became part of the British Empire after the Seven Years’ War. We bring these two extremely different regions into the same frame by asking: how did the British gather information about the populations of Canada and Bengal? Our study is part of several historiographical currents that offer a rereading of the history of Great Britain and its colonies, which is the subject of our first chapter. In the next chapter, we explore the post-conquest era in Canada. After the conquest of this territory (1759-1760), British authorities faced the task of administering the Canadian population. At first, they tried to implement a new governmental regime deemed suitable for the Canadian context. However, since the majority of the population they governed was of different religious denomination (Catholics) and of French origin, they had to modify the regime ten years later. In the third chapter, we look at the British presence in Bengal after the battle of Plassey in 1757. The British, through the East India Company, acquired a certain influence over local authorities, which allowed them to govern indirectly via the Mogul Empire’s governors, the nabobs. Nevertheless, cultural differences were much more significant than with the Canadian population of European origin: the Mogul Empire was a Muslim polity, with a Persian administration, and much of the population was Hindu. From our reading of the official correspondence, between the colonial administrators and the metropolitan government in the first case, and between the agents of the company and its directors in the second, we affirm that in both situations the British tried to gather more information. However, important institutional and cultural differences distinguish the types of information sought as well as the approaches to collecting information. The results of our research ultimately converge on one point: the search for information passed through a whole range of local intermediaries. In the last chapter, after having explored the “information order” implemented or adapted by the British in each colonial context, the study considers how colonial information was received and shaped by the metropolitan authorities. To this end, the efforts of officials and parliamentarians to learn about colonial conditions during the drafting of two laws, the Quebec Act (1774) and the Regulating Act (1773) are highlighted through a reading of the Parliamentary debates. Here also, many differences are visible. To become informed about Canada, British authorities relied heavily on the help of the colonial administrators who stayed in Canada after the regime change. However, in the Indian case, they depended mostly on documentary sources, namely the books of the EIC.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, historians’ attention was turned towards the disappearance of a bourgeoisie canadienne which should have made the transition from commercial to industrial capitalism. These studies began, so to speak, with the end, in attempting to define the long-term historical consequences of the Conquest on an as-yet ill-defined group that in principle included some merchants. This thesis follows new investigations in both Europe and the USA which have permitted to look anew, often with a cultural history approach, at merchants of the Early Modern period. Focusing on a Montreal merchant outfitter (marchand équipeur) and his family, the investigation first seeks to determine if the Canadian merchants’ culture (broadly defined) was similar to that of their French counterparts who worked on the same business level. A second aim is to evaluate the leeway available to individuals in face of the general conditions of the trade and the role of networks in the merchants’ career. Finally, the thesis attempts to define the self-conception of these men while looking at their lifestyle and the various roles they played in their community. To complete such a study, we have chosen to look « wide and deep » like micro-historians have before us. The study examines the long life of the équipeur, Jean Alexis Lemoine dit Monière, who chose to settle in Montreal in 1715 and whose career Louise Dechêne had followed until 1725. After her, historians have since pictured Monière as a typical marchand équipeur. But he might not have been typical, he might even have been a « limiting case ». The thesis follows him to the end of his life and looking for all the opportunities that were offered to him along the way. It accords considerable importance to the material and immaterial legacy of his father, Jean Lemoine, and to what Monière passed on to this son, Pierre Alexis and a few nephews. Situating Monière between his father who emigrated from Rouen, his brothers and his own son, permits us to see the emergence of a profession, that of équipeur. We look at how Monière, who died in 1754, was prepared to embrace the merchant’s profession and how he perceived the way he should work as an équipeur. This study affords a better understanding of merchants’ culture, broadly conceived, in early French Canada. Exploring a variety of sources and using a micro-historical approach, we hope to have followed Dale Miquelon’s suggestion to look (again) at the merchants’ world with the eyes of the people of the times in order to answer today’s questions.

This thesis sheds lights on collaborations and transfer of knowledge between Jewish and Christian scholars in France during the 13th and 14th centuries. We propose a comparative analysis of different exchanges, in three distinct areas: theological, philosophical and astronomical. Taking into account the Latin and Hebrew sources that testify this transmission of knowledge, we propose an in-depth study, dividing in two sections. The first part narrates the evolution of education in the Jewish communities and in Christian society. The second part analyses the context of the Extractiones de Talmut, the transmission of knowledge between Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas, the close collaboration between Jacob ben Makhir and Armengaud Blaise, as well as the significant intellectual exchange between Gersonides and his fellow Christians. Our objective is to answer the following questions: did Christian and Jewish scholars receive information according to their own intellectual value, ignoring their source? And was there a direct influence from one scholar towards the other? Thus, this study demonstrates the different motives of these exchanges through a contextual field constituted by a specific intellectual event. We will perceive that these relations vacillate between mistrust and admiration.

At the end of the 17th century, in Europe, a new economic discourse emerged: mercantilism. The result was a growing control by the royal administration over the countries’ industries and economy. This economic system dominated the first half of the 18th century before gradually weakening in the face of the rise of economic liberalism. Among the major industries at the time was the wool industry, which was relatively dispersed throughout the country. There was still a certain industrial concentration in certain généralité mainly in the north of France and in the south with the Languedoc region. These two regions constitute the main points of our study. The goal then is to understand how the geographic factor influences the formation and success of lobbies in the wool industry in a century of evolution of economic thinking. The first case study relates to the study of the wool industry in the Languedoc which opposes the economic privileges obtained by Marseille from the royal administration. The latter had exclusive rights to trade with the Levant region, the main outlet for Languedoc wool production. Huge protests and oppositions ensued between the two protagonists in order to defend the economic interests of each other. Finally, our second case study leads us to analyze the economic consequences of the signing of the Franco-British trade treaty in 1786. The latter had a huge consequence on the wool industry in the north of France. It the follow the emergence of a lobby in the wool industry demanding for a modification of the treaty. In reality this agreement materialized an opposition between two different kinds of pressure groups: the first one coming from a rural environment living primarily from agriculture; the second one coming from a mainly industrialized urban environment.

The dissertation represents the first attempt to construct a narrative about the Young Communist League of Canada (founded in 1923) during the inter-war period, so far absent in existing research on Canadian communism or socialism. The thesis focuses on the evolution of the relationship between the Young Communist League (YCL) and the Communist International and Young Communist International where Soviet Communists played a predominant role. It sheds light on numerous minor and major changes of policy shaped by the national and international contexts in which these organisations had to act. The dissertation argues that despite genuine enthusiasm toward the International’s line and the Soviet experience, Young Canadian Communists often found it difficult to implement the International’s directives in Canada. Neither the International nor the communist movement in Canada was monolithic. On the contrary, there appear to have been numerous conflicts on three levels: between the International and the League; between the League and the Communist Party of Canada; and between local or linguistic groups in the League and its national leadership. The state repression of the left during the whole inter-war period, derisory level of funding and membership numbers also impeded the implementation of the International’s policies. At the same time, the International’s weaker levels of control allowed for a certain degree of flexibility and autonomy in the Canadian League’s policies. Following the position of the Young Communist International, the Canadian communist youth placed special emphasis on anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist, and later anti-fascist and anti-Nazi, militancy. However, the League appeared to have acted independently as far as immediate demands of the youth and cultural policies were concerned, especially during the Great Depression era. The League engaged in joint activism with other youth organisations, even when Moscow did not encourage such strategy. The initiatives often came from local grassroots organizers, although Canadian authorities were convinced that Moscow was behind each and every action of the League. In the 1930s in particular the YCL, through a network of social and cultural organisations, gained access to youth of different political orientations – the socialist left, centre-left and even “bourgeois forces.” The YCL’s impact and outreach were further increased by the fact that the organisation’s sympathizers, if not members, belonged to diverse social backgrounds and included not only young workers and farmers but also High School and University students, artists, sportsmen, young white collars, many of them belonging to religious youth groups. For these young people, the YCL was the place that provided Marxist solutions to burning questions of the time such as youth unemployment and absence of welfare, social injustice, growth of fascism and imperialism in Canada and abroad.

In this master’s thesis, we sought to showcase the permutations of the colours of textile products bought during the sixty-two years under the Avignon papacy (1316-1378). The objective of this research is to develop a systematic and synthetic database that lists the permutations of coloured fabrics purchased by the Avignon papacy in the 14th century that are listed and compiled in the Introitus and Exitus. Our study also aims to explain the trends in the occurrence of these permutations using studies on the symbolism of colours in the 14th century. To be able to analyze the data that we collected and systematized, we called upon additional studies regarding the administration of the papacy, the symbolism of colours in the 14th century, the art of dyeing and the use of clothing. At the end of this study, we can maintain that the Avignon papacy allocates an important role to colours, hence the presence of many colours in the analyzed registers. The manifestations of these various colours are influenced by their symbolism in the 14th century, their dyeing techniques, and the intended use of coloured fabrics. Thus, red, white, green and brown are the most mentioned colours of textile products, these colours being in great demand because of their symbolism and their intended use with the Curia and Panhota. The appearances of gold, orange, violet, silver, purple, gray, black and blue are rarer, because of their price and the difficulties of obtaining fabrics of these colors.

In the cosmogonic and eschatological narratives of the origin and end of the world, both in some early myths and in the Presocratics’ systems, the vortex and other spinning motifs act as necessary agents of both order and disorder. Their rapidity induces a separation of opposites, and they jointly cause the resulting masses to move towards their “appropriate” place in the universe and thus produce a constant pendulum between multiplicity and unity. Furthermore, vortices appear to be the cosmic agents of the divine will, and they constantly regulate divine law and justice. Every time the cosmic order they have established is threatened, the Olympians punish the hubristic wrongdoers and protect the equilibrium of the world, using their attributes – e. g., the trident, the kerykeion, or the thyrsus – which often feature whirling shapes, movements, and patterns. The best example is Zeus’ thunderbolt, which is described as a whirling weapon from Hesiod to Nonnos, evoking the tempestuous force and cosmic energy of its origins. Far from being incidental, the vortex was clearly at the centre of the Greek conception of the entire cosmos, from the rotation of the planets to the whirling winds and the tumultuous or serpentine rivers, to the symposium and everyday life, even to turmoil and other spinning inner emotional states.

The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History critically examines the defining processes and structures of historical developments in North Africa and the Middle East over the past two centuries. The Handbook pays particular attention to countries that have leapt out of the political shadows of dominant and better-studied neighbours in the course of the unfolding uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. These dramatic and interconnected developments have exposed the dearth of informative analysis available in surveys and textbooks, particularly on Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.

Between 1876 and 1982, Métis were excluded from federal Indian policy, as they were not recognized as indigenous owing to the discriminatory and assimilationist clauses within the Indian Act. However, numerous spaces emerged for the recognition of the indigenous nature of the rights and identities of Métis and non-status Indians (MNSI) amid the creation of the Native Council of Canada in 1971 and the repatriation of the Canadian constitution in 1982. Among these were the creation of MNSI representative organizations across the country, the funding of historical and legal research for land claims, and lastly, the recognition of Métis rights as an Aboriginal people within the constitution. Within the scope of these spaces and the pressing context of land claims and constitutional repatriation, the NCC and the Laurentian Alliance of Metis and non-status Indians (LAMNSI) highlighted different ideas and definitions on the rights and identities of MNSI people in Canada in order to be recognized by the state. For this reason, the CNAC valued an ethno-national concept of Métis that was centered around the Red River community. Consequently, LAMNSI argued that there was no such thing as a Métis Nation in Quebec or in eastern Canada. Instead, LAMNSI affirmed that its members belonged to the historical, cultural and familial realities of the First Nations.

From the 8th century BC onwards, Greek colonists established many colonies between the Thermaic Gulf and the Evros river. Often located on hostile territory where the land is a very important source of wealth, these new cities have ensured their safety and stability by quickly establishing defense systems around their settlements. Throughout the periods, several powers have also taken interest in the northern Aegean territories and marked the military landscape of the region by fortifying their own urban centers. This research project concerns the systematic study of these fortifications. If some researchers, mainly Yves Grandjean, Dimitrios Lazaridis and Alexander Cambitoglou, have shown interest in the fortifications of specific cities (Thasos, Amphipolis and Torone), no synthesis covering our region, yet very rich in military architecture, has been undertaken, hence the interest of this project. More specifically, we pursue the following objectives: 1) to study the geography and demography of the region in order to better understand the distribution of the territory and the way it was defended by the settlers; 2) to contextualize the defensive structures within the politico-military history of the region. Apart from the monumental work of N.G.L. Hammond (but focusing mainly on Macedonia), the one of Benjamin Isaac (whose chronological scope is relatively limited) or that of Angelos Zannis (which focuses only in the country between Strymon and Nestos) there is no real analysis of the military history of northern Greece. Therefore, our objective is to analyze the effects of political and military movements (Persian presence, Macedonian advance, Athenian interference, Thasian expansion, Thracian conflicts, etc.) on the development of the military architecture. 3) The aim is also to catalog, locate, describe, date and illustrate (photographically and topographically) all the defensive works of northern Greece. 4) Finally, we will analyze and argue on the different defense methods, the construction techniques and the stylistic features and forms of the fortifications. The objective here is to have a better appreciation of the cultural heritage and the regional influences in the establishment and construction of defense systems. The analysis of techniques and styles will provide a better understanding of the links between new settlements and mother-cities, it will also allow to address the question of artisanal mobility and the effects of migration on military architecture.

This thesis is an exercise in historiography that deals with the ways French, Quebec and US researchers interested in the Pays d’en haut in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, have referred, over the past 35 years, to the theme of Native agency. To represent the Native peoples as agents, as they really are, for what they do and not as bit players of a Europeo-centric narrative, this seems to be the rule of the language game ethnohistorian play. However, when we look at the production of the specialists of these Native societies, we rapidly come to the conclusion that the national question and, more broadly, the dynamics of identity inherent to the communities of researchers, still have a considerable impact on these narratives. In order to understand these dynamics, it is useful to develop a historiographic perspective that is rooted in the sociology of science. I will refer more specifically to the works of Bruno Latour and Pierre Bourdieu on controversies among researchers. The idea is to see how researchers, by situating themselves in relation with their peers through alliance, avoidance or opposition, structure an ethnohistorical project. A project that is devoted to knowing better the Native other, but also a project that needs to pass the postcolonial test and hence refers to an area of postcolonial studies that is itself structured through contentions. By seeing how, through the generations, an ethnohistorical model of good practices is constructed and restructured, how collectives of researchers are built, one learns about the world of Native people, but also about the world of the researchers. It is in this perspective that I conduct the analysis of historiographic narratives produced by renowned practitioners of studies on the Pays d’en haut, ethnohistorians who, a few years after having published their main work on the subject, take stock of the situation in regards with Native agency. The historiographic propositions of Bruce Trigger, Richard White and Gilles Havard will allow us to cover the evolution of the field of ethnohistory since 1985.