Sources

Second plan of work for Bangkok by Ernest Douwes Dekker

In this report addressed to the German Foreign Office, the anti-colonial Indonesian writer and politician Ernest Douwes Dekker (image 1) describes his secret mission to travel from Rotterdam to…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, Berlin Indian Independence Committee, colonial intellectual, Dutch East Indies, Ernest Douwes Dekker, German Revolutionary Program, Germany, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, India, Java, nationalism, Neutrality, The Netherlands

East and West in the War

Newspaper article by the Dutch writer Henri Borel on the entry of British and French colonial troops in the war. The article 'East and West in the War' was published in the colonial newspaper…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: anti-colonialism, Colonial Troops, Dutch, France, Great-Britain, imperial strategy, India, internationalism, Race, The Netherlands, writer

Greenmantle

Published in 1916, the novel Greenmantle was a wartime bestseller written by the English author John Buchan who also worked as a high-ranking propaganda official at the British propaganda office,…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-colonialism, Camp, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Great-Britain, imperial strategy, Jihad, Muslims, novel, orientalism, Propaganda, South Africa, Wellington House

Newspaper article detailing the experience of Maori Troops in France

An article from The Times (London) describing the experiences of Maori soldiers in France. The article describes Maori troops singing a translated version of 'It's a Long Way to Tipperary'. The…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Language
Tags: Colonial Troops, France, Maori, Music, Translation

The Memoir of a West Indian Padre, 'From the Islands of the Sea'

The published account of a padre, Alfred Horner, who served with the 9th Battalion of the British West Indies Regiment, based on his diary and articles written for the Nassau Tribune. It was published…

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Themes: Race; Mobility; Memoirs
Tags: Colonial, France, Great-Britain, Journey, Memory, Non-Combatant, Priest, Race, West Indies

From one of our Muslim prison camps. Dolce far niente in the sunshine

The photo shows a group of North African prisoners of war, two prisoners of unknown origin, and an officer, all in front of barracks. The prisoners are arranged in a way that shows them to be…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Photograph; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-colonialism, anti-French, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, Jihad, Muslims, Personal Encounters, Photograph, postcard, Propaganda, The Other

Newspaper article on Maori anti-war activists clash with New Zealand police

This newspaper article, published in a major New Zealand daily newspaper, describes a confrontation between a group of Maori (New Zealand’ s indigenous people) and the police officers who had been…

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Themes: Race; Newspapers & Magazines; Mobility

'Irish, Finns and Flemings'

In the June 1918 article 'Irish, Finns and Flemings', an anonymous journalist from the German sponsored, Dutch journal De Toekomst [The Future] criticises the lack of Dutch support for the Flemish…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Dutch, Fins, Flemish, German Revolutionary Program, Great Netherlands, imperial strategy, Irish, Language, newspapers, Pan-Germanism, Propaganda, Race, revolution

Letter by a British Officer in German East Africa

Francis Brett Young (1884-1954) was a young British doctor and aspiring author who volunteered for service with the Royal Army Medical Corps. As a medical officer, he served in the conquest of German…

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Themes: Race; Mobility; Letter

Film Propaganda

Cover letter and three excerpts from Dutch newspapers highlighting the efforts of German propaganda to influence the Dutch press.

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Film
Tags: film propaganda, Germany, Netherlands

Photograph from German East African Campaign

This private photograph comes from an album of a British soldier who served in the East African campaign. It depicts a local civilian being held by an Indian sepoy for the duration of the photograph.…

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Themes: Race; Photograph; Mobility

The Diary of Alison Mullineaux

Extract and photograph from the diary of Alison Mullineaux, a Canadian woman who travelled to Europe and served as a nurse's aid in the French Service de Santé. Both the diary extract and the…

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Themes: Race; Photograph; Gender; Diary

The Battle of Ancre and the Advancement of the Tanks, screened in the Dutch East Indies

Newspapers advertisements from Dutch colonial newspapers about the official British war documentary The Battle of Ancre and the Advancement of the Tanks (1917).

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy; Film
Tags: colonies, film propaganda, Netherlands, pro-British

The African Zouaves in Flanders

French propaganda film showing colonial troops in Belgium http://www.filmportal.de/video/zouaves-d-afrique-dans-les-flandres-belges

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Mobility; Imperial Strategy; Film
Tags: film propaganda, Neutrality, orientalism

'The Empire's Flag'

The propaganda postcard ‘The Empire’s Flag’ was sent to many British colonies and protectorates in 1916 and 1917. On the obverse, it bears an image of the Union Jack and, on the reverse, a poem…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Poem; Mobility; Language; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Arabic, Chinese, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, English, Great-Britain, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, Language, loyalty, Malay, postcard, Urdu, Wellington House

Of a Lost Summer by Cyriel Buysse

Of a Lost Summer is a travelogue by the Flemish writer Cyriel Buysse that documents the Western Front in France and Belgium, where he also visited the destructed towns in West Flanders where he was…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Captivity
Tags: Flemish, Race, Senegalese, Soldiers, trenches, war novel

’Culture brothers’ in the prison camp

The postcard is suggestive of the wide range of people fighting for the Allied armies. The mix of people - their uniforms, their skin tone, their facial expressions, and their postures - in front of a…

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Themes: Race; Postcard; Mobility; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: imperial strategy, orientalism, painting, postcard, POW, pow-camp, Propaganda, Racism, The Other

Interned British Indian soldiers peeling potatoes in Townley Hall, The Hague

A drawing of interned British Indian soldiers with turbans and beards peeling potatoes in Townley Hall, The Hague.

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Themes: Race; Neutrality; Mobility; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: Camp, Great-Britain, India, Neutrality, POWs, Soldiers, The Netherlands

Algeria – Zouave on sentry duty

The postcard depicts a Zouave soldier in full uniform, resting on his rifle and gazing into the distance. The soldier’s facial expression conveys confidence, reliability, and strength, assuring the…

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Themes: Race; Postcard; Photograph; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Algeria, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, colonies, France, imperial strategy, mobilisation, postcard

Photographs of the Coloured Soldiers and Sailors Club, London

Five photographs taken by the Alfieri Picture Service showing African, African American, and West Indian servicemen at the Coloured Soldiers and Sailors Club, London 1919. The images show that black…

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Themes: Race; Photograph

Film of an Egyptian Labour Corps Contingent

http://bit.ly/2fbkqHp A film of one contingent of the Egyptian Labour Corps (ELC) from their recruitment in Egypt to their arrival and work in France. Please click on the link to watch the film.The…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Photograph; Mobility; Film
Tags: Colonial Troops, Egypt, film propaganda, Labour, Personal Encounters, Race

War news in the wilderness

Cartoon by Dutch artist Albert Hahn, in which two 'uncivilized' black men read about the German atrocities in their newspaper The Jungle. The text reads: 'Are these Europeans not the people who send…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Imperial Strategy
Tags: cartoon, Civilization, imperial strategy, Race

Württemberg war exhibition. Stuttgart – May to September: France’s coloured auxiliary peoples

The picture shows a wooden shelter surrounded by various men of colour, who wear different types of uniforms. Two of the men hold rifles, while others are sitting around a wooden object. The whole…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Postcard; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Colonialism, cultural propaganda, imperial strategy, Mobility, Photograph, postcard, The Other

'Pan-Germanism and the war, by H.J.P.A. Kiersch'

Short review on the book by H.J.P.A. Kiersch Het Pangermanisme en de oorlog, which was published in Amsterdam by the publishing house Van Holkema en Warendorf.

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Imperial Strategy
Tags: cultural propaganda, Dutch book market, Germany, Propaganda, The Netherlands

Memoir by British Officer Serving in East Africa

War memoir by British medical officer. This book became a bestseller and went through several editions, shaping impressions of the war in East Africa in the minds of the British public.

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Themes: Race; Mobility; Memoirs
Tags: Africa, Colonial soldiers, Empire, Indian Army, Memoir