Eenheid in verdeeldheid: spanningsvelden in België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog

The First World War put very high strains on Belgian society. This article aims to make a comprehensive analysis of the internal areas of conflict created by the war and to present a number of hypotheses on its interconnectedness, momentum and meaning. In spite of the fundamental divisions of the Belgian war experience, three quite similar areas of conflict inherent to wars, emerged. The first area of conflict was structured around views on justice : it posed the question whether every person received and did his or her rightful share. The second area of conflict was of an ethnical-national nature: it concerned the question which persons belonged or did not belong to the national community. The third area of conflict was a 'moral-political fault line' with regard to the contacts with the enemy. In the reality of war, these three areas of conflict were not isolated, but in fact closely linked. And, in spite of the discourse of 'religious peace', the prewar fault lines (political-religious, socio-economic, linguistic...) continued to appear. A number of fault lines came to the surface, not just within the universes of occupied Belgium, the front and Belgium-in-exile. Between these three Belgiums, a complex relationship arose. These very divisions of the Belgian war experience constituted, paradoxically, not just a source of tension but also a source of strength. The fate of family and friends of whom one was separated was a constant source of anxiety in the three universes of Belgium during the war. People compared their own predicaments with that of acquaintances elsewhere, and this moral bond gave them the strength to persevere. Apart from the presence of the hated occupier, the moral stranglehold in which these three 'universes' held each other was the main factor keeping internal conflict under control

Recensie: de jacht op de flaminganten: de strafrechtelijke repressie van de Vlaamsgezinde militairen aan het IJzerfront (Jos Monballyu, Brugge, De Klaproos, 2010)

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Van niemandsland tot de ‘grote klaprozenexplosie’ : twee decennia onderzoek over België in de Eerste Wereldoorlog, 1995-2014

From No-Man’s Land to the ‘Great Poppy Explosion’: Two Decades of Research into Belgium in the First World War, 1995-2014. During the last twenty years the historiography on Belgium during the First World War has been undergoing a true transformation. Originally a neglected topic, it became the focus of an established sub-discipline. The Belgian case was finally integrated in the vital international research landscape on the First World War. Purpose of this article is to make a (preliminary) overview of these developments by identifying the major conceptual and thematic evolutions. The question is addressed how the historiography of Belgium during the First World War could develop from a marginal to a respectable field. Following aspects of war history are discussed: the position of the German invaders and occupiers, the Belgian front experience, the Belgian civilian experiences in the occupied country and in exile and settling / memory of the war.\ud \ud De historiografie over België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog heeft de afgelopen twintig jaar een ware transformatie doorgemaakt. Van een verwaarloosd onderwerp werd het de inzet van een gevestigde subdiscipline. Aansluiting werd bovendien gevonden bij het vitale internationale onderzoekslandschap over de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Oogmerk van dit artikel is een (voorlopig) bilan van die ontwikkelingen op te maken door de belangrijkste conceptuele en thematische evoluties te duiden. Geanalyseerd wordt hoe de historiografie over België zich tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog van een marginaal tot een respectabel veld kon ontwikkelen. Daarbij worden de volgende facetten van de oorlogsgeschiedenis behandeld: de positie van de Duitse invallers en bezetters, de Belgische frontervaring, de Belgische civiele ervaringen in het bezette land en in ballingschap en de afwikkeling van/herinnering aan de oorlog.\u