The material for the study came primarily from the F 17 series of the National Archives, where the documents of public education are dispersed through a number of liasses. and in the T series of the archives of the Maine-et-Loire, the Mayenne, and to a lesser extent of the Sarthe. Forays into the departmental archives of the Morbihari, Ille-et-Vilaine, Seine-Atlantique, the Nord and Cher were of great help as well. In the National Archives, the chief type of document was the correspondence of the recteur of Angers with Paris, either in the form of single reports or pacquets that contained the letters and petitions of principals, professors and local notables. This correspondence was scattered through boxes seemingly unrelated to the Academy as well as through the liasses of the municipal schools. The research was by no means limited to this one jurisdiction; much work was done on the correspondence of other academies in the attempt to make a comparative analysis. The departmental archives of the Maine-et-Loire contained the papers of the old rectorate and were indispensable in providing details on the more human side of life in the Academy. Those of the Mayenne and the Sarthe offered less information.

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A study of the history of weaving in Guanajuato, Mexico.

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Although not as important as timber, the coal mining industry did play a significant role in Washington's economic development of the 1880's. But coal mining was not an easy business in which to make a profit. The product itself was medicore; costs were high, and competition was stiff. The leading independent coal company, the Oregon Improvement Company (OIC), suffered from continual financial problems and was hampered by poor management. To reduce costs the OIC emphasized the factor of production that appeared to be easiest to control — labor. Like all Washington coal operators, the OIC officers were opposed to labor organizations, which they believed both increased costs and interferred with a company's right to conduct its business. The nature of coal mining and the structure of mining towns made conflict almost inevitable between a company and its employees. The mine workers quickly learned that organization was not only essential to protect their interests in an irregular and dangerous industry, but also to counteract the overwhelming influence of the company. When Knights of Labor organizers appeared in Washington in the early 1880's, they were enthusiastically received by the mine workers, and local assemblies of the Knights were established throughout Washington's mining regions. A company like the OIC wanted to mine coal efficiently and economically without any interference from employees or labor organizations. In order to inhibit the influence of organized labor the OIC encouraged faction among its employees, with the intent of keeping the workers divided and quarreling among themselves. To the OIC officers it appeared that the workers could be permanently divided along racial lines. Their experience with placing low-paid Chinese workers in the mines had shown them that their white-employees completely accepted the prevailing racial stereotypes. Not only were the mine workers opposed to Chinese in the mines, they became leaders in the movement to expel the Chinese from Washington. Racial animosity and a fear of cheap labor prevented the mine workers from seeing what they had in common as workers with the Chinese. In this sense the Chinese laid the groundwork for the far more successful use of blacks in the mines. The first black mine workers in Washington were imported from the Midwest in 1888 by the Northern Pacific Coal Company. With the use of blacks the company broke a strike led by the Knights. In 1891 the OIC decided to follow the example of the Northern Pacific, and black workers were imported under contract to work in the OIC mines. With cheap black labor the OIC believed it could conduct its business more economically and suppress organized labor by encouraging racial hostility among the workers. The OIC's use of blacks precipitated the complete defeat of union mine workers in Washington. A national tradition of anti-Negro prejudice enhanced by the West's more virulent racism, and the minimal participation of blacks in the developing labor movement, all contributed to their successful use in the Washington mines. Racial animosity and hostility to cheap labor kept the blacks and whites divided. Initiated by the Knights, the retaliatory strike of the white mine workers failed, and mining unions disappeared from Washington for over a decade. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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The Hispanic phenomenon of the pronunciamiento, particularly prominent in nineteenth-century Mexico, is just one example of an insurrectionary political act that has contributed to the traditional portrait of chaos and disorder that has tainted much of our interpretation of the country‟s socio-political history. Once considered to be a violent, non-ideological, praetorian military act, recent studies reveal that the pronunciamiento was primarily a written petition that sought to further political proposals or address particular grievances through negotiation (albeit often backed by the threat of force). Although the military were largely the most visible leaders of the pronunciamiento, a plethora of political and civilian actors and interest groups partook in the practice with the intention of having their grievances/demands attended to by the national government. As well as being viewed as one of the causes of chronic instability, the pronunciamiento was also the primary mechanism employed to bring about tangible political changes throughout the country. At the local level of San Luis Potosí, the pronunciamiento seed also germinated and was used by all political groups and factions in their negotiations with local and national authorities alike. Local interests were often at the heart of these negotiations and so dictated the nature of the pronunciamiento in San Luis Potosí. This dissertation will explore and analyse the pronunciamiento practice, its origins, dynamics and nature, from the regional perspective of San Luis Potosí. Bearing in mind that the pronunciamiento was borne out of, and operated in a specific socio-political-economic context of constitutional disarray and transition, its analysis will also further our understanding of the broader socio-political culture not only of San Luis Potosí, but of Mexico in general. This in turn will contribute to the acknowledged need for reinterpretation and revaluation of the tumultuous period of early nineteenth-century Mexico. It will expose the period as an age of democratic revolutions; of intense political debate between emergent political groups and factions, who increasingly used the pronunciamiento to further an ideological stance, represent a spectrum of interests and force some kind of political change both at a national and regional level when all other constitutional options had been exhausted.

Examines the processes of disappearance during the late 16th and 17th centuries--through assimilation or extermination--of the native Indians encountered by Spaniards in present-day Chihuahua, Mexico.

The presidial system was the focus for Spanish and Mexican military operations in northern New Spain. The Spanish established these garrisons to provide their settlers and missionaries protection from hostile indigenous tribes opposing expansion into their territories. Between 1692 and 1776, presidios were established on the Sonoran frontier at Fronteras, Terrenate, Horcasitas, Santa Cruz, Altar, Tubac, Bavispe, Bacoachi, and Tucson. The Spanish and Mexican governments never completely solved the problem of adequately supplying the Sonoran presidios with men and materials to achieve dominance over the native populations. These conditions left the presidios and civilian population exposed to attack and harrassment by hostile Indians. Examination of the major events concerning the presidios from 1790 to 1835, including the Apache pacification policies, establishment of "Indian" presidios, the Mexican war for independence, transfer from Spanish to Mexican control, and the study of presidial personnel, reveals how the presidio functioned as a major frontier institution.

This study examines the role of law in the constitution and contestation of state power in African history. Using Zimbabwe as a case study, it analyses legal struggles between Africans and the state, and amongst Africans themselves between 1950 and 1990. In doing so it intervenes in a number of scholarly debates on the relationship between law, state power and agency in African history. Firstly, I examine the role of law in constituting state power by exploring the interplay between legitimation and coercion in long term perspective. Secondly, I interrogate legal centralism as an approach to understanding developments in the legal sphere in African history and make the case for legal pluralism as a more appropriate approach. I argue that during the period under study, Zimbabwe witnessed a process of evolving legal pluralism characterised by the mutual appropriation of forms, symbols and concepts between state law and the ‘customary law’. Thirdly, I contribute to the debate on African legal agency by demonstrating that its significance went beyond the utility of the law in specific social, economic and political struggles. I argue that it also gave expression to emergent political imaginaries, shifting ideas of personhood and alternative visions of the social and political order. Lastly, I argue that, by undertaking a historical examination of legal struggles, this study provides a useful foundation from which to analyse contemporary legal struggles in Zimbabwe and in Africa more generally. The findings presented here caution against being drawn in by the apparent novelty of contemporary legal struggles. In addition, they suggest the means by which human rights discourse in Africa might be reinvigorated.