Frontiers of Violence: Conflict and Identity in Ulster and Upper Silesia 1918-1922
Timothy Wilson
Abstract
Both Ulster and Upper Silesia saw conflicts over self-determination in the years after the First World War. The violence in Upper Silesia was more intense both in the numbers killed and in the forms it took. Acts of violation such as rape or mutilation were noticeably more common in Upper Silesia than in Ulster. This book argues that an examination of communal boundaries offers the most fruitful avenue for explaining the profound contrasts in these experiences of plebeian violence. In Ulster the rival communities were divided by religion, but they shared a common language. In Upper Silesia, th ... More
Both Ulster and Upper Silesia saw conflicts over self-determination in the years after the First World War. The violence in Upper Silesia was more intense both in the numbers killed and in the forms it took. Acts of violation such as rape or mutilation were noticeably more common in Upper Silesia than in Ulster. This book argues that an examination of communal boundaries offers the most fruitful avenue for explaining the profound contrasts in these experiences of plebeian violence. In Ulster the rival communities were divided by religion, but they shared a common language. In Upper Silesia, the rival sides were united in religion (92% of the local population being Catholic) but ostensibly divided on linguistic grounds between German and Polish speakers. In practice, language in Upper Silesia proved a far more porous boundary than did religion in Ulster. Language could not always be taken as a straightforward indication of national loyalties. At a local level, boundaries mattered because without them there could not be any sense of security. In Ulster where communal identities were already so clearly staked out, militants tended to concentrate on the limited task of boundary maintenance. In Upper Silesia where national identities were so unclear, they focused upon boundary creation. This was a task that required more ‘transgressive’ violence. Hence atrocity was more widely practised in Upper Silesia because it was functionally useful in creating polarisation.
Keywords:
Ulster,
Northern Ireland,
Upper Silesia,
German-Polish conflict,
borderlands,
ethnic conflict,
political violence,
nationalism,
ethnoreligious,
ethno-linguistic
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199583713 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583713.001.0001 |
