The Spring 2023 edition of the Undergraduate Journal of History is now available, and our team is thrilled to share it with readers. We take pride in offering a platform for undergraduate students to showcase their historical research and encourage open discussions, intellectual debates, and curiosity. Our gratitude goes to the six authors who contributed to this volume and to the faculty and graduate student peer reviewers who made it possible. This latest issue covers various periods and diverse topics to illuminate lesser-known stories and provide fresh historical perspectives. Our undergraduate editors extend a warm welcome to both new and returning readers.
We start this issue with Olivia Bauer’s article on Queen Elizabeth I and an examination of her diplomatic relationships with the leaders of the Sa’adian Sultanate of Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, and Safavid Persia, which allowed her to establish trading companies and expand Britain’s empire. While the history of English foreign policy towards the Islamic world has often been associated with exploitative enterprises and violent warfare, the author argues that Elizabeth I’s relationships with Muslim rulers were founded on diplomatic and peaceful means and explored the politics, gender, and religious factors that contributed to this diplomatic success.
Adrian Hammer’s article, “Manufacturing Murder,” provides a nuanced examination of the evolution of mass murder methods from 1933 to 1945, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of what happened, why it happened, and who it happened to, all to prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future. Hammer discussed the significance of memorializing the severity of such atrocity. “The linear teaching of the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust,” Hammer writes, “fails to fully capture the extent of the crimes committed and the deranged mindset of those responsible.”
Victoria Korotchenko’s essay explores the role of children during the French Revolution and how they actively participated in the events of the time, including joining mobs, petitioning legislators, and fighting in wars. Korotchenko writes that, while most scholarship focuses on the perspectives of grown men and women who participated in the French Revolution, “the sweeping changes, violence, and warfare impacted those who had no choice but to grow up during this tumultuous decade.” This essay highlights children’s curiosity and active nature during this unstable time.
Alyssa Medin’s article deciphering Sor Juana as a “proto-feminist figure” in history. Medin examines three questions related to Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz’s work: whether her work was published without her consent, was submissive or subversive, and if it can be considered “proto-feminist theology.” Medin categorizes Sor Juana’s contributions to theology into three areas: a promotion of intellectual pursuits for women theologians, an aesthetic theological claim, and a pneumatological argument for deepening personal relationships with God through the Spirit.
O’Gorman’s work focuses on the Christian religion and military upheavals in late medieval Europe. He argues that losing Christian positions in the Middle East after the Fall of Acre in 1290 led military orders to reevaluate their identities. Many returned to their non-militaristic origins or expanded their crusading ideals into new regions. By comparing the founding stories and rules of military orders with their actions after 1290, O’Gorman demonstrated how the rules of military orders, including the Teutonic and Hospitaller Orders, also emphasized their hospital care in addition to their military actions.
Susan Samardjian retrospects upon how the post-war Vietnamese regime under communism in 1975 faced setbacks that disrupted both the nation’s stability and that of neighboring countries concludes our issue. Samardjian argued these setbacks contributed to an already deteriorating economy and formed the communist leaders to reevaluate their attitude toward their neighbors. In response, the communist government implemented domestic and foreign policy reforms to encourage bilateral trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eventually normalized relations with the US, which had imposed sanctions on Vietnam, leading to economic investment opportunities.