#History Volume 1

#History: A Journal of Student Research Volume 1 Article 8 2017 #History Volume 1 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/hashtaghistory Part of the History Commons Repository Citation (2017) "#History Volume 1," #History: A Journal of Student Research: Vol. 1 , Article 8. Available at: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/hashtaghistory/vol1/iss1/8 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @Brockport. It has been accepted for inclusion in #History: A Journal of Student Research by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @Brockport. For more information, please contact . Volume 1 (2016) Faculty Advisors' Introduction Greetings and welcome to the inaugural issue of #History, the student scholarship journal of the Department of History at the College at Brockport. As faculty co-advisors for this journal, we want to take this occasion as an opportunity to sing the praises of some of the people who made this first issue possible. Without their contributions, this first installment would never have gotten off the ground. First and foremost is our colleague, Dr. Angela Thompsell, who really did the lioness’ share of the heavy lifting that brought the journal to life: She oversaw everything from the basics of design and artwork, to supervising the student editors — showing them the ropes and keeping them on track. The launch of this first issue is really very much her achievement Next up would be our student Managing Editor, Martin Norment, and his team of student editors, who reviewed all the submissions and did much of the copy editing, as well. The results, we believe, reveal the scholarly strengths of our student historians, both undergraduates and graduate students. Finally, we also owe a debt of gratitude to Kim Myers, our Digital Commons point person at the College at Brockport, and the production staff at Bepress. Their responsiveness and eagerness to help made the complex task of putting together a new online journal and getting up and running seem simple. Welcome once again, and we hope you enjoy the articles and papers in issue number 1 of #History. Editors Managing Editor Associate Editors Faculty Advisors Martin Norment Nathan Daugherty Dr. Angela Thompsell Matty Kuhar Dr. Carl Davila Richard Stocking Dr. Paul Moyer Mission Statement #History: A Journal of Student Research is a student driven, peer-reviewed, electronic journal that publishes articles by graduate and undergraduate students from any accredited college or university. #History showcases and shares exceptional student scholarship in a variety of formats including research papers, master theses, capstone projects, oral history interviews, posters, historical documentaries, and photo essays. By engaging students from multiple institutions, #History seeks to connect students from different schools and to create an intellectual forum that encourages historical dialogue and the exchange of ideas. The journal also offers promising student historians at the College at Brockport an opportunity for hands-on experience with the publishing end of the profession. Aims & Scope #History: A Journal of Student Research presents student scholarship in all fields of the discipline of history and is open to any topic and any methodology, including original scholarship, historiographic studies, archival studies, oral history (in any medium, including audio/visual), essays addressing historical or historiographic issues, and historical work drawing as well from other fields such as anthropology or literary studies. The only limitations are that all submissions must be the original work of a student at a bona fide institution of higher learning, and must not have been previously published in another venue. In creating this online journal, the Department of History at the College at Brockport hopes both to reward and encourage student excellence in the study and writing of history, and to make the work of promising young historians available to a wider audience, historians and non-historians alike. #History: A JOURNAL OF STUDENT RESEARCH Volume 1, Issue 1 Fall 2017 Articles The Path to Ruin: Inflexibility, Delusion, and Discord between the Kaiser, Chancellor, and German High Command in the Great War Nicholas Vecchio, The College at Brockport ……………………… 1-19 The Great White Dawn of the Pueblo: Revolt and Puebloan Worldview in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico Martin Norment, The College at Brockport ………………………… 20-34 James Gustavus Whiteley: The Lost Agent of King Leopold II Jonathan Broida, The College at Brockport ………………………. 35-45 George Grenville Caleb Follmer, The College at Brockport …………………………… 46-56 Papers The American Revolution and the Black Loyalist Exodus Julia Bibko, The College at Brockport…………………………………. 57-73 Neoslavery: The Perpetuation of Slavery after the American Civil War Ben Falter, The College at Brockport…………………………………. 74-91 The Sexual Revolution of the “Roaring Twenties”: Practice or Perception? Shellie Clark, The College at Brockport ………………………….. 92-101 THE PATH TO RUIN: INFLEXIBILITY, DELUSION, AND DISCORD BETWEEN THE KAISER, CHANCELLOR, AND GERMAN HIGH COMMAND IN THE GREAT WAR Nicholas Vecchio, The College at Brockport Abstract This paper focuses on the political and military decisions of the German High Command during the First World War. After first examining the unresolved historiographic discourse over Germany’s fifth Imperial Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, it explores the backgrounds of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, General Erich von Falkenhayn, and General Erich Ludendorff, and studies the argument within the High Command over whether Germany should focus her war efforts on the western or eastern fronts. Two central theses are argued: (1) Germany had numerous opportunities to end the war diplomatically with favorable terms once it was clear they would not be able to win militarily, but these were all thwarted due to the inability of the war leaders to cooperate and agree in any capacity. (2) Falkenhayn, Ludendorff and Bethmann-Hollweg all vied for the support of the Kaiser in key military and political decisions, but by 1917 the Kaiser was largely supplanted by Ludendorff because the Kaiser failed in his constitutional role as Supreme Warlord and mediator between civilian and military branches. [Keywords: Germany, WWI, Kaiser Wilhelm, Ludendorff, Falkenhayn, strategy] CONFLICTING INTERPRETATIONS: THEOBALD VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG The discourse over Germany’s war leaders in the First World War has been highly debated since the end of the war. Throughout the 1970s, Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg was scrutinized by the leading European historians of the day. In Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, Hans-Ulrich Wehler judged Bethmann-Hollweg as a “conflict shy bureaucrat, who failed in his policy of administering problems in a system that could no longer be governed.” 1 Willibald Gutsche’s (...truncated)