ABSTRACT

During the first half of the twentieth century, European countries witnessed the arrival of hundreds of thousands of colonial soldiers fighting in European territory (First and Second World War and Spanish Civil War) and coming into contact with European society and culture. For many Europeans, these were the first instances in which they met Asians or Africans, and the presence of Indian, Indo-Chinese, Moluccan, Senegalese, Moroccan or Algerian soldiers in Europe did not go unnoticed. This book explores this experience as it relates to the returning soldiers - who often had difficulties re-adapting to their subordinate status at home - and on European authorities who for the first time had to accommodate large numbers of foreigners in their own territories, which in some ways would help shape later immigration policies.

chapter |19 pages

Introduction

Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914–1945

part I|74 pages

The French Army

chapter 1|18 pages

Islam in the French Army during the Great War

Between Accommodation and Suspicion 1

chapter 4|18 pages

Memory and Representation of War and Violence

Moroccan Combatants in French Uniforms during the Second World War

part II|63 pages

The British Army

chapter 7|18 pages

The Long Road Home

Britain, Germany and the Repatriation of Indian Prisoners of War after the First World War

part III|90 pages

The Spanish and Dutch Armies

chapter 9|25 pages

Muslim Soldiers in a Spanish Crusade

Tomás García Figueras, Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni and the Ideological Context of Spain's Moroccan Soldiers

chapter 10|22 pages

‘Moor No Eating, Moor No Sleeping, Moor Leaving'

A Story of Moroccan Soldiers, Spanish Officers and Protest in the Spanish Civil War

chapter 11|20 pages

In and Out of Uniform

Moluccan Soldiers in the Dutch Colonial Army