Armies of Occupation

E.T. Sharp specialized in military history and disarmament and lived in Toronto.

This volume is the latest in a series of collected papers read at the Royal Military College of Canada’s Military History Symposia. These conferences feature top Canadian and international historians and address a wide range of different aspects of the single theme of military history. The ninth symposium, held in March 1982, dealt with military occupation of conquered territories. The main focus of the conference was European, particularly World War II and its aftermath, but there were lectures on colonial experiences in Canada and Africa as well. The relationship of differing war aims, strategic situation, and legal structure of the different occupying states to their behavior and to the reaction of the occupied population is a common theme of most of the articles. Because of the differences in style and presentation of the various authors, the papers vary in depth and level of interest to the general reader. All represent a contribution to the study of the relationship of armed forces and the societies with which they come in contact.