This thesis explores the multi-faceted and complex negotiations that took place between Bulgaria and Europe’s major alliance systems at the start of World War I as both groups attempted to convince Bulgaria to enter the conflict on their side.

In 1890, Germany and Great Britain concluded the Treaty of Helgoland-Zanzibar, which settled many of their numerous and complex colonial issues in Africa. The territorial exchange of British-held Helgoland and German-held Zanzibar, which was part of this agreement, had a major impact in its finalization. Indeed, without the Helgoland- Zanzibar swap, such a treaty most likely would never have occurred. Many hoped that the Helgoland-Zanzibar agreement would usher in a new era in Anglo-German friendship and, perhaps, lead to a formal alliance.

This thesis covers the involvement and influence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in Virginia during the Civil War. Because the Methodists were the largest religious denomination in the South at the onset of the war, the Church was in a position to offer support and to shape the opinions of the Confederate people. Using sermons, religious tracts, newspapers, and letters, this study demonstrates that the majority of the Church supported the Confederacy and its aims.

This work was sponsored by the University of Richmond, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of History.

During the American Civil War, New York State’s irrepressible Irish Brigade was alternately composed of a number of infantry regiments hailing both from within New York City and from within and without the state, not all of them Irish, or even predominantly so. The Brigade’s core structure, however, remained constant throughout the war years and consisted of three all-Irish volunteer regiments with names corresponding to fighting units made famous in the annuals of Ireland’s history: the 69th, the 88th, and the 63rd.

This work was sponsored by the University of Richmond, School of Arts & Sciences, Department of History.

This thesis analyzes the Revolutionary-era plays of Robert Munford and Mercy Otis Warren. Munford's two comedies, The Candidates and The Patriots, are compared to Warren's three earliest satires, The Adulateur, The Defeat, and The Group, in an effort to explain some of the differences between these two authors. The original printings of these plays from the Early American Imprints series, as well as more recent scholarship on Munford and Warren, are used to investigate the plays and lives of these playwrights.

INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: “I WAS ALWAYS A UNION MAN”: AFRICAN-AMERICAN LOYALTY AND COMMUNITY IN HISTORIOGRAPHY 9 CHAPTER 2: “I NEVER DID ANYTHING TO HELP THE REBELS”: NETWORKS OF RESISTANCE 22 CHAPTER 3: “MY FAMILY WERE ALL FOR THE UNION”: LOYALTY AND KINSHIP 33 CHAPTER 4: “MOST ALL OF THE COLORED MEN WERE LOYAL”: NETWORKS IN BLACK AND WHITE 49 EPILOGUE 70 APPENDIX 1: NETWORKS 76 FIGURE 1. CHARLES CITY COUNTY FIGURE 2. HENRICO COUNTY FIGURE 3. NANSEMOND COUNTY FIGURE 4. NEW KENT COUNTY APPENDIX 2: TABLE 1 80 BIBLIOGRAPHY 81

After the Napoleonic Wars, British leaders increasingly objected to large burdensome formal annexations. Hence, when South American markets opened in the 1820s British leaders considered using nearby island bases to ward off regional rivals. Britain therefore occupied the Falkland Islands in 1833. Despite governing the world's strongest industrial and naval power however, British leaders neglected the Falklands' progress as a colony from 1833 to 1851.

In the early 1900s, Ireland experienced a surge in nationalism as its political leanings shifted away from allegiance to the British Parliament and towards a pro-Ireland and pro-independence stance. The landscape of Ireland during this period was changed dramatically by the subversive popularity of the Irish political party, Sinn Fein, which campaigned for an Ireland for the Irish.