EUGUNS
euguns.bsky.social
EUGUNS
@euguns.bsky.social
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A Continent Disarmed? Gun Culture, Gun Control and the Making of Western Europe (ca. 1870-1970) EU-GUNS ERC-funded research project University of Padua, Italy https://www.dissgea.unipd.it/continent-disarmed-gun-culture-gun-control-and-making-western-europe
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Our goal is to examine how gunmakers integrated both national and global markets into their brand strategies during an era marked by strong nationalism, increasing consumer power and a growing appeal of global brands.
Firearms manufacturers boasted of their ability to communicate in various languages through their agent networks. In the EU-GUNS project, we will explore the archives of several arms-producing districts such as Liège in Belgium, Eibar in Spain, Brescia in Italy and Saint-Étienne in France.
As the arms market boomed at the beginning of the 20th century, firms embraced new advertising methods, prospecting for clients and partners through meticulously designed catalogues issued in thousands of copies, sometimes in multiple languages.
To reach a global customer base, Fabrique Nationale, the Belgian gunmaker renowned for producing the Browning brand, translated its advertising materials early on outside of Belgium. #euguns #eugunssnippets #europeanhistory #gunhistory
In GlobArms, Andrea investigates how firearms trafficking (1890–1939) shapes state perceptions of global threats, the role of traffickers, links between potential violence and firearms circulation, and the creation—or absence—of international rules on firearms.
His research covers police forces, gun control, criminality, and political violence. Recently, he studied strikebreaking in Third Republic France as a prism to examine the relationship between the state and private violence in shaping European statehood.
Andrea’s first book, "Polizia, crimine e ordine pubblico in epoca liberale" (2025), explores Italian police history, its ties to the Mafia, and how this has shaped the state–society relationship in a European state whose nation-building was long and contested.
A graduate of the University of Milan, he has worked at the University of Grenoble, Società Napoletana di Storia Patria, and Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
Today we present the PI of our other project, @azzab.bsky.social! Andrea Azzarelli directs GlobArms, a study of policing firearms trafficking in Italy, France, and the UK. #globarms #unipd #dissgea #dissgea_unipd
Image sources: 1) Biblioteca Queriniana of Brescia, Catalogo della Luigi Franchi (1931), n. 4 - collocazione: P1D1 SB.G.II.3m18 2) Catalogue of Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Étienne, 1900
The EU-GUNS project investigates the second life of military rifles and how this seemingly obsolete hardware shaped the relationship between Europeans and guns for decades. #euguns #eugunssnippets #gunhistory #europeanhistory
Old British Martini-Henry rifles — the weapon that helped conquer the British Empire in the second half of the 19th century — were converted into miniature rifles for training young British boys and for use in indoor shooting galleries.
Major manufacturers as well as artisanal gunsmiths converted French Gras and Italian Vetterli rifles into shotguns that were cheap enough to be affordable to many rural hunters and farmers.
An often overlooked consequence of this was that millions of old-model rifles ended up in military stores. Some were sold to non-European countries or used in colonial wars, but hundreds of thousands ended up on the civilian market.
In the last third of the 19th century, major technological changes transformed the world of small arms. The invention of bolt-action rifles and, more importantly, smokeless powder meant that governments had to adopt new military rifle models to avoid falling behind in the arms race.
She has published in high-impact journals and edited volumes, coordinated special issues and taught courses in contemporary military history. She combines academic work with public engagement and historical dissemination. #euguns #unipd #dissgea_unipd
Her research explores the intersections between political violence, authoritarian cultures and gun control from the late nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth century.
She has held postdoctoral fellowships in Padua and at the University of Girona, where she has worked on projects dealing with state monopolies on violence and the political crises of interwar Europe. In 2025, she joined the ERC-funded project EU-GUNS to work on the Spanish case study.
The next person from our team we would like to present is Assumpta Castillo Cañiz! She earned her PhD from the University of Padova in 2021 with a dissertation on political violence and armed associations in pre-World War I Europe, as part of the ERC project “The Dark Side of the Belle Époque”.
This transformation - from military surplus to a tool of political struggle - shows how the afterlife of weapons shaped conflicts across national borders. And this deadly second-hand economy is precisely one of the major focuses of the GlobArms project: tracing the circulation...
THE ULSTER VOLUNTEER FORCE, BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND, 1914
Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force march through Belfast, rifles on shoulders shortly before the First World War.
www.iwm.org.uk
...in one of Europe’s largest gun-running operations before the First World War - the infamous Larne episode. What was useless in Italy had become a crucial instrument abroad.
...Declared obsolete and replaced by the Carcano 1891, their story was far from over. After being decommissioned by the Italian army, thousands of Vetterlis were sold off, flooding international arms markets. In 1914, the same year the photo was taken, more than 4,000 were smuggled into Ireland...
A rifle’s journey often extends far beyond the battlefield it was built for.
This image shows members of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Ireland marching in 1914 amid rising tensions over Home Rule. Among their weapons were likely Vetterli-Vitali rifles... #globarms #unipd #dissgea #europeanhistory