Part I. Introduction and Context about questions of nationality, in- and exclusion before the start of the 20th century. Nonetheless, in the years immediately preceding the Great War, there were also movements countering large-scale migration and relaxed passport controls – not in the last place because of the rising nationalistic sentiments described above. Indeed, with the start of the Great War, passport controls were reinstated and documentary evidence of identity and nationality became important to both foreigners and nationals in light of the “intensified documentary surveillance during the Great War”.308 The period just before World War I saw the usage of nationality as a way to in- and exclude people. A logical consequence thereof, which was already elaborated upon above, was the rising importance of proving nationality and ‘belonging’ with the right documentation.309 Against this background, statelessness – having no nationality and usually no papers – rose to be an issue that needed to be addressed. And it was in these times, when the established order was challenged, disputes arose, people were displaced and borders shifted, that World War I and its aftermath made statelessness a substantial question for European states to deal with.310 Indeed, this major historical event is the direct cause for statelessness to assume “unprecedented proportions,”311 but as the above account shows, the development towards exclusion through nationality appears to have started well before that time. It goes beyond the scope of this book to investigate this in more depth, but it would be an interesting topic for further research. 2.3. WOR LD WAR I AND ITS AFTER MATH World War I (1914–1918) was “a war of extraordinary intensity”.312 Notorious for its battles, such as the battle of the Marne, the battle of Gallipoli, the battle of the Somme, the battle of Ypres (Ieper) and the battle of Verdun, World War I raged not only in Europe, but – for a large part because of Europe’s empires and influence – was also considered to be a global war, as its name suggests. The involvement of the United States and Japan confirm this image, even though it should be recognized that a number of countries were not involved. These countries, nonetheless, also faced the consequences of the war to some extent. The Netherlands, for instance, remained neutral during 308 309 310 311 312 60 John Torpey, ‘The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Passport System’ in Jane Caplan & John Torpey (eds), Documenting Individual Identity. The Development of State Practices in the Modern World (Princeton University Press 2001) 257. Cf Miriam Rürup, ‘Lives in Limbo. Statelessness after Two World Wars’ (2011) 49 Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 113. United Nations Department of Social Affairs, ‘A Study of Statelessness’ (1949, E/1112/ Add. 1) 5; Marc Vishniak, ‘The Legal Status of Stateless Persons’ in AG Duker (ed), Pamphlet Series: Jews and the PostWar World (No. 6, American Jewish Committee 1945) 15. See also Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Harvest Book – Harcourt & Brace Company 1979) 277 (n20); Miriam Rürup, ‘Lives in Limbo. Statelessness after Two World Wars’ (2011) 49 Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 113. United Nations Department of Social Affairs, ‘A Study of Statelessness’ (1949, E/1112/ Add. 1) 5. Hew Strachan, ‘Introduction’ in Hew Strachan (ed), The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War (new ed, Oxford University Press 2014) 1–10, 9. Intersentia