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<span class="name">[[Author::Natacha Roussel]]</span>

<div class="book">This timeline starts in Brussels and is an attempt to situate some of the events in the life, death and revival of the [[Mundaneum]] in relation to both local and international events.
By connecting several geographic locations at different scales, this small research provokes [http://www.cqrrelations.constantvzw.org cqrrelations] in time and space that could help formulate questions about the ways local events repeatedly mirror and recompose global situations. Hopefully, it can also help to see which contextual elements in the first iteration of the [[Mundaneum]] were different from the current situation of our information economy.</div>

The ambitious project of the [[Mundaneum]] was imagined by [[Paul Otlet]] with support of [[Henri La Fontaine]] at the end of the 19th century. At that time colonialism was at its height, bringing a steady stream of income to occidental countries which created a sense of security that made everything seem possible. According to some of the most forward thinking persons of the time it felt as if the intellectual and material benefits of rational thinking could universally become the source of all goods. Far from any actual move towards independence, the first tensions between colonial/commercial powers were starting to manifest themselves. Already some conflicts erupted, mainly to defend commercial interests such as during the Fashoda crisis and the Boers war. The sense of strength brought to colonial powers by the large influx of money was however quickly tempered by World War I that was about to shake up modern European society.

In this context [[Henri La Fontaine]], energised by [[Paul Otlet]]'s encompassing view of classification systems and standards, strongly associates the Mundaneum project with an ideal of world peace. This was a conscious process of thought; they believed that this universal archive of all knowledge represented a resource for the promotion of education towards the development of better social relations. While   [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] and [[Henri La Fontaine|La Fontaine]] were not directly concerned with economical and colonial issues, their ideals were nevertheless fed by the wealth of the epoch. The Mundaneum archives were furthermore established with a clear intention, and a major effort was done to include documents that referred to often neglected topics or that could be considered as alternative thinking, such as the well known archives of the feminist movement in Belgium and information on anarchism and pacifism. In line with the general dynamism caused by a growing wealth in Europe at the turn of the century, the Mundaneum project seemed to be always growing in size and ambition. It also clearly appears that the project was embedded in the international and 'politico-economical' context of its time and in many aspects linked to a larger movement that engaged civil society towards a proto-structure of networked society. Via the development of infrastructures for communication and international regulations, [[Henri La Fontaine]] was part of several international initiatives. For example he launched the 'Bureau International de la paix' as early as 1907 and a few years after, in 1910, the 'International Union of Associations'. Overall his interventions helped to root the process of archive collection in a larger network of associations and regulatory structures. [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]]'s view of archives and organisation extended to all domains and [[Henri La Fontaine|La Fontaine]] asserted that general peace could be achieved through social development by the means of education and access to knowledge. Their common view was nurtured by an acute perception of their epoch, they observed and often contributed to most of the major experiments that were triggered by the ongoing reflection about the new organisation modalities of society.

{{RT|mirror}}<section begin=mirror />The ever ambitious process of building the Mundaneum archives took place in the context of a growing internationalisation of society, while at the same time the social gap was increasing due to the expansion of industrial society. Furthermore, the internationalisation of finances and relations did not only concern industrial society, it also acted as a motivation to structure social and political networks, among others via political negotiations and the institution of civil society organisations.<section end=mirror /> Several broad structures dedicated to the regulation of international relations were created simultaneous with the worldwide spreading of an industrial economy. They aimed to formulate a world view that would be based on international agreements and communication systems regulated by governments and structured via civil society organisations, rather than leaving everything to individual and commercial initiatives. [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] and [[Henri Lafontaine|La Fontaine]] spent a large part of their lives attempting to formulate a mondial society. While [[Henri Lafontaine|La Fontaine]] clearly supported international networks of civil society organisations, [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]], according to Vincent Capdepuy<ref>https://cybergeo.revues.org/24903|Vincent Capdepuy, ''In the prism of the words. Globalization and the philological argument''</ref>, was the first person to use the French term [[Mondialisation]] far ahead of his time, advocating what would become after World War II an important movement that  claimed to work for the development of an international regulatory system. [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] also mentioned that this '[[Mondialisation|Mondial]]' process was directly related to the necessity of a new repartition and the regulation of natural goods (think: diamonds and gold ...), he writes: 
<blockquote>« Un droit nouveau doit remplacer alors le droit ancien pour préparer et organiser une nouvelle répartition. La “question sociale” a posé le problème à l’intérieur ; “la question internationale” pose le même problème à l’extérieur entre peuples. Notre époque a poursuivi une certaine socialisation de biens. […] Il s’agit, si l’on peut employer cette expression, de socialiser le droit international, comme on a socialisé le droit privé, et de prendre à l’égard des richesses naturelles des mesures de “mondialisation”. »<ref>Paul Otlet, 1916, ''Les Problèmes internationaux et la Guerre, les conditions et les facteurs de la vie internationale'', Genève/Paris, Kundig/Rousseau, p. 76.</ref>.</blockquote>
The approaches of [[Henri Lafontaine|La Fontaine]] and [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] already bear certain differences, as one (Lafontaine) emphasises an organisation based on local civil society structures which implies direct participation, while the other (Otlet) focuses more on management and global organisation managed by a regulatory framework. It is interesting to look at these early concepts that were participating to a larger movement called 'the first mondialisation', and understand how they differ from current forms of globalisation which equally involve private and public instances and various infrastructures.

The project of [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] and [[Henri Lafontaine|Lafontaine]] took place in an era of international agreements over communication networks. It is known and often a subject of fascination that the global project of the Mundaneum also involved the conception of a technical infrastructure and communication systems that were conceived in between the two World Wars. Some of them such as the [[La Mondothèque|Mondothèque]] were imagined as prospective possibilities, but others were already implemented at the time and formed the basis of an international communication network, consisting of postal services and telegraph networks. It is less acknowledged that the epoch was also a time of international agreements between countries, structuring and normalising international life; some of these structures still form the basis of our actual global economy, but they are all challenged by private capitalist structures. The existing postal and telegraph networks covered the entire planet, and agreements that regulated the price of the stamp allowing for postal services to be used internationally, were recent. They certainly were the first ones during where international agreements regulated commercial interests to the benefit of individual communication. [[Henri Lafontaine]] directly participated in these processes by asking for the postal franchise to be waived for the transport of documents between international libraries, to the benefit of among others the Mundaneum. [[Henri Lafontaine|Lafontaine]] was also an important promoter of larger international movements that involved civil society organisations; he was the main responsible for the 'Union internationale des associations', that acted as a network of information-sharing, setting up modalities for exchange to the general benefit of civil society.
Furthermore, concerns were raised to rethink social organisation that was harmed by industrial economy and this issue was addressed in Brussels by the brand new discipline of sociology. The 'Ecole de Bruxelles'<ref>http://www.philodroit.be/IMG/pdf/bf_-_le_droit_global_selon_ecole_de_bruxelles_-2014-3.pdf?lang=fr</ref> in which [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] and [[Henri Lafontaine|La Fontaine]] both took part was already very early on trying to formulate a legal discourse that could help address social inequalities, and eventually come up with regulations that could help 're-engineer' social organisation.

The Mundaneum project differentiates itself from contemporary enterprises such as [[LA MÉGA-ENTREPRISE|Google]], not only by its intentions, but also by its organisational context as it clearly inscribed itself in an international regulatory framework that was dedicated to the promotion of local civil society. How can we understand the similarities and differences between the development of the Mundaneum project and the current knowledge economy? The timeline below attempts to re-situate the different events related to the rise and fall of the Mundaneum in order to help situate the differences between past and contemporary processes.


{| class="wikitable sortable"
! DATE !! EVENT !! TYPE !! SCALE
|-
| [[date::1865]]
|| The '''International Union of telegraph''', is set up it is an important element of the organisation of a mondial communication network and will further become the '''International Telecommunication Union''' (UTI)<ref>  http://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx</ref> that is still active in regulating and standardizing radio-communication.
|| STANDARD
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1870]]
|| Franco-Prussian war.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1874]]
|| The ONU creates the '''General Postal Union'''<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union</ref> and aims to federate international postal distribution.
|| STANDARD
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1875]]
|| '''General Conference on Weights and Measures''' in Sèvres, France.
|| STANDARD
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1882]]
|| '''Triple Alliance''', renewed in [[date::1902]].
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1889]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine]] creates '''La Société Belge de l'arbitrage et de la paix'''.
|| EVENT
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::1890]]'s
|| First colonial wars (Fachoda crisis, Boers war ...).
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1890]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine]] meets [[Paul Otlet]].
|| PERSON
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
| [[date::1891]]
|| '''Franco-Russian entente'''', preliminary to the '''Triple entente''' that will be signed in [[date::1907]].
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1891]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine]] publishes an essay ''Pour une bibliographie de la paix''.
|| PUBLICATION
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::1893]]
|| [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] and [[Henri Lafontaine|Lafontaine]] start together the '''Office International de Bibliologie Sociologique''' (OIBS).
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
| [[date::1894]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine]] is elected senator of the province of Hainaut and later senator of the province of Liège-Brabant.
|| EVENT
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::1895]] 2-4 September
|| First '''Conférence de Bibliographie''' at which it is decided to create the '''Institut International de Bibliographie''' (IIB) founded by [[Henri La Fontaine]].
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
| [[date::1900]]
|| '''Congrès bibliographique international''' in Paris.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1903]]
|| Creation of the international '''Women's suffrage alliance''' (IWSA) that will later become the '''International Alliance of Women'''.
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1904]]
|| '''Entente cordiale''' between France and England which defines their mutual zone of colonial influence in Africa.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1905]]
|| First Moroccan crisis.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1907]] June
|| [[Paul Otlet|Otlet]] and [[Henri Lafontaine|Lafontaine]] organise a '''Central Office for International Associations''' that will become the '''International Union of Associations''' (IUA) at the first '''Congrès mondial des associations internationales''' in Brussels in May 1910.
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
| [[date::1907]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine]] is elected president of the '''Bureau international de la paix''' that he previously initiated.
|| PERSON
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::1908]] July
|| '''Congrès bibliographique international''' in Brussels.
|| EVENT
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
| [[date::1910]] May
|| Official Creation of the '''International union of associations''' (IUA). In 1914, it federates 230 organizations, a little more than half of them still exist. The IUA promotes internationalist aspirations and desire for peace.
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1910]] 25-27 August
|| '''Le Congrès International de Bibliographie et de Documentation''' deals with issues of international cooperation between non-governmental organizations and with the structure of universal documentation.
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1911]]
|| More than 600 people and institutions are listed as IIB members or refer to their methods, specifically the [[UDC]].
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1913]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine]] is awarded the Nobel Price for Peace.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
|| [[date::1914]]
|| Germany declares war to France and invades Belgium.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1916]]
|| [[Henri Lafontaine|Lafontaine]] publishes ''The great solution: magnissima charta'' while in exile in the United States.
|| PUBLICATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
|| [[date::1919]] 
|| Opening of the '''Mundaneum''' or '''Palais Mondial''' at the [[Parc_du_Cinquantenaire_11|Cinquantenaire]] park.
|| EVENT
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
|| [[date::1919]] June 28
|| The '''Traité de Versailles''' marks the end of World War I and creation of the '''Societé Des Nations''' (SDN) that will later become the '''United Nations''' (UN).
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1924]]
|| Creation (within the IIB), of the '''Central Classification Commission''' focusing on the development of the '''Universal Decimal Classification''' ([[UDC]]).
|| ASSOCIATION
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::1931]]
|| The IIB becomes the '''International Institute of documentation''' (IID) and in [[date::1938]] and is named '''International Federation of documentation''' (IDF).
|| ASSOCIATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1934]]
|| Publication of Otlet's book ''[[Traité de documentation]]''.
|| PUBLICATION
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1934]]
|| The '''[[Mundaneum]]''' is closed after a governmental decision. A part of the archives are moved to [[Rue Fétis 44, Brussels]], home of [[Paul Otlet]].
|| MOVE
|| HOUSE
|-
| [[date::1939]] September
|| Invasion of Poland by Germany, start of World War II.
|| EVENT
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1941]]
|| Some files from the '''[[Mundaneum]]''' collections concerning international associations, are transferred to Germany. They are assumed to have propaganda value.
|| MOVE
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1944]]
|| Death of [[Paul Otlet]]. He is buried in [[Cimetière d'Ixelles|Etterbeek cemetery]].
|| EVENT
|| [[LA_CAPITALE|CITY]]
|-
| [[date::1947]]
|| The '''International Telecomunication Union''' (UTI) is attached to the UN.
|| STANDARD
|| GLOBE
|-
| [[date::1956]]
|| Two separate ITU committees, the '''Consultive Committee for International Telephony''' (CCIF) and the '''Consultive Committee for International Telegraphy''' (CCIT) are joined to form the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITU-T CCITT], an institute to create standards, recommendations and models for telecommunications.
|| STANDARD
|| GLOBE
|-
| [[date::1963]]
|| '''American Standard Code for Information Interchange''' (ASCII) is developed.
|| STANDARD
|| GLOBE
|-
| [[date::1966]]
|| The '''ARPANET''' project is initiated.
|| ASSOCIATION
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::1974]]
|| '''Telenet''', the first public version of the Internet founded.
|| STANDARD
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1986]]
|| First meeting of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force '''Internet Engineering Task Force''' (IETF)] , the US-located informal organization that promotes open standards along the lines of "rough consensus and running code".
|| STANDARD
|| GLOBE
|-
| [[date::1992]]
|| Creation of [http://www.internetsociety.org/ '''The Internet Society'''], an American association with international vocation.
|| STANDARD
|| [[Monde|WORLD]]
|-
| [[date::1993]]
|| [[Elio Di Rupo]] organises the transport of the '''[[Mundaneum]]''' archives from Brussels to [[76 Rue de Nimy, Mons|76 rue de Nimy]] in Mons.
|| MOVE
|| NATION
|-
| [[date::2012]]
|| Failure of the '''World Conference on International Telecommunications''' (WCIT) to reach an international agreement on Internet regulation.
|| STANDARD
|| GLOBE
|-
|}

== Additional timelines == 

* https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/la-premiere-guerre-mondiale
* http://www.telephonetribute.com/timeline.html
* https://www.reseau-canope.fr/savoirscdi/societe-de-linformation/le-monde-du-livre-et-de-la-presse/histoire-du-livre-et-de-la-documentation/biographies/paul-otlet.html
* http://monoskop.org/Otlet
* http://archives.mundaneum.org/fr/historique

== References ==

{{Revision}}
[[Category:Timeline]] [[Category:Publication]]
Author	Natacha Roussel +
Date "Date" is a type and predefined property provided by Semantic MediaWiki to represent date values.	1934 +, 1914 +, 1924 +, 1941 +, 1891 +, 1895 +, 1893 +, 1910 +, 1907 +, 1911 +, 1931 +, 1938 +, 1908 +, 1900 +, 1913 +, 1916 +, 1882 +, 1902 +, 1904 +, 1890 +, 1944 +, 1993 +, 1894 +, 1870 +, 1905 +, 1874 +, 1875 +, 1865 +, 1947 +, 2012 +, 1992 +, 1889 +, 1903 +, 1919 +, 1939 +, 1963 +, 1966 +, 1974 +, 1956 + and 1986 +