House, City, World, Nation, Globe

Mapping the wanderings of the Mundaneum in Brussels from inception until its move to Mons

Maybe this timeline would need some explanation......

This timeline starts in Brussels and proportions itself variably, it is an attempt to situate some of the events related to the life death and revival of the Mundaneum in a broader context, with regards both to local events and international situation. It tries to fix events from several geographic locations and at different scales, and hopefully provokes cqrrelations in time and space, that could help us formulate questions about the ways local events repeatedly mirror and reformulate a global situation.

The large archive of the Mundaneum is though by Paul Otlet with support of Henry Lafontaine at a time when occidental colonialism is at its heights and the first tensions are only starting to manifest themselves, while at the same time war is at the door of modern European societies. In this context, the general Mundaneum project is strongly rooted by Henri Lafontaine in an ideal of peace (though constantly energized by Paul Otlet's encompassing view of classification systems and norms). The Mundadeum archives are constituted with an intentionality, major effort is put in alternative topics as the well known feminist archives but also information on anarchism and pacifism. Furthermore the project is rooted by Lafontaine in a larger network of associations and meta-structures which objective is to structure an international network for civil societies. This is a conscious process of thought structured in a larger theoretical framework by Lafontaine. This process takes place in the context of the general internationalisation of society that is already becoming crucial at the end of XIX century while at the same time an increasing social clivage due to the booming industrial society was also addressed in Brussels by the brand new sociology discipline. that tried to formulate something that would be a legal engineer to address social inequalities; Otlet an Lafontaine spend a large part of their life in attempting to formulate a mondial society, while Lafontaine clearly roots its thinking on a strong civil society organization, according to Benoit Friedman, Otlet is the first person to quote the term "Mondialisation" in French.

Furthermore, it is in between war that the communication systems associated to Mundaneum were conceived; some of them were thought as prospective possibilities, such as Mondotheque, but others were already implemented and formed the basis of an international communication network, based on postal services and telegraph networks. Otlet and Lafontaine's Project took place in an era of international agreements over communication networks. It appears that associative structures, acted as networks of information-sharing organizing modalities of exchange to the general benefit of civil society. It was also the epoch when the rise of international countries agreements structured international life from diplomatie to normalisation  ; some of these structures are still the basis of our actual globalized organization, but they are all challenged by private capitalist structures. How does this relates to the comparison between the Mundaneum and the actual knowledge economy.

Furthermore, it is in between war that the communication systems associated to Mundaneum were conceived; some of them were thought as prospective possibilities, such as Mondotheque, but others were already implemented and formed the basis of an international communication network, based on postal services and telegraph networks. Otlet and Lafontaine's Project took place in an era of international agreements over communication networks. It appears that associative structures, acted as networks of information-sharing organizing modalities of exchange to the general benefit of civil society. It was also the epoch when the rise of international countries agreements structured international life from diplomatie to normalisation  ; some of these structures are still the basis of our actual globalized organization, but they are all challenged by private capitalist structures. How does this relates to the comparison between the Mundaneum and the actual knowledge economy.

House, City, World, Nation, Globe

DATE	EVENT	TYPE	SCALE
1934	As the Mundaneum is closed by governmental decision, the archives are moved Rue Fetis 44, Brussels in the House of Paul Otlet	MOVE	HOUSE
1992	Creation of the Internet Society - American association with international vocation .	NORMS	WORLD
1960's	"Les amis du palais mondial" organize different events to the memory of Paul Otlet	EVENT	HOUSE
1914	"The palais mondial" sets up at Jubelpark, 11 Parc du Cinquantenaire, Brussels. Installation will be a little delayed due to the upcoming WWI.	MOVE	CITY
1920	Foundation of the League of Nations at the Paris peace conference	EVENT	WORLD
1920	Opening of the "Palais Mondial"	EVENT	CITY
1924	"Foire du caoutchouc" at the Palais Mondial, some collections will be moved to leave space for the event.	MOVE	CITY
1941	Some files from the Mundaneum collections that concerned international associations, are transferred to Germany because they are assumed to have propaganda value.	MOVE	WORLD
1934	Publication of the book "Traité de documentation"	PUBLICATION	WORLD
1891	Henri Lafontaine publishes an essay "Pour une bibliographie de la paix"	PUBLICATION	NATION
1895 2-4 septembre	First Conférence of Bibliographie that decides the creation of "l'Institut International de Bibliographie" (IIB)	ASSOCIATIONS	CITY
1893	Otlet and Lafontaine start together "l'Office International de Bibliologie Sociologique (OIBS)"	ASSOCIATIONS	CITY
1910 May	Official Creation of IUA, "International union of associations" In 1914, it federates 230 organizations, a little more than half the existing ones. L'IUA promotes internationalist aspirations and desire for peace that will lead in 1920 to the creation of "Société des Nations".	ASSOCIATIONS	WORLD
1907 June	Otlet and Lafontaine organize a Central Office for International Associations that will become the "International Union of Associations" (IUA) at the first Congres mondial des associations internationales in Brussels in May 1910	ASSOCIATIONS	CITY
1903	Création of the international Women's suffrage alliance (IWSA) that will become the International Alliance of Women	ASSOCIATION	WORLD
1910 25-27 August	Le "Congrès International de Bibliographie et de Documentation" deals both with issues of international cooperation between non governmental organizations and the structure of universal documentation.	ASSOCIATIONS	WORLD
1911	More than 600 people/institutions are listed as IIB members or reffwering to heir methods specifically UDC..	ASSOCIATIONS	WORLD
1914	Germany declares war to France and invades Belgium	EVENT	WORLD
1919 june 28	Traité de Versailles	EVENT	WORLD
1924	Creation, within l'IIB, of the Central Classification Commission focusing on the development of Universal Decimal Classification	ASSOCIATIONS	NATION
1931	IIB becomes l'International Institut of documentation (IID) and in 1938 is named International Fédération of documentation (IDF)	ASSOCIATIONS	WORLD
1939 sept 1st	Invasion of Poland by Germany beginning of WWII	EVENT	WORLD
1908 10-11 juillet	"Congrès bibliographique international" (Bruxelles)	EVENT	CITY
1900	"Congrès bibliographique international" (Paris)	EVENT	WORLD
1913	Henri Lafontaine is awarded the Nobel Price for Peace	EVENT	WORLD
1916	Lafontaine publishes "The great solution: magnissima charta" while in exile in United States	PUBLICATION	WORLD
1882	Triple Alliance renewed in 1902	EVENT	WORLD
1904	"Entente cordiale" between France and England over the colonies	EVENT	WORLD
1890's	first colonial wars (fachoda, boers...)	EVENT	WORLD
1889	Henri Lafontaine creates la "Société Belge de l'arbitrage et de la paix"	EVENT	NATION
1944	Death of Paul Otlet. he is buried in Etterbeek cemetery	EVENT	CITY
1993	Elio Di Rupo organises the transportation of Otlet archives to 76 rue de Nimy, à Mons	MOVE	NATION
1890	Henri Lafontaine meets Paul Otlet	PERSON	CITY
1894	Henri Lafontaine is elected senator from Hainaut and later on senator from Liège-Brabant	EVENT	NATION
1907	Henri Lafontaine is elected president of "bureau international de la paix" that he previously contributed to organize	PERSON	NATION
1891	Entente franco-russe: preliminairy to the "triple entente" that will be signed in 1907	EVENT	WORLD
1870	Franco-Prussian war	EVENT	WORLD
1905	First Morroccan Crisis	EVENT	WORLD
1874	Creation of General Postal Union, by ONU aiming at federating international postal distribution	NORMS	WORLD
1875	General Conference on Weights and Measures	NORMS	WORLD
1865	International Union of telegraph-future International telecomunication union (UTI)	NORMS	WORLD
1947	INTERNATIONAL Telecomunication Union(UTI) is attached to UN	NORMS	GLOBE
1963	ASCII is developed	NORMS	GLOBE
1966	ARPANET project initiated	ASSOCIATION	NATION
1974	Telenet the first public version of the Internet is founded.	NORMS	WORLD
2012	Failure of WCIT to reach an international agreement on Internet regulation.	NORMS	GLOBE

Links: some timelines:

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/la-premiere-guerre-mondiale