• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.41-52
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• 2012

The Great War of 1914-1918 had dramatic consequences for all aspects of European society. Academia, and the field of mathematics, was no exception to the changes which occurred following the conflicts conclusion. After the First World War, which left Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria and Turkey defeated, the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh revisions to the old order. Many new nations emerged and the map of Europe was redrawn. The victorious powers also created the International Research Council (IRC) in 1919, and the International Mathematical Union (IMU) was founded under the IRC' s umbrella in 1920. At that time Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were excluded from participation and the IMU maintained an open anti-German policy. However, as time passed this policy became more sharply criticized and in 1928 ICM, the nonparticipants were invited to join. Having declined, controversy persisted until in 1931 the IRC was replaced by the International Council of Scientific Unions, and the IMU disappeared for over two decades until it was reestablished in 1951. During the time of the first tenure of the IMU it is argued by many that politics entered into the world of international mathematical cooperation. In this paper we study the real effects the Great War had on the international mathematical community and its mathematicians.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2013

The outbreak of the First and the Second World Wars cast great shadow across the Europe including mathematical society. The IMU led by French mathematicians after the First World War ceased to exist because it was used politically. As Europe ran into the Second World War, all the international mathematical activities were ceased. Prominent mathematicians were put into camp by Nazi or moved to the United States of America. After the war, European mathematicians did not have capacity to represent the international mathematical society anymore. This led Stone and other American mathematicians to form the new IMU, which was independent of political ideology. This paper studies the birth process of the new IMU after the War and some major events that happened to ICM in 1950s.