Aliens and Internal Enemies: Internment Practices, Economic Exclusion and Property Rights during the First World War. Introduction

World War I was the first conflict during which a complex system of measures against enemy civilians was implemented, and minorities were targeted as such. This issue sheds light on this phenomenon as it developed in Europe. The articles, using a comparative approach, deal with the discourses and representations which supported the spread of anti-alienism, how belligerent countries responded to popular reaction against aliens and to the alleged threat they represented, and with the consequences their policies and actions had for the alleged enemy aliens. By focusing both on Western Europe (France, Britain and Germany) and on the Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman Empires, the authors analyse the increase in hostility towards aliens, enemy aliens, suspect civilians, and minorities, and explore in detail the implementation of policies which targeted individual and property rights.