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The standard narrative of nineteenth-century imperialism in Latin America is one of US expansion and British informal influence. However, it was France, not Britain, which made the most concerted effort to counter US power through Louis-Napoléon's creation of an empire in Mexico under the Habsburg Archduke Maximilian. Despite its significance to French and Mexican history, this intervention is invariably described as an "illusion", an "adventure" or a "mirage". This thesis answers the question why some Mexicans believed that the survival of the nation itself depended upon French intervention, and why France sought to impose an informal-imperial model on Mexico. It does so by analysing the full context of Franco-Mexican relations from 1820 onwards: French and Mexican ideas about monarchy in Latin America; responses to US expansion and the development of anti-Americanism and pan-Latinism; the consolidation of Mexican conservatism and the French Second Empire's influence as a political paradigm; and, finally, the collaboration of some Mexican elites with French imperialism. This thesis draws upon French, Mexican, British and US sources, especially diplomatic dispatches, periodicals and published works. The approach challenges the separation between intellectual history and international history. By going beyond the conventional history of ideas focus on 'canonical' texts, it seeks to identify the extent to which currents of thought normally considered to be the preserve of well-known intellectuals and politicians were part of a wider political culture that influenced French policy in Mexico, and shaped the contours of Mexican political discourse. An important dimension of the relationship between Mexico and France was the transatlantic and transnational context in which it developed, where competing conceptions of Mexico and France as nations, the role of Europe and the United States in the Americas and the idea of Latin America itself were challenged and debated.

This thesis examines ideas of modernity that emerged through the practice of going to the movies in Santiago and Buenos Aires between 1915 and 1945. Cinema not only constituted a modern form of entertainment, but also a modern technology in itself, which prompted debates and ideas on modernity and how to be modern. Cinema magazines provided a space where both audiences and cinema entrepreneurs could discuss their love of cinema, as well as relate to the modern character of the medium. The years that frame this study cover an evolution in cinema both as technology and entertainment; a process of modernization in Santiago and Buenos Aires; as well as a period when several cinema magazines were being published in the two cities. The thesis uses a comparative approach, which allows me to consider the different ways in which cinema was viewed as a vehicle for modernization, as well as a modern activity in itself. Each city appropriated cinema as entertainment in different ways, which in turn had an impact on ideas of what it meant to be modern. Moreover, a transnational character arises from the mutual exchange that the two capitals had through the press and specialised media. These methodological approaches allow me to illuminate the experiences of the audiences in both cities instead of the films, understanding the ways in which cinema was incorporated in the everyday life of santiaguinos and porteños in a modern context. The thesis is organised thematically, according to the main topics addressed by the cinema magazines: architecture and technology, issues of censorship, attendance and behaviour, and language. With this research I hope to contribute to both the comparative history of cinema and to understanding ideas about modernity in Latin America.

This thesis analyses the philosophical origin and development of a discourse that presented Panama as an ordered, peaceful and internationalist nation after its independence from Colombia in 1903. Tracing back this discourse to 1878, this thesis argues that Panamanian political and intellectual elites adopted, elaborated and combined ideas of Positivism, Conservatism, and Progressivism to shape distinct processes of nation-building and visions of modernity in the Isthmus until 1931. Furthermore, this thesis will analyse the role of print-capitalism, material culture, schools, public speeches and events in the divulging of these ideas and the formation of Panamanian identity and nationalism. Following this line of thought, the chapters of this thesis will study the different strategies that Panamanian nation-builders used to promote their discourses of civic nationalism: the creation of a pantheon of professional heroes and the forgetting of a military past; the appropriation of suffering; the education policies that aimed at creating a pedagogical elite in charge of providing practical and moral education to Panamanians; and the promotion of an internationalism in schools and international conferences and organisations. The thesis explores the extent to which these strategies helped to overcome the challenges to the construction of the Panamanian nation posed by the presence and interventionism of U.S. military and authorities in Panamanian territory, the unexpected results of modernisation during and after the building of the Panama Canal, the international criticism of Panamanian collaborationism with the U.S. (especially after the latter intervened in Panama’s independence from Colombia), and international developments such as World War I. In doing this, this doctoral thesis attempts to contribute to the discussion regarding the creation of Panamanian identity and challenge the predominant arguments that sustain that either Panamanian national identity was solely founded on the precepts of Liberalism or that it was a fabrication of the U.S.

The development of magnox fuel cans at the Heston Laboratories of A.P.C. Ltd. required a non-contact method of measuring fuel can temperature during heat transfer tests. Infra-red techniques were examined and a two colour ratio pyrometer was selected as offering the greatest prospect of success. A design specification was compiled for an instrument having a lower temperature limit of 250°C with a target area of approximately 1mm². During heat transfer tests a pressurised rig is used and an observation window is necessary. This leads to some deterioration in performance which it is impracticable to remove by internal chopping and the pyrometer is designed for outside use. Operational wavebands around 1.8 and 2.3 microns are chosen and a lead sulphide infra-red detector operating at room temperature is selected. The properties of the detector lead to a design where the signal is chopped at 900 cps and modulated at 30 cps by the energy in each waveband. Conventional optical systems are considered and rejected in view of the large size of chopper wheel necessary. An alternative system is devised in which a commercially available pencil galvanometer is used to combine the function of chopping at both 900 cps and 30 cps. This enables an optical system to be designed which, because it employs reflecting optics, is compact and for the most part axially symmetric. The signal ration is extracted using an automatic gain control technique and a high signal to noise ratio is achieved with a phase sensitive rectifier at the output. The pulses which activate the galvanometer chopper and phase sensitive circuits are derived from a master oscillator operating at 900 cps. The performance of the system is assessed and it meets the specification in all respects except for a small surface geometry effect. The underlying cause for this is examined and a means for overcoming it is suggested. The performance when scanning a magnox can during bench tests is illustrated and it can be seen that although agreement to within 2°C is obtained with thermocouples placed at the fin roots, the geometry effect prevents the isolation of fin tip temperature. During the development of the instrument the possibility of wider application was an important consideration. Some of the applications which have arisen are discussed briefly and an indication of the performance of the pyrometer is given. Furthermore the system is capable of easy modification for use with a cooled detector and other regions of the infra-red spectrum.