Johan Hjelte is originally from Sweden but moved to the Netherlands for his BA, which he completed at University College Maastricht, where he came to study various subjects and historical epochs while reserving his main academic focus for modern European history. He wrote his BA thesis on the justifications for political terror during the French and Russian revolutions, examining the relation between ideology and historical circumstances. Since ideologies as well as the consequences of historical events tend to transcend national borders, this work reinforced Johan’s preexisting desire to study history from a global perspective. The MA program in Global History therefore came as a natural choice for Johan, who also is interested in German contemporary history.