Peace societies and internationalist organizations were multiplying, substantial funding was available through Andrew Carnegie and other philanthropists, and governments were beginning to adopt bilateral arbitration agreements and international courts to settle disputes without war. Peace movement congresses were being held annually, and an international parliamentary conference had been established. It was a golden age for peace, embodied in the construction of the Palace of Peace in the Hague in 1913. As Michael Howard wrote, in these years there was genuine hope that the abolition of war might be “almost within reach . . . [through] the civilized intercourse of rational [people] representing the aspirations of the broad, peace-loving masses.”
A survey of the international movement at the time counted 190 peace societies, some with thousands of members, in dozens of countries. Heads of state greeted meetings of the Interparliamentary Union and the Universal Peace Congress. Peace leaders could point to some significant achievements: the laws of war were crafted and refined, governments sponsored the Hague peace conferences, dozens of bilateral treaties and arbitration agreements were signed, and a Permanent Court of Arbitration was created. Peace reformers such as Jane Addams and Bertha von Suttner commanded wide respect. The understanding of what causes war and the requirements for peace advanced, as peace advocates gained a greater appreciation for the role of international law, arbitration, and institutionalized cooperation among nations. Democratic freedom, self-determination, and social justice were recognized as vital components of peace.
Yet for all the apparent strength of the peace movement, it was far too weak politically and ideologically to counter the vast historical forces that were propelling Europe toward disaster. Below the surface impression of peace and progress rumblings of the coming military catastrophe were already being felt. Military alliances divided the nations of Europe into armed camps, with the major powers lined up on opposite sides of the nationalist wars in the Balkans. A fierce competition was underway in the building of navies and the production of artillery and other military equipment.
General staffs worked furiously on elaborate plans for rapid military mobilization in the event of crisis. Nationalist fervor was at high pitch. Europe had become a“very bellicose, very militarist society,” wrote Michael Howard. It was infected with an “inflated spirit of patriotism and xenophobia which fuelled an alarmingly intensive arms race.” The peace movement was much too small to influence the tidal forces of nationalism, economic self-interest, and political rivalry. It could not prevent “the submerged warrior society,” as John Keegan called it, from breaking through the surface of the peaceful landscape. Europe and much of the world succumbed to what von Suttner termed the “ancient despotism” of deep-seated fear.
Von Suttner died in June 1914, just a few weeks before the conflagration she had spent her life attempting to avoid. The premonitions of disaster were plainly evident. Two years earlier she recognized that her optimistic hopes for peace were not likely to be realized in her lifetime: We have been mistaken – not as to our principles but in our estimate of the level of civilization to which the world in general had attained. We thought there was a far more widespread desire for justice . . . and a far deeper abhorrence of despotism than appears to be the case . . . [This] does not prove the falsity of beliefs held by the peace party. It merely proves . . . that the peace movement is not yet powerful enough.
Key Moments in the History of Antislavery Movement
