European Peace Advocates Struggle to Prevent War, 1900–14

From the writings of Jean de Bloch, Norman Angell, Jacques Novicow, Clémence Royer, Bertha von Suttner, and Séverine (Carolyn Rémy) – among others – and the campaigns waged by the thousands of members of peace societies from the Pyrennes to the Urals in the early twentieth century, the message emerged that a war among the European great powers would undermine and possibly destroy European civilization.  Some peace advocates argued that victory in a conflict between equally balanced, technologically advanced sides was impossible and would only yield staggering numbers of dead and wounded.  Others argued that the costs of financing such a war would destroy the economies of Europe, starve populations, and perhaps produce revolution.  Some argued that women did not give birth to children to send them to slaughter.  Offering a counterhistory to the advocacy of war in Europe before 1914, my presentation will examine arguments for peace and their proponents.