Source Collection: Internationalism
Document 1
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Author |
Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian |
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Date and location |
Great Britain, 1914–1917 |
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Source type |
Primary source—political essays |
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Description |
Philip Kerr, an influential British statesman and later ambassador to the United States, was a defender of imperialism and also a proponent of internationalism. How could one be both? Kerr argued for the creation of a world federation, or commonwealth, but he believed that “much of the world” was still “incapable of governing itself” and needed to be governed by empires. Below are excerpts from Kerr’s essays that appeared in the Round Table, a journal of the Round Table movement that sought to promote relationships between Great Britain and its current and former colonies. |
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Citation |
“The End of War.” The Round Table 5, no. 17–20 (December 1, 1914): 772–96. |
…[C]ivilized nations were so selfishly absorbed in their own welfare that they felt little or no responsibility for the welfare of others. The German…domination of a military autocracy, [is] the very incarnation of selfish nationalism…The Western powers have failed in a different way. Their selfish nationalism…think[s] only about their own peace and liberty and [ignores] any responsibility for maintaining right and justice in international affairs…[T]hey refused to concern themselves seriously in times of peace with…how the reign of law and liberty was to be ensured throughout the world, and they are now spending untold lives and treasure in re-establishing them by force of arms.
The whole world has been dominated by a national bigotry…Mankind has been conceived of not as a unity, but as a collection of states, separated by racial pride and intolerance, and striving endlessly for themselves…Such a society must end in war, and until the national intolerance which rules it is abandoned it will continue to produce war…the prospects of a permanent peace after the war depend upon a reversal of policy…
The cure for war is not to weaken the principle of the state, but to carry it to its logical conclusion, by the creation of a world state . . . [which] will create a responsible and representative political authority which will consider every problem…from the point of view of humanity and not of a single state…a world state…is the necessary…condition to universal peace.
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Glossary Autocracy: Government by one person without regard for individual rights. |
Document 2
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Author |
J.A. Hobson |
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Date and location |
1915 |
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Source type |
Primary source—political/economic manuscript |
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Description |
The English economist J.A. Hobson went through many transformations in his political life, supporting different liberal as well as socialist movements. His 1902 book, Imperialism, was incredibly influential on internationalist thinkers, including Vladimir Lenin, and he predicted growing international movements (although Hobson was not himself a communist or even a socialist). In this 1915 work, he argues for a strong international government, as he predicts the failures of weaker governing systems. |
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Citation |
Hobson, J. A. (John Atkinson). Towards International Government. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1915. |
After this war is over, will the nations fall back again into the armed peace, the rival alliances, the Balance of Power with competing armaments, the preparations for another war thus made “inevitable,” or will they [realize a] real European partnership, based on…equal rights…and enforced by the common will…?...
Could a conference of Powers bring about a reduction of armaments by agreement? Surely not unless the motives which have led them in the past to arm are reversed. These motives are either a desire to be stronger than some other Power…—the aggressive motive; or a desire to be strong enough to prevent some other Power from acting in this way to us—the defensive motive. Now how can these motives be reversed? Nations may enter into a solemn undertaking to refer all differences or disputes that may arise to arbitration or to other peaceful settlement…But what will ensure the fulfillment of their undertaking…?...There must be an executive power enabled…
But it is not safe for the League of Nations to wait until difficulties ripen into quarrels. There must be some wider power…vested in a representative Council of the Nations. This will…mean[s] a legislative power.
Many difficulties come up for consideration. What nations would enter into such an international arrangement, and upon what terms…? Should it be a European Confederation, or…wider…?...The new era of internationalism requires the replacement of the secret diplomacy of Powers by the public intercourse of Peoples through their chosen representatives.
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Glossary Armaments: Weapons. |
Document 3
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Author |
Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, and Alice Hamilton |
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Date and location |
1916 |
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Source type |
Primary source—personal account |
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Description |
During the First World War, over a thousand women came together for the International Congress of Women, a meeting of an international network of suffrage activists. They managed to meet despite very difficult conditions (travel, the dangers of the war), and despite being ridiculed for their persistence. The conference was held at The Hague, Netherlands. In addition to women’s suffrage, the attendees discussed their commitment to international networks and peace-building. |
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Citation |
Addams, Jane, Emily G. Balch, and Alice Hamilton. Women at the Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915. |
The women… have come together…on the vital subject of international relations. English and Scotch, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, American, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish all were represented. The French, alas, have not been able to be with us…
The largest hall in the Hague was needed for the meetings. . .and difficult as it is to conduct business with so many. . . languages . . . and divergent views . . . [the officials] carried on orderly and effective sessions, marked by the most active will for unity that I have ever felt in an assemblage…
We met on the common ground beyond—the ground of preparation for permanent peace…
[The] women who came to the Congress in the face of such difficulties must have been impelled by some profound and spiritual forces. During a year when the spirit of internationalism had apparently broken down, they came together to declare the validity of internationalism which surrounds and completes national life, even as national life itself surrounds and completes family life; to insist that internationalism does not conflict with patriotism on one side any more than family devotion conflicts with it upon the other.
In the shadow of the intolerable knowledge of what war means…these women also made a solemn protest against that which they knew. The protest may have been feeble, but the world progresses, in the slow and halting manner in which it does progress, only in proportion to the moral energy exerted by the men and women living in it…
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Glossary Assemblage: A gathering of people. |
Document 4
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Author |
Leon Trotsky |
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Date and location |
March 6, 1919, Moscow |
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Source type |
Primary source—political |
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Description |
In the 1910s, most communists were internationalists, as they envisioned conflict between socioeconomic classes rather than conflict between states as the main struggle of human history. There was an official organization of communist internationalism, the Communist International. This manifesto was adopted unanimously at the last (fifth) session of the First World Congress of the International on March 6, 1919. It was published in the first issue of the Communist International journal in Russian, German, French and English. |
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Citation |
Trotsky, Leon. “Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World.” Communist International, 1919. |
The state-ization of economic life…has become…[a] fact…the…only issue is: Who shall…be the bearer of state-ized production – the imperialist…or…the proletariat?
…Is all toiling mankind to become the bond slaves of victorious world cliques…under the firm-name of the League of Nations and aided by an “international” army and “international” navy…[who] will…plunder and strangle…peoples…while…shackling the proletariat – with the sole object of maintaining their own rule? Or shall the working class of Europe and of the advanced countries in other parts of the world take in hand the disrupted and ruined economy [to] assure its regeneration upon socialist principles…?....
The small peoples can be assured the opportunity of free existence only by the proletarian revolution which will free the productive forces of all countries from the tentacles of the national states, unifying the peoples in closest economic collaboration [based on a] common economic plan…[without disrupting] the unified and centralized European and world economy…
The workers and peasants…will gain their opportunity of independent existence only in that hour when the workers of England and France…have taken state power into their own hands. Colonial slaves of Africa and Asia! The hour of proletarian dictatorship in Europe will strike for you as the hour of your own emancipation…!....
Workers of the World – in the struggle against imperialist barbarism…monarchy…the privileged estates…the bourgeois state and bourgeois property…all…class or national oppression– Unite!
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Glossary Proletariat: The working classes, people who must be rely on wages to survive. |
Document 5
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Author |
Artists including Leonard Raven-Hill |
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Date and location |
1919–1920, Europe (United Kingdom and Belgium) |
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Source type |
Political cartoon and poster |
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Description |
These two sources were produced to influence the public into ways of thinking about such international organizations as the League of Nations and the Olympic games. |
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Citation |
Political cartoon, “A Gap in the Bridge,” illustrated by Leonard Raven-Hill, 1919. In Raven-Hill, Leonard. “The Gap in the Bridge.” Punch Magazine, December 10, 1919. Image of Olympic Games poster, 1920. In van Kuyck, Martha and Walter von der Ven. “Olympiade, Antwerp, 1920.” |
Political cartoon, “A Gap in the Bridge,” illustrated by Leonard Raven-Hill, 1919. In Raven-Hill, Leonard. “The Gap in the Bridge.” Punch Magazine, December 10, 1919.
Image of Olympic Games poster, 1920. In van Kuyck, Martha and Walter von der Ven. “Olympiade, Antwerp, 1920.”
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Glossary Olympiad(e): A French word for the Olympic games. |
Document 6
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Author |
An international commission that included representatives from the governments of the United States, Great Britain (and the British dominion of South Africa), France, Japan, Italy, Belgium, Brazil, China, Portugal, Serbia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland, and Romania |
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Date and location |
June 28, 1919 (became effective January 10, 1920) |
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Source type |
Primary source—official document |
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Description |
This document officially brought the League of Nations into being. It laid out the role of the League and the obligations of its members toward each other. In particular, it was a “contract” in which each nation-state undertook to protect other members of the League against aggression and to try to mediate disputes rather than allow them to turn into war. |
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Citation |
“The Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919.” |
THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES,
…to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war… Agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations.
ARTICLE 10.
The Members…undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members...In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.
ARTICLE 11.
Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the Members…or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League shall take any action…to safeguard the peace of nations…
ARTICLE 12.
The Members…agree that, if there should arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture they will submit the matter either to arbitration or judicial settlement or to enquiry by the Council, and they agree in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the judicial decision, or the report by the Council. . . .
ARTICLE 16.
Should any Member…resort to war in disregard of its covenants…it shall…be deemed to have committed an act of war against all other Members…which hereby undertake immediately to subject it to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition of all intercourse…[with] the covenant-breaking State, and the prevention of all financial, commercial or personal [as well]…
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Glossary Covenant: A formal agreement or promise. |
Document 7
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Author |
Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia |
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Date and location |
June 30, 1936, Geneva, Switzerland |
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Source type |
Primary source—speech |
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Description |
In this excerpt, the Emperor of Ethiopia appeals to the League of Nations in the midst of the Abyssinia Crisis, a period of aggression by the Kingdom of Italy. Though the League of Nations ruled against Italy and voted for economic sanctions, they were never fully implemented. Italy ignored the sanctions, left the League, made secret deals with Britain and France, and occupied Ethiopia after a prolonged conflict. The original text was in Amharic. |
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Citation |
Selassie, Haile. “Appeal to the League of Nations, June 1936.” https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667904/ |
I…am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when fifty nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties.
It is to defend a people struggling for its age-old independence that the head of the Ethiopian Empire has come to Geneva to fulfil this supreme duty, after having himself fought at the head of his armies. …
It is not only upon warriors that the Italian Government has made war. It has above all attacked populations far removed from hostilities…to terrorize and exterminate them…The deadly rain that fell from the aircraft made all those whom it touched fly shrieking with pain. All those who drank the poisoned water or ate the infected food…[suffered]. In tens of thousands, the victims of the Italian mustard gas fell…to denounce to the civilized world the tortures inflicted upon the Ethiopian people that I resolved to come to Geneva.…The appeals of my delegates addressed to the League…had remained without any answer …
Despite the inferiority of my weapons, the complete lack of aircraft, artillery, munitions, hospital services, my confidence in the League was absolute. I thought it to be impossible that fifty-two nations…should be successfully opposed by a single aggressor…
It is collective security: it is the very existence of the League…It is the confidence that each State is to place in international treaties. It is the value of promises made to small States that their integrity and their independence shall be respected and ensured.…In a word, it is international morality that is at stake…
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Glossary Exterminate: To completely destroy, eliminate. |