A Peaceful History of Europe Since 1815

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A Peaceful History of Europe Since 1815 UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY HISTORY 9712A Fall 2013 HIS9712A: A Peaceful History of Europe Since 1815 Francine McKenzie Lawson Hall 2233 661-2111 X84732 [email protected] Office Hours: Wednesday 9-11 or by appointment Sally Marks: ‘Major wars often provide the punctuation marks of history, primarily because they force drastic realignments in the relationships among states.’ (The Illusion of Peace, p. 1) Geoffrey Blainey: ‘For every thousand pages published on the causes of wars, there is less than one page directly on the causes of peace.’ (The Causes of War, p. 3) Course Description: The history of international relations is punctuated by wars; they are typically the bookends that demarcate the end of one era and the start of another - consider the so-called long 19th century: 1815- 1914. Historians devote much attention to the causes and consequences of war. By comparison, periods of ‘peace’ have received scant scholarly attention. It may be that as a non-event, peace is less tangible and therefore less easy to come to terms with. This international history course weaves together international relations, transnational and non-state actors, and ideas about peace over roughly 150 years of European history. It is not primarily a history of pacifism; our working definition of peace is broad and includes the mechanisms which sustained conditions of relative stability in Europe (the Concert of Europe and the EEC), attempts to resurrect peaceful international relations following wars (the Congress of Vienna, the Paris Peace conference of 1919, and the construction of the UN system after World War Two), conceptions of peace (individual, legal, economic, spiritual, geopolitical etc), periods/eras of ‘peace’, as well as the relationship between war and peace. Our overarching goals are to define peace, understand the causes and elements of peace, problematize the relationship war and peace, and consider an alternative periodization and conception of the history of European international relations in the 19th and 20th centuries. 1 Weekly Meetings: In this is a seminar we will work through key questions, concepts and topics together. Usually you will have to read no more than 200 pages per week: the readings should be done carefully and you should mull them over before coming to class. We will read some works by political scientists (such as Levy, Morgenthau, and Ikenberry): these are all accessible to students of history. Each student will be responsible for leading at least one class discussion. Prepare questions about the most pertinent issues and themes for each week’s topic of discussion: your questions will structure the class. You will not have to summarize the readings. Readings from monographs are available on short term loan from Weldon library. If the library had an electronic version of a book, I have indicated this with an *. Journal articles are available in electronic form through Weldon. I will upload primary sources to our class website and other readings that do not violate copyright laws. Our class is scheduled to meet for 3 hours. A three hour slot gives us time to discuss your assignments while they are in progress and then to present and discuss your final papers. On weeks where we will not be discussing the assignment, the class will typically end after two hours. Supplementary Readings: If you are not confident that you have a good overview of the history of European international relations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the following texts will orient you quickly: Norman Rich, Great Power Diplomacy 1814-1914 (McGraw Hill, 1992) James Joll, Europe Since 1870: An International History (Penguin, 1990) Roy Bridge and Roger Bullen, The Great Powers and the European States System, 1814-1914, 2nd edition (Longman & Pearson, 2005) Mark Mazower, Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century (Knopf, 1999) Mark Mazower, Governing the World: The History of an Idea (Penguin 2012) Harold James, Europe Reborn: A History (Longman, 2003) P. M. H. Bell, Twentieth Century Europe: Unity and Division (Hodder Arnold, 2006) Useful Sources and Links on Peace History: Yale Law School: The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ 2 Nobel Organization: http://www.nobelprize.org/ Peace Palace, The Hague http://www.vredespaleis.nl/index.php?tl=1 Nigel Young, ed. The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace (2010, 4 volumes) Harold Josephson, et al eds, Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders (1985) Weekly Meetings: Sept. 11 Introduction to the class. Why study the history of peace? Sept. 18 Defining Peace Jack S. Levy, ‘The Causes of War and the Conditions of Peace’ in Annual Review of Political Science, 1998:1, 139-65. Holger Nehring and Helge Pharo, ‘Introduction: A Peaceful Europe? Negotiating Peace in the Twentieth Century’, Contemporary European History (2008), 17, 277-299 Georges-Henri Soutou, ‘Was There a European Order in the Twentieth Century? From the Concert of Europe to the End of the Cold War’, Contemporary European History, 9, 3 (2000), 329-353. Michael Howard, The Invention of Peace, Introduction, pp. 1-6 and chap. III: Peoples and Nations 1789-1918 Jay Winter, Dreams of Peace and Freedom: Utopian Moments in the Twentieth Century, Epilogue: An Alternative History of the Twentieth Century, pp. 2-4-209 John Gittings, The Glorious Art of Peace: From the Iliad to Iraq, chap. 1, pp. 15-38 Is peace different from stability? Sept. 25 Peacemaking at Vienna 1814-1815 G. John Ikenberry, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars, chap. 4: pp. 80-116 Paul Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics 1763-1848*, chap. 12, pp. 517-582 Paul Schroeder, ‘Did the Concert of Europe rest on a balance of power?’, American Historical Review, vol. 97, (3) June 1992: 683-706 Adam Zamoyski, Rites of Peace: the Fall of Napoleon and the Concert of Europe, chaps. 32-34, pp. 515-569 Alexander I and the Holy Alliance, 26 Sept. 1815 3 How did the peacemakers conceive of a peaceful European order? What did this reveal about their understanding of the overall workings of international relations? What role did leaders (ie ‘great men’) play in devising peace? Oct. 2 Rethinking the Long and Peaceful Nineteenth Century: Why is the Crimean War Forgotten? Norman Rich, Why the Crimean War? A Cautionary Tale, chap. 1, pp. 1-17; chap 4, pp. 60-66 Paul Schroeder, Austria, Great Britain and the Crimean War: The Destruction of the Concert of Europe, chap. xvi, pp. 392-427 Orlando Figes, The Crimean War: A History, chaps 5, pp. 130-164; chap. 10, pp. 324-372; and chap. 11, pp. 373-410 Was there a Concert of Europe? What were the main characteristics of European international relations? How did the Crimean war affect the European order? Assignment: Discuss preliminary research on biographical study. Oct. 9 The Peace Movement and Champions of Peace in mid-19th Century Europe Mark Mazower, Governing the World: The History of an Idea, chaps 1-4, pp. 13-115 John Gittings, The Glorious Art of Peace, chap. 5, pp. 123-149 David Nicholls, ‘Richard Cobden and the International Peace Congress Movement, 1848-1853’, Journal of British Studies, October 1991, no. 4: 351- 76. Martin Geyer, ‘One Language for the World: The Metric System, International Coinage, Cold Standard, and the Rise of Internationalism, 1850-1900’ in Martin H. Geyer and Johannes Paulmann, eds, The Mechanics of Internationalism: culture, society, and politics from the 1840s to the First World War, pp. 55-92 Note: We will also read speeches by Richard Cobden and Victor Hugo at the 1849 peace congress. These will be uploaded How would free trade promote peace? Were the advocates of peace utopian? Assignment: Discuss preliminary research on biographical study. Oct. 16 Pax Britannica Ali Parchami, Hegemonic Peace and Empire: the Pax Romana, Britannica and Americana, chaps 3 – 6, pp. 61-164 Paul Young, Globalization and the Great Exhibition: the Victorian New World Order, chap. 4, pp. 145-197 Hans J. Morgenthau, ‘The Balance of Power’, in Williams, Goldstein and 4 Shafritz, eds, Classic Readings of International Relations, pp. 203-206 David Reynolds, Britannia Overruled: British Policy and World Power in the Twentieth Century, (2001 edition), chap. 1, pp. 36-61. Did Britain keep the peace and for whom? Assignment: The biographical study is due in class. Present the main findings of your analysis. Oct. 23 Discourse of War and Peace during La Belle Epoque (1890-1914) Michael Howard, Studies in War and Peace, chap. 6, pp. 99-109 Jay Winter, Dreams of Peace and Freedom: Utopian Moments in the twentieth century, chap. 1, pp. 11-47 Akira Iriye, Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World*, chap 1, pp. 9-36 (concentrate on pp. 9- 19) Akira Iriye, Cultural Internationalism and World Order, chap 1, pp. 13-50 Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August, chaps. 1-5, pp. 1-68. Madeleine Herren, ‘Governmental Internationalism and the Beginning of a New World Order in the Late Nineteenth Century’ in Geyer and Paulmann eds, The Mechanics of Internationalism: culture, society, and politics from the 1840s to the First World War, pp. 121-144 Christiane Eisenberg, ‘The Rise of Internationalism in Sport’, in Geyer and Paulmann eds, The Mechanics of Internationalism: culture, society, and politics from the 1840s to the First World War, pp. 375-403. Did people want to avoid war? Was there a global/ European community or a sense of internationalism before 1914? Oct. 30 Conscientious Objectors and Critics of War Adam Hochschild, To End All Wars: a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914- 1918, chap. 5, pp. 54-64; chap. 7, pp. 79-97, chaps. 13, pp. 177-199; chap.
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