Fabian Klose / Mirjam Thulin (ed.) Humanity A History of European Concepts in Practice From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz Abteilung für Abendländische Religionsgeschichte Abteilung für Universalgeschichte Edited by Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann Supplement 110 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 Humanity A History of European Concepts in Practice From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Edited by Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data available online: https://dnb.de. © 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Theaterstraße 13, D-37073 Göttingen This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International license, at DOI 10.10139/9783666101458. For a copy of this license go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Any use in cases other than those permitted by this license requires the prior written permission from the publisher. Cover picture: The Monument to the Slaves in the Grounds of Christ Church, Zanzibar. © Fabian Klose Typesetting: Vanessa Weber, Mainz Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage | www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com ISSN 2197-1056 ISBN 978-3-666-10145-8 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 Acknowledgments The present volume grew out of the interdisciplinary conference “Human- ity – a History of European Concepts in Practice”, sponsored by the research group “Concepts of Humanity and Humanitarian Practice”, in October 2015 at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz. We are sincerely grateful to all conference participants, commentators, and members of our research group for their comments, which significantly contributed to this volume. Furthermore, we would like to thank Benan Şarlayan and Stefanie Wiehl, who worked tirelessly as the conference’s administrative assistants, as well as Ceren Aygül, who served as the conference’s rapporteur. During the process of preparing this volume, we were fortunate to be in good hands with Vanessa Brabsche, Joe Paul Kroll and Jana Lösch, to whom we are deeply grateful. Mainz, July 2016 Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 6 Acknowledgments Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 Table of Contents Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin Introduction: European Concepts and Practices of Humanity in Historical Perspective ......................................................... 9 Part I: Humankind and Humanity Francisco Bethencourt Humankind: From Division to Recomposition ....................................... 29 Paul Betts Universalism and its Discontents: Humanity as a Twentieth-Century Concept ............................................ 51 Part II: Morality and Human Dignity Mihai-D. Grigore Humanism and its Humanitas: The Transition From Humanitas Christiana to Humanitas Politica in the Political Writings of Erasmus .................................................................. 73 Mariano Delgado “All People have Reason and Free Will”: The Controversy Over the Nature of the Indians in the Sixteenth Century ....................... 91 Judith Becker Conceptions of Humanity in Nineteenth-Century German Protestant Missions .................................................................................. 107 Robert Brier From Emancipation to Transcendence? Dignity, Catholicism, and the Changing Imageries of Humanity in Post-War Europe .............. 131 Part III: Humanitarianism, Violence, and International Law Thomas Weller Humanitarianism Before Humanitarianism? Spanish Discourses on Slavery From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century ..................... 151 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 8 Table of Contents Fabian Klose “A War of Justice and Humanity”: Abolition and Establishing Humanity as an International Norm ....................................................... 169 Kerstin von Lingen Fulfilling the Martens Clause: Debating “Crimes Against Humanity”, 1899–1945 ............................................................................ 187 Esther Möller Between Globalisation and Contestation: Humanity as a Polemical Concept Within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement ................. 209 Part IV: Charity, Philanthropy, and Solidarity Joachim Berger “Une œuvre internationale d’un caractère humanitaire”: The Appeal to Humanity in International Masonic Relations ................ 231 Katharina Stornig Between Christian Solidarity and Human Solidarity: Humanity and the Mobilisation of Aid for Distant Children in Catholic Europe in the Long Nineteenth Century .............................. 249 Gerhard Kruip The Unity of the Human Family: A Foundation for Global Justice ........ 267 Part V: Epilogue Johannes Paulmann Humanity – Humanitarian Reason – Imperial Humanitarianism: European Concepts in Practice ................................................................ 287 Contributors ............................................................................................. 313 Index of Names ........................................................................................ 315 Index of Places ......................................................................................... 321 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin Introduction European Concepts and Practices of Humanity in Historical Perspective I have seen those immense and miserable countries, which seemed destined to no other purpose than to cover the earth with herds of slaves. At their vile appearance, I turned away my eyes out of disdain, horror and pity; and on beholding one fourth part of my fellow-creatures transformed into beasts for the service of the rest, I could not forbear lamenting that I was a man.1 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse, 1761 One time we rescued 10 migrants. When they got on the boat two of them started praying. It gave me chills, all over my body. We are fisherman [sic]. We are here to make a living. We are not here to rescue people, but we have a feeling of humanity. So if I find someone on the sea I will save him.2 Captain Slaheddin, Tunisian fisherman, on rescuing refugees, 2015 In January 1873, a diplomatic delegation led by Sir Henry Bartle Frere, former governor of Bombay and professed abolitionist, arrived on the East African island of Zanzibar to negotiate by order of the British government with Sultan Barghash bin Said on the abolition of the slave trade in his domain.3 In the course of their stay the British delegates also took the chance to visit the notorious slave market in Stone Town, the undisputed center of the East 1 Quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s best-selling novel Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse, published for the first time in 1761. For an English translation see: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Julia: or, The New Eloisa. A Series of Original Letters, vol. II (Edinburgh 1773), 282. 2 “Fishermen stepping in to save migrants stranded in the Mediterranean”, Interview by Lisa Desai, 26 July 2015, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/cant-just-see-people-die-mediterranean- fisherman-saving-african-migrants/. 3 For this special diplomatic mission see: Reginald Coupland, The Exploitation of East Africa 1856–1890. The Slave Trade and the Scramble (London 1968), 183–216; R. J. Gavin, “The Bartle Frere Mission to Zanzibar, 1873”, in Historical Journal 5 (1962), 122–148; R. W. Beachey, The Slave Trade of Eastern Africa (London 1976), 108–114. Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0 10 Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin African slave trade, to which an average of 20.000 captured Africans from various parts of the continent were deported each year and from where they were then sold again to various destinations, mainly in the Arab world. In an official memorandum special envoy Bartle Frere reported back to London the appalling scene they had witnessed there: And now came a cruel time. With a true knowledge of business, the sickliest and most wretched slaves were trotted out first, led round by the hand among the crowd, and their price called out. The price of one boy was seven dollars; he was stripped and examined by a connoisseur, his arms felt, his teeth examined, his eyes looked at, and finally he was rejected. The examination of the women was still more disgusting. Bloated and henna-dyed old debauchees gloated over them, handled them from head to foot before a crowd of lookers-on, like cow seller or horse dealer, and finally, when one was apparently satisfactory, buyer, seller, and woman all retired behind the curtain of the shed to play out the final scene of examination.4 In such stirring reports Europeans – explorers, missionaries, merchants, delegates and consuls – characterised the market as a place of brutal in- humanity where captured Africans were examined and treated like animals rather than beings with human dignity forming an undeniable, essential part of humankind. They used their outcry to attack especially the Arab slave dealers and to demand intervention against them, obviously forgetting that Europeans had engaged in exactly the same practice