СНАР. I e. The Con- Period from The Holy Alliance erents and was brought to the verge of war with France in 1798; and after long and futile efforts to maintain its rights as a neutral against the action of both Great Britain and France it finally declared war against the former in 1812. The War of 1812 was, however, distinct from the general conflict in Europe, so that the United States concluded peace with Great Britain in 1814 without being led to participate in the congress that had assembled at Vienna to reorganize Europe after the fall of Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna, like the Congresses of Osnabrück and Münster, assumed what was practically the rôle of a great lawmaking body. It formed new states by the union of Sweden and Norway and of Holland and Belgium, and it confirmed the action of Napoleon in consolidating the numerous German states and formed them into a loose confederation of thirty-nine members. Its chief object, however, was the restoration of the balance of power in Europe which had been so greatly unsettled. The leading powers had announced in the treaty of May 30, 1814, that it was their desire "to put an end to the long disturbance of Europe and to the suffering of the people by a stable peace based upon a just division of forces between the powers and carrying with it a guarantee of its permanence. But the purpose thus announced was completely frustrated by the reactionary principles which dominated the congress. The decisions taken by it proved to be the occasion of new wars throughout the nineteenth century to undo the plans so carefully made. Domestic revolution followed in the wake of the restoration of the deposed monarchs, and wars of liberation followed the suppression of aspirations for national union. The progressive work of the congress was insignificant by comparison. It consisted in the internationalization of the Rhine and the Scheldt, the reorganization and neutralization of Switzerland, and a general prohibition of the slave trade.1 Long-standing disputes of diplomatic precedence were settled by a definite classification of diplomatic agents.2 Important changes in both the organization and membership of 1815 to 1856: the family of nations marked the decade succeeding the Congress of Vienna. While the Treaty of Vienna was being drawn up three of the leading powers-Russia, Prussia, and Austria-formed the Holy Alliance, whose object, as announced, was to apply the principles of Christian morality in the administration of their domestic affairs as well as in the conduct of their international relations. 1 See below, pp. 263, 87, 207. 'See below, p. 355. The alliance was subsequently joined by most of the European CHAP. states, with the exception of Great Britain, which refused to join in a personal alliance of sovereigns. In contrast with this idealistic alliance there was renewed in the same year the Quadruple Alliance which had been formed in 1814 to resist Napoleon. Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain pledged themselves "to hold periodical meetings for the consideration of important common interests, and to concert measures for the peace and welfare of the peoples." Thus was formed an inner circle or directorate of states which, without openly repudiating the principle of the equality of the members of the international community, assumed quasi-legislative powers and undertook the direction of the affairs of Europe as a whole. The Quadruple Alliance, or Tetrarchy, of 1815 became by the accession of France the Quintuple Alliance, or Pentarchy, of 1818. At the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818 a declaration was signed in which the assembled powers recognized the law of nations as the basis of international relations and pledged themselves to act in the future according to its rules. But at the Congress of Troppau in 1820 the alliance, reduced by the defection of Great Britain and France to three members, was led to announce the fatal principle of armed intervention. The famous Troppau Protocol declared that "states which have undergone a change of government due to revolution, the results of which threaten other states, ipso facto cease to be members of the European [Holy] Alliance, and remain excluded from it until their situation gives guarantees for legal order and stability"; and the three allies bound themselves, if immediate danger threatened other states in consequence of such changes, to resort if necessary to arms to bring back the guilty state into the bosom of the Great Alliance. This was an attack upon the fundamental principles of the independence and equality of states, and it reduced the established traditions of international law to the arbitrary will of a small group of absolute monarchs. In the popular mind the Holy Alliance became associated with the declaration of the three powers at Troppau and their subsequent measures to give effect to it, and the alliance has accordingly had to bear the reproach of liberals ever since. Speaking strictly, the Holy Alliance, which embraced most of the European rulers, was not so much a treaty as a declaration of faith, binding its members to no specific action. The effects of the Protocol of Troppau upon the development CHAP. The Monroe Balance of power in the Near East of international law were far-reaching. Intervention in Naples and Spain passed without protest. But when the alliance proceeded to offer support to Spain in a war to reconquer her colonies in America which had declared their independence, the United States saw that its own interests were deeply involved. President Monroe was thus led to deliver, on December 2, 1823, the message in which the American continent was marked off as a field within which distinct principles of international law were henceforth to apply. The Monroe Doctrine first declared that the American continents were no longer open to colonization by European powers. It then announced that the United States would consider any attempt on the part of the Allied Powers "to extend their system" to the Western hemisphere as dangerous to its peace and safety. While disclaiming any intention on the part of the United States to interfere with the existing colonies or dependencies of Europe, the message announced that in respect to the new governments which had declared and maintained their independence, and whose independence had been duly recognized by the United States, any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them or controlling in any way their destiny would be regarded as the "manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States." The new application thus given to the principle of non-intervention and the assumption by the United States of a form of guardianship over the states of the Western hemisphere created problems which are still among the unsettled parts of international law. The development of international law during the second half of the nineteenth century proceeded so rapidly and spread out so widely that all but the most significant features must be reserved for treatment under the separate headings of the law. In respect to the organization of the society of nations, the balance of power remained the point of central interest. In 1853 the disturbance of the political equilibrium caused by the attack of Russia upon Turkey brought Great Britain, France, and Sardinia to the rescue of the failing Ottoman Empire. By the Peace of Paris of 1856 Turkey was formally admitted to full membership in the society of nations, and was protected, as it proved, for another generation in her European possessions. The emancipation of the Balkan states had to await such time as it could be accomplished without enhancing the prestige of Russia. Again in 1877 Russia unsettled the balance of power by the defeat of Turkey and the subsequent Peace of San Stefano; but this time it was possible without war to check the threatened dominance of Russia in the Near East. CHAP. The Congress of Berlin, while liberating Serbia and Rumania, left Bulgaria under a nominal sovereignty of the sultan and was satisfied with mere promises of reform in Macedonia. New life was again infused into the Turkish Empire. In the meantime the balance of power in central and western Europe was in need of complete readjustment. The unification of Italy had been accomplished by 1870 and there was a new Great Power to be reckoned with. The German Confederation had been broken up in 1866, and a new federation of North German states under the domination of Prussia had been formed. The defeat of France in 1870-71 and the federation of both North and South German states into the empire caused several shiftings of the weights in the scale. In 1879 Germany formed with Austria the Dual Alliance, which by the accession of Italy in 1884 became the formidable Triple Alliance. For a time the weight was heavily on one side. Then France formed with Russia in 1891-95 the Dual Alliance, and the balance was for the time being restored. The definitive partition of Africa was accomplished by the Congress of Berlin in 1885 with but slight reference to the balance of power in Europe. Balance of central and power in western Europe rules While these changes in the organization of the society of nations Growth of were in progress the scope of international law was being greatly new enlarged. The Declaration of Paris of 1856 added new and more progressive principles to the law of maritime warfare.1 The internationalization of the great river highways of commerce was extended by the inclusion of the Danube in 1856 and of a number of South American rivers during the same decade. The law of war was amended by the adoption at Geneva in 1864 of a Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in War, adhered to by the great majority of the states and later known as the Red Cross Convention. A further amendment was introduced by the Declaration of St. Petersburg in 1868, which placed a restriction upon the use of explosive bullets. In 1874 an effort was made at the Brussels Conference to draw up a Code of Warfare on Land, modeled after the code adopted by the United States for its armies in 1863, but the agreement failed of ratification. The suppression of the slave trade in Africa was made the object of a special conference at Brussels in 1890, which resulted in a general agreement between seventeen states. A striking growth in the practice of 1 See below, p. 493. I CHAP. Administrative unions f. The development of law by collective action: the Hague Conference of 1899 The conference of 1907 arbitration marked the period following the successful settlement by arbitration of the Alabama Claims at Geneva in 1872. Large in bulk, but less significant from the point of view of the interests involved, was the body of law developed by the numerous international conferences which met from time to time for the regulation of a wide variety of economic and social, as distinct from political, questions. Special "unions" were formed for the permanent regulation of the particular interests involved.1 The agreements reached by these conferences deal with interests, such as postal and telegraphic correspondence, which are so far uniform and common to all the nations that it has been possible to regulate them by a single convention to which all states may be parties. Their importance in the development of international law lies chiefly in the influence they have had in creating an understanding of the possibilities of international coöperation and in preparing the way for an international agreement upon more vital issues. The calling of the First International Peace Conference, which met at the Hague on May 18, 1899, marked an important step forward in the development of a new contractual or statutory form of international law. Called by the czar of Russia with the primary object of promoting a general limitation of armaments, the conference found it impossible to reach an agreement upon its main purpose, but succeeded in formulating an agreement directed toward its ultimate object of securing the general peace. A Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes was adopted, representing the first general contractual agreement of the nations upon what they believed to embody the "principles of justice and equity." Limited as were the obligations entailed by the convention, it showed the possibilities of a form of statutemaking by common consent. The same was true of the two other conventions and three declarations adopted by the conference, all of which related to the law of war.2 The Hague Conference assumed, as it were, the functions of a quasi-legislative body, codifying existing international law and creating new rules, notwithstanding the fact that the agreements adopted were subject to the subsequent ratification of the several governments. The Second International Peace Conference met at the Hague on June 15, 1907. This time the Latin-American states sent delegations, raising the earlier number of states represented from 'See below, pp. 65-66. See below, pp. 461, 502. 2 |