An age of neutrals : great power politics, 1815-1914 / Maartje Abbenhuis, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abbenhuis, Maartje M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Neutrality--Europe--History--19th century.

Neutrality.

Europe--Foreign relations--19th century.

Europe.

Europe--Politics and government--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 289 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

An Age of Neutrals provides a pioneering history of neutrality in Europe and the wider world between the Congress of Vienna and the outbreak of the First World War. The 'long' nineteenth century (1815-1914) was an era of unprecedented industrialization, imperialism and globalization; one which witnessed Europe's economic and political hegemony across the world. Dr Maartje Abbenhuis explores the ways in which neutrality reinforced these interconnected developments. She argues that a passive conception of neutrality has thus far prevented historians from understanding the high regard with which neutrality, as a tool of diplomacy and statecraft and as a popular ideal with numerous applications, was held. This compelling new history exposes neutrality as a vibrant and essential part of the nineteenth-century international system; a powerful instrument used by great and small powers to solve disputes, stabilize international relations and promote a variety of interests within and outside the continent.

Contents:

Introduction : It is not the neutrals or lukewarms that make history

Neutrality on the eve of the industrial age

Neutrality, neutralisation and the Concert of Europe

The neutrals' war : Britain and the global implications of the Crimean War, 1853-1856

How to be neutral : negotiating neutrality in the wars of nationhood, 1859-1871

Neutrality as an international and patriotic ideal

Regulating neutrality from The Hague to The Hague, 1899-1907

Neutral no more : neutrality and the origins of the First World War

Conclusion : International law's 'finest and most fragile flower'.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-99024-1

1-139-98562-0

1-316-01309-X

1-139-79469-8

1-316-00859-2

1-316-00635-2

1-316-00185-7

1-316-00409-0