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131-432: Edmund Dene Morel (born Georges Edmond Pierre Achille Morel Deville ; 10 July 1873 – 12 November 1924) was a French-born British journalist, author, pacifist and politician. As a young official at the shipping company Elder Dempster , Morel observed a fortune being made in the export of Congo rubber and the shipping in of guns and manacles. He correctly deduced that the rubber and other resources were being extracted from

262-512: A "sexual horror on the Rhine" and whose "reign of terror" was a "giant evil" that should inspire "shame into all four corners of the world" and ultimately should "a revision of the Versailles Treaty and the relief for Germany". The German sociologist Iris Wigger wrote that Morel's "Black Horror on the Rhine" campaign has caused much embarrassment to Morel's admirers today, who would rather remember

393-484: A British subject and anglicised his name. He married Mary Richardson that same year; they had five children. His daughter Stella married the Polish political activist Joseph Retinger in 1926. They had two daughters. In 1891, Morel obtained a clerkship with Elder Dempster , a Liverpool shipping firm. To increase his income and support his family, from 1893 Morel began writing articles against French protectionism , which

524-639: A Socialist all my life. So far as any Party can express what appears to me to be the country's needs, the ILP approximates nearer to my outlook that any other, although I still look forward to and hope for the day when all really progressive forces can unite under the title of the Democratic Party. But Liberalism as represented by both wings—the Lloyd George wing, and the Asquith wing, is right outside my outlook now. Morel

655-430: A brand of nonviolence (or ahimsa ) which he called satyagraha  – translated literally as "truth force". This was the resistance of tyranny through civil disobedience that was not only nonviolent but also sought to change the heart of the opponent. He contrasted this with duragraha , "resistant force", which sought only to change behaviour with stubborn protest. During his 30 years of work (1917–1947) for

786-492: A broad moral guideline against violence between individuals. No philosophical program of rejecting violence between states, or rejecting all forms of violence, seems to have existed. Aristophanes , in his play Lysistrata , creates the scenario of an Athenian woman's anti-war sex strike during the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 BCE, and the play has gained an international reputation for its anti-war message. Nevertheless, it

917-759: A campaign against alleged atrocities in Congo. Elder Dempster had a shipping contract with the Congo Free State for the connection between Antwerp and Boma . Due to his knowledge of French, Morel was often sent to Belgium , where he was able to view the internal accounts of the Congo Free State held by Elder Dempster. The knowledge that the Elder Dempster ships leaving Belgium for the Congo regularly carried guns, chains, ordnance and explosives, and articles which were remote from trade purposes, while ships arriving from

1048-620: A campaign against the use of 'primitive' black troops by the French Army during its occupation of the Rhineland . In a front-page article in The Daily Herald on 9 April 1920 by Morel about the French occupation of the Rhineland, the headline read, ": "Frankfurt runs red with blood French Blood Troops Use Machine-guns on Civilians". The following day, the same paper had another cover story by Morel,

1179-484: A campaign of nonviolent resistance in the event of a fascist invasion or takeover. As the prospect of a second major war began to seem increasingly inevitable, much of France adopted pacifist views, though some historians argue that France felt more war anxiety than a moral objection to a second war. Hitler's spreading influence and territory posed an enormous threat to French livelihood from their neighbors. The French countryside had been devastated during World War I and

1310-525: A final attempt to moderate Morel's criticism of the company, but Jones soon discontinued his support. Morel published several pamphlets and his first book, Affairs of West Africa , a collection of his essays. In 1903, under pressure from Morel's campaign, the British House of Commons passed a resolution protesting human rights abuses in the Congo. Subsequently, the British consul in the Congo, Roger Casement ,

1441-690: A former British ambassador to the United States. These and other initiatives were pivotal in the change in attitudes that gave birth to the League of Nations after the war. In addition to the traditional peace churches, some of the many groups that protested against the war were the Woman's Peace Party (which was organized in 1915 and led by noted reformer Jane Addams ), the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) (also organized in 1915),

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1572-411: A historical impact which has been a source of inspiration to many congolese people such as, Khembo Massanga , a Congo-Malawi African American politician, religious leader, and founder of the upcoming political diaspora party, "The Party for Reform and Development of Congo (P.R.D.C)" known in french as "Party Pour La Reforme et Le Development Du Congo" . P.R.D.C is set to contest in 2029 election in

1703-420: A leading figure in the peace movement with the publication of her novel, Die Waffen nieder! ("Lay Down Your Arms!") in 1889 and founded an Austrian pacifist organization in 1891. In colonial New Zealand , during the latter half of the 19th century European settlers used numerous tactics to confiscate land from the indigenous Māori , including warfare . In the 1870s and 1880s, Parihaka , then reported to be

1834-460: A permanent effect on his health. After the war, he edited the journal Foreign Affairs , through which he sharply criticised what he considered French aggression and mistreatment of the defeated Central Powers . As part of his campaign against the French, he became the most important English proponent of the Black Shame campaign, which accused black French troops of outrages against the population of

1965-484: A remarkable amount of information on the historical record ... The movement's other great achievement is that, among its supporters, it kept alive a tradition, a way of seeing the world, a human capacity for being outraged because pain is being inflicted on another human being, even when that pain is inflicted on someone of another color, in another country ... It is this spirit that underlies organisations like Amnesty International ... and Médecins Sans Frontières. Morel left

2096-638: A significant voice of the English left about foreign politics at the time and represented the views of the UDC. In his articles for the magazine, Morel blamed France and Tsarist Russia, not the Central Powers, for the origins of the war and was scathingly critical of French imperialism. Morel's articles also deplored the fate of the new nation of Hungary , which had been part of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary before

2227-437: A strictly pacifist interpretation of Christianity . They stated their beliefs in a declaration to King Charles II : "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatever; this is our testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ ... which leads us into all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for

2358-598: A tinge of white before) when he first came out, he collapsed completely, physically and mentally, largely as the result of insufficient food. He says one only gets three quarters of an hour reading in the whole day – the rest of the time is spent on prison work, etc. Morel was released in January 1918. In April 1918, he joined the Independent Labour Party , and began to feed his views into the Labour Party to which it

2489-413: Is Luke 22:36: "He said to them, 'But now, the one who has a purse must take it, and likewise a bag. And the one who has no sword must sell his cloak and buy one .'" Pacifists have typically explained that verse as Jesus fulfilling prophecy, since in the next verse, Jesus continues to say: "It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what

2620-575: Is Within You , Tolstoy provides a detailed history, account and defense of pacifism. Tolstoy's work inspired a movement named after him advocating pacifism to arise in Russia and elsewhere. The book was a major early influence on Mahatma Gandhi , and the two engaged in regular correspondence while Gandhi was active in South Africa. Bertha von Suttner , the first woman to be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, became

2751-484: Is both fictional and comical, and though it offers a pragmatic opposition to the destructiveness of war, its message seems to stem from frustration with the existing conflict (then in its twentieth year) rather than from a philosophical position against violence or war. Equally fictional is the nonviolent protest of Hegetorides of Thasos . Euripides also expressed strong anti-war ideas in his work, especially The Trojan Women . In Plato's Republic Socrates makes

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2882-445: Is described as difficult to abide by consistently, due to violence not being available as a tool to aid a person who is being harmed or killed. It is further claimed that such a pacifist could logically argue that violence leads to more undesirable results than non-violence. Tapping into just war theory conditional pacifism represents a spectrum of positions departing from positions of absolute pacifism. One such conditional pacifism

3013-735: Is named for pacifism : " lemba, lemba " (peace, peace), describes the action of the plant lemba-lemba ( Brillantaisia patula T. Anders ). Likewise in Cabinda, " Lemba is the spirit of peace, as its name indicates." The Moriori , of the Chatham Islands , practiced pacifism by order of their ancestor Nunuku-whenua . This enabled the Moriori to preserve what limited resources they had in their harsh climate, avoiding waste through warfare. In turn, this led to their almost complete annihilation in 1835 by invading Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama Māori from

3144-491: Is of Jesus, besides preaching these words, surrendering himself freely to an enemy intent on having him killed and proscribing his followers from defending him. There are those, however, who deny that Jesus was a pacifist and state that Jesus never said not to fight, citing examples from the New Testament. One such instance portrays an angry Jesus driving dishonest market traders from the temple . A frequently quoted passage

3275-422: Is the common pacificism , which may allow defense but is not advocating a default defensivism or even interventionism . Institutional pacifists object to the foundation and continued existence of institutions that enable and encourage war, similarly to those who criticise the influence of the military–industrial complex . The term may have been coined by American sociologist Charles A. Ellwood , writing for

3406-497: Is written about me is reaching its fulfillment." Others have interpreted the non-pacifist statements in the New Testament to be related to self-defense or to be metaphorical and state that on no occasion did Jesus shed blood or urge others to shed blood. Beginning in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation gave rise to a variety of new Christian sects, including the historic peace churches . Foremost among them were

3537-662: The Three Strategies of Huang Shigong says: "As for the military, it is not an auspicious instrument; it is the way of heaven to despise it", and the Wei Liaozi writes: "As for the military, it is an inauspicious instrument; as for conflict and contention, it runs counter to virtue". The Taoist scripture " Classic of Great Peace ( Taiping jing )" foretells "the coming Age of Great Peace ( Taiping )". The Taiping Jing advocates "a world full of peace". The Lemba religion of southern French Congo, along with its symbolic herb,

3668-721: The American Union Against Militarism , the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the American Friends Service Committee . Jeannette Rankin , the first woman elected to Congress, was another fierce advocate of pacifism, the only person to vote against American entrance into both wars. After the immense loss of nearly ten million men to trench warfare , a sweeping change of attitude toward militarism crashed over Europe, particularly in nations such as Great Britain, where many questioned its involvement in

3799-480: The Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1943. Since the 2010s, some authors have expressed a renewed interest in institutional pacifism , often contrasting it with the more individually-oriented types of personal pacifism , and highlighting the role of human institutions in permitting accumulation of military resources. One writer suggested that institutional pacifism can be further categorised into juridicial pacifism and social pacifism, while another attempted to cite

3930-499: The French Revolutionary Wars based on Christian ideals of peace and brotherhood. Bohemian Bernard Bolzano taught about the social waste of militarism and the needlessness of war. He urged a total reform of the educational, social, and economic systems that would direct the nation's interests toward peace rather than toward armed conflict between nations. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pacifism

4061-721: The League to Enforce Peace was established in the U.S. to promote similar goals. Hamilton Holt published a 28 September 1914, editorial in his magazine the Independent called "The Way to Disarm: A Practical Proposal" that called for an international organization to agree upon the arbitration of disputes and to guarantee the territorial integrity of its members by maintaining military forces sufficient to defeat those of any non-member. The ensuing debate among prominent internationalists modified Holt's plan to align it more closely with proposals offered in Great Britain by Viscount James Bryce ,

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4192-525: The Mi'kmaq people . The Society published tracts, pamphlets, Annual Reports and a journal variously entitled The Aborigines' Friend, or, Colonial Intelligencer , Aborigines' Friend, or Colonial Intelligencer , Colonial Intelligencer and Aborigines' Friend , The Aborigines' Friend and the Colonial Intelligencer , also abbreviated to Aborigines' Friend , from 1855 until 1909. Hodgkin's concerns over

4323-588: The Peace Pledge Union in 1934, which totally renounced war and aggression. The idea of collective security was also popular; instead of outright pacifism, the public generally exhibited a determination to stand up to aggression, but preferably with the use of economic sanctions and multilateral negotiations. Many members of the Peace Pledge Union later joined the Bruderhof during its period of residence in

4454-622: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Amish , Mennonites , Hutterites , and Church of the Brethren . The humanist writer Desiderius Erasmus was one of the most outspoken pacifists of the Renaissance , arguing strongly against warfare in his essays The Praise of Folly (1509) and The Complaint of Peace (1517). The Quakers were prominent advocates of pacifism, who as early as 1660 had repudiated violence in all forms and adhered to

4585-473: The Scottish Prohibition Party , he won the second seat, in the process defeating one of the outgoing members, Winston Churchill , standing as a National Liberal. Morel regarded Churchill as a warmonger and took pride in having defeated him: "I look upon Churchill as such a personal force for evil that I would take up the fight against him with a whole heart". With his foreign affairs specialty, he

4716-723: The Service Civil International and the Peace Pledge Union (PPU). The League of Nations also convened several disarmament conferences in the interbellum period such as the Geneva Conference , though the support that pacifist policy and idealism received varied across European nations. These organizations and movements attracted tens of thousands of Europeans, spanning most professions including "scientists, artists, musicians, politicians, clerks, students, activists and thinkers." Pacifism and revulsion with war were very popular sentiments in 1920s Britain. Novels and poems on

4847-605: The Taranaki region of the North Island of New Zealand. The invading Māori killed, enslaved and cannibalised the Moriori. A Moriori survivor recalled : "[The Maori] commenced to kill us like sheep ... [We] were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed – men, women and children indiscriminately." In Ancient Greece , pacifism seems not to have existed except as

4978-733: The Union 's military campaign, arguing they were carrying out a " police action " against the Confederacy , whose act of Secession they regarded as criminal. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , French pacifist René Gérin urged support for the Spanish Republic . Gérin argued that the Spanish Nationalists were "comparable to an individual enemy" and the Republic's war effort

5109-458: The Warring States period , the pacifist Mohist School opposed aggressive war between the feudal states. They took this belief into action by using their famed defensive strategies to defend smaller states from invasion from larger states, hoping to dissuade feudal lords from costly warfare. The Seven Military Classics of ancient China view warfare negatively, and as a last resort. For example,

5240-648: The Yoshida Doctrine as an example of institutional pacifism. Although all pacifists are opposed to war between nation states , there have been occasions where pacifists have supported military conflict in the case of civil war or revolution . For instance, during the American Civil War , both the American Peace Society and some former members of the Non-Resistance Society supported

5371-421: The civil rights movement . Pacifism covers a spectrum of views, including the belief that international disputes can and should be peacefully resolved, calls for the abolition of the institutions of the military and war, opposition to any organization of society through governmental force ( anarchist or libertarian pacifism ), rejection of the use of physical violence to obtain political, economic or social goals,

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5502-579: The fascists of Germany , Italy and Japan . During the period of the Napoleonic Wars , although no formal peace movement was established until the end of hostilities, a significant peace movement animated by universalist ideals did emerge, due to the perception of Britain fighting in a reactionary role and the increasingly visible impact of the war on the welfare of the nation in the form of higher taxation levels and high casualty rates. Sixteen peace petitions to Parliament were signed by members of

5633-549: The "sexually uncontrolled and uncontrollable" Senegalese would run amok in the Rhineland and rape every German female in sight. Two contemporaries challenged Morel on that: Claude McKay , the Jamaican poet and labour activist, and Norman Leys , the British Africanist. Leys stated that such allegations constituted "one of the great sources of race hatred" and "should never be repeated by any honest man or honest newspaper". Morel

5764-690: The 1833 British abolition of slavery , had taken an interest in particular in the Cape Colony . The Report of the APS in 1838 put the case that colonisation did not inevitably have detrimental effects on indigenous peoples, as conventional wisdom had it, even to the point of their extinction: if the effects were negative, that was a criticism of the plan and regulation for the colony. The Aborigines' Protection Society remained active for about 70 years. It operated in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, South Africa and

5895-693: The 19th century, ancient references abound. In modern times, interest was revived by Leo Tolstoy in his late works, particularly in The Kingdom of God Is Within You . Mahatma Gandhi propounded the practice of steadfast nonviolent opposition which he called " satyagraha ", instrumental in its role in the Indian Independence Movement . Its effectiveness served as inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. , James Lawson , Mary and Charles Beard , James Bevel , Thich Nhat Hanh , and many others in

6026-659: The Anglo-Soviet trade treaty. Shortly after his re-election in the 1924 general election , Morel suffered a fatal heart attack in London. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium . Arthur Conan Doyle became acquainted with Morel through the work of the Congo Reform Association. In his novel The Lost World (1912), he used Morel as an inspiration for the character of Ed Malone. Philosopher and activist Bertrand Russell said of Morel, "No other man known to me has had

6157-615: The Belgian government and put under its sovereignty. Despite this, Morel refused to declare an end to the campaign until 1913 because he wanted to see actual changes in the situation of the country. The Congo Reform Association ended operations in 1913. During the Agadir Crisis of 1911, Morel was entirely in sympathy with Germany and opposed to what he regarded as bellicosity by the United Kingdom and France, as well as secret diplomacy between

6288-520: The British John Hobbis Harris and Alice Harris . The chocolate millionaire William Cadbury , a Quaker, was one of his main financial backers. The Belgian socialist leader Emile Vandervelde sent him copies of Belgian parliamentary debates and was recruited by Morel to successfully defend the missionaries Sheppard and Morrison pro bono in a libel suit brought by Kasai Rubber Company. Morel also had secret connections with some agents within

6419-467: The Congo Company. He wrote that it was the duty of whites to serve as the "trustees" for blacks and the "great white father" who would protect the "basic human rights" of Africans while at the same time accepting the "infantile" nature of black people, who not the equal in any way of whites. Morel himself did not see his campaign as racist and always presented himself as a friend to black people. In France,

6550-448: The Congo Free State itself. Even the Church of England and American religious groups backed him. In 1905 the movement won a victory when a Commission of Enquiry, instituted (under external pressure) by King Léopold II himself, substantially confirmed the accusations made about the colonial administration. In the face of mounting public and diplomatic pressure, in 1908 the Congo was annexed to

6681-544: The Congo Free State to the Belgian government, ending some of the human rights abuses perpetrated under his rule. Morel played a significant role in the British pacifist movement during the First World War , participating in the foundation of and becoming secretary of the Union of Democratic Control , at which point he broke with the Liberal Party . In 1917 he was jailed for six months for his antiwar activism, which had

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6812-518: The Congo Reform campaign save millions of lives? For many years, the conventional answer was yes ... but the truth is more somber. Some of the worst abuses in the Congo, such as the kidnapping of hostages, did stop as a result of the publicity. But the near-genocidal death rate in the territory continued for more than a decade under Belgian rule. After making this statement, Hochschild concludes, Morel's movement served two great purposes: First, they put

6943-404: The Congo. Its motto was Ab Uno Sanguine , meaning "Of One Blood" (from Acts 17:26). Its focus was on equal rights , as Equality before the law, for indigenous people, although it did not extend to the protection and preservation of the cultures of these peoples. It aimed to achieve legislation that was not based on race, with "racial amalgamation". There was no commitment therefore to preserving

7074-482: The Congolese population through force and mass atrocities. Morel discussed the discrepancies with the head of the Elder Dempster line, who responded coldly and dismissively. The company soon offered Morel an overseas promotion and then a sinecure consultancy in return for a guarantee of his silence. Morel refused both offers, and left the company in 1901 to become a full-time journalist. In 1900, Morel put new life into

7205-690: The Cotswolds, where Englishmen and Germans, many of whom were Jewish, lived side by side despite local persecution. The British Labour Party had a strong pacifist wing in the early 1930s, and between 1931 and 1935 it was led by George Lansbury , a Christian pacifist who later chaired the No More War Movement and was president of the PPU. The 1933 annual conference resolved unanimously to "pledge itself to take no part in war". Researcher Richard Toye writes that "Labour's official position, however, although based on

7336-695: The DRC. Pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war , militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence . The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa (to do no harm), which is a core philosophy in Indian religions such as Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism . While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since

7467-722: The French Army were "primitive African barbarians" who "stuffed their haversacks with eye-balls, ears and heads of the foe". Morel declared in his article: There [the Rhineland] they [the Senegalese soldiers] have become a terror and a horror unimaginable to the countryside, raping girls and women – for well known physiological reasons, the raping of a white woman by a negro is nearly always accompanied by serious injuries and not infrequently has fatal results; spreading syphilis, murdering inoffensive civilians, often getting completely out of control;

7598-440: The French economist Frédéric Passy was also the founding father of the first international organisation for the arbitration of conflicts in 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Union . The National Peace Council was founded in after the 17th Universal Peace Congress in London (July August 1908). An important thinker who contributed to pacifist ideology was Russian writer Leo Tolstoy . In one of his latter works, The Kingdom of God

7729-469: The French politician Duc de Sully , the philosophers Émeric Crucé and the Abbe de Saint-Pierre , and the English Quakers William Penn and John Bellers . Pacifist ideals emerged from two strands of thought that coalesced at the end of the 18th century. One, rooted in the secular Enlightenment , promoted peace as the rational antidote to the world's ills, while the other was a part of the evangelical religious revival that had played an important part in

7860-432: The French socialist Charles Gide wrote about Morel's claims to be a protector of Africans: le genre de protection de M. Morel rappelle un peu le precepte que fait afficher la Society protectrice des animaux: 'Soyez bons pour les betes' (Mr. Morel's kind of protection remind a little of the precepts of the Society for the Protection of Animals: 'Be good to the animals'). In particular, Morel believed that Africans, lacking

7991-403: The Māori, which proved more successful in preventing land confiscations than acts of violent resistance. Mahatma Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India, instrumental in the Indian independence movement . The Nobel prize winning great poet Rabindranath Tagore , who was also an Indian, gave him the honorific " Mahatma ", usually translated "Great Soul". He was the pioneer of

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8122-424: The Peace Society in 1850 on a full-time basis, a position which he would keep for the next 40 years, earning himself a reputation as the 'Apostle of Peace'. He helped secure one of the earliest victories for the peace movement by securing a commitment from the Great Powers in the Treaty of Paris (1856) at the end of the Crimean War , in favour of arbitration. On the European continent, wracked by social upheaval ,

8253-405: The Realm Act . Morel was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, which he served in Pentonville Prison . Although along with other pacifists, he was placed in the 'second division', allowing some privileges over the majority of prisoners, conditions were very hard, and Morel's health was seriously damaged. Russell described his condition at his release: His hair is completely white (there was hardly

8384-435: The Rhine ", which became internationally famous, and the campaign against the "black horror" took much of his time for the last four years of his life. Morel predicated the "black horror" would cause another world war, writing that the average German boy was thinking: " Boys these men raped your mothers and sisters " (emphasis in the original). Morel used the "black horror" as a way of attacking France, which he claimed had caused

8515-434: The Rhineland because the French had empowered them, at least theoretically, by making them into black Frenchmen, who were just as much French citizens as anyone else. In the 1922 general election , which followed the retirement of an incumbent Labour Member of Parliament, Alexander Wilkie , Morel fought the two-member Dundee constituency as a sole Labour candidate. Although he gained fewer votes than Edwin Scrymgeour of

8646-410: The U.S. In Britain, the prominent activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse was jailed for refusing military service, citing his convictions as a "socialist and a Christian". Many socialist groups and movements were antimilitarist , arguing that war by its nature was a type of governmental coercion of the working class for the benefit of capitalist elites. The French socialist pacifist leader Jean Jaurès

8777-560: The Western world after 1900, often focusing on treaties that would settle disputes through arbitration, and efforts to support the Hague conventions. The sudden outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 dismayed the peace movement. Socialist parties in every industrial nation had committed themselves to antiwar policies, but when the war came, all of them, except in Russia and the United States, supported their own governments. There were highly publicized dissidents, some of whom were imprisoned for opposing draft laws, such as Eugene Debs in

8908-412: The Younger criticised warfare in his book Naturales quaestiones (c. 65 CE). Maximilian of Tebessa was a Christian conscientious objector. He was killed for refusing to be conscripted. Throughout history many have understood Jesus of Nazareth to have been a pacifist, drawing on his Sermon on the Mount . In the sermon Jesus stated that one should "not resist an evildoer" and promoted his turn

9039-452: The activist drive that led quickly to the Niger expedition of 1841 , the failure of which was a huge personal blow and also drove missionary considerations into the background for a time. Hodgkin was unhappy with Buxton's published criticism of Elliott Cresson , and the general British disregard for Liberia as an abolitionist project. King issued a prospectus for the new Ethnological Society of London in 1842, following Hodgkin's view that

9170-399: The ally he had sought. Casement convinced Morel to establish an organisation for dealing specifically with the Congo question, the Congo Reform Association ; because of the restrictions placed on Casement by his official duties, Morel would be the organisation's head. Affiliates of the Congo Reform Association were established as far away as the United States. The Congo Reform Association had

9301-420: The aspiration towards a world socialist commonwealth and the outlawing of war, did not imply a renunciation of force under all circumstances, but rather support for the ill-defined concept of 'collective security' under the League of Nations. At the same time, on the party's left, Stafford Cripps 's small but vocal Socialist League opposed the official policy, on the non-pacifist ground that the League of Nations

9432-560: The campaign against Congo misrule (begun a decade before by the American George Washington Williams ) with a series of articles detailing his discoveries about the Congo Free State trade imbalances. His inside information made him a powerful voice against the exploitation, as previous activists had lacked his access to precise figures about the trade. In 1903, he founded his own magazine, the West African Mail , with

9563-508: The campaign for the abolition of slavery . Representatives of the former included Jean-Jacques Rousseau , in Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle de Monsieur l'Abbe Saint-Pierre (1756), Immanuel Kant , in his Thoughts on Perpetual Peace , and Jeremy Bentham who proposed the formation of a peace association in 1789. Representative of the latter, was William Wilberforce who thought that strict limits should be imposed on British involvement in

9694-497: The civil rights movement's march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, they have called for armed protection. The interconnections between civil resistance and factors of force are numerous and complex. An absolute pacifist is generally described by the BBC as one who believes that human life is so valuable, that a human should never be killed and war should never be conducted, even in self-defense (except for non-violence type). The principle

9825-514: The collaboration of John Holt , a businessman and friend of Mary Kingsley , who feared that the system of the Congo Free State would be applied upon the rest of the West African colonies. The Mail was an "illustrated weekly journal founded to meet the rapidly growing interest in west and central African questions". The paper also received initial financial backing from Sir Alfred Lewis Jones , Morel's former employer at Elder Dempster, apparently in

9956-491: The colonies, Quakers chose to trade peacefully with the Native Americans , including for land. The colonial province was, for the 75 years from 1681 to 1756, essentially unarmed and experienced little or no warfare in that period. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, a number of thinkers devised plans for an international organisation that would promote peace, and reduce or even eliminate the occurrence of war. These included

10087-409: The colony came back full of valuable products such as raw rubber and ivory , led him to the conclusion that Belgian King Leopold II 's policy was exploitative and a type of slavery. According to author Adam Hochschild , Morel's conclusions were correct—the value of the goods coming from the Congo Free State was five times that of the goods coming from Europe, and the difference was being extracted from

10218-478: The costs of war and interpersonal violence are so substantial that better ways of resolving disputes must be found. Some pacifists follow principles of nonviolence , believing that nonviolent action is morally superior and/or most effective. Some however, support physical violence for emergency defence of self or others. Others support destruction of property in such emergencies or for conducting symbolic acts of resistance like pouring red paint to represent blood on

10349-581: The entire nation was reluctant to subject its territory to the same treatment. Though all countries in the First World War had suffered great losses, France was one of the most devastated and many did not want a second war. Aborigines%27 Protection Society The Society published a journal variously entitled Aborigines' Friend, or Colonial Intelligencer , and Colonial Intelligencer and Aborigines' Friend , often abbreviated to Aborigines' Friend , from 1855 until its merger with BFASS in 1909. when

10480-558: The establishment of The Aborigines Committee at an annual Meeting for Sufferings of Quakers. In 1838 some of the findings of Buxton's committee were published as Information Respecting the Aborigines in the British Colonies . Hodgkin's brother John Hodgkin drafted it, then it was rewritten by Thomas to sharpen the effect and reduce its references to missionary activity. Around the same time, The Aborigines' Protection Society (APS)

10611-505: The family's influence, she worked as a teacher so that she could send him to boarding school at both Madras House school in Eastbourne and later at Bedford Modern School . When Emmeline Deville fell ill in 1888, the money for school fees was no longer available and Edmund was forced to return to Paris to work as a bank clerk. He was able to move his mother back to England in 1891. Five years later, he successfully applied for naturalisation as

10742-511: The first peace congress was held in Brussels in 1848 followed by Paris a year later. After experiencing a recession in support due to the resurgence of militarism during the American Civil War and Crimean War , the movement began to spread across Europe and began to infiltrate the new socialist movements. In 1870, Randal Cremer formed the Workman's Peace Association in London. Cremer, alongside

10873-447: The humanitarian and scientific objectives should from then on be pursued separately. In 1842 the purpose of the APS was restated: "to record the history, and promote the advancement, of Uncivilized Tribes". On Buxton's death in 1845, Samuel Gurney took over as President. Finances improved, and from 1847 Hodgkin had an assistant as Secretary on the payroll for a period, the activist Louis Alexis Chamerovzow . Chamerovzow published on

11004-424: The independence of his country from British colonial rule , Gandhi led dozens of nonviolent campaigns, spent over seven years in prison, and fasted nearly to the death on several occasions to obtain British compliance with a demand or to stop inter-communal violence. His efforts helped lead India to independence in 1947, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom worldwide. Peace movements became active in

11135-540: The indigenous peoples as encountered. In 1840 the Society reported on the treatment of indigenous peoples of Upper Canada . The differing views of Buxton and Hodgkin on how to proceed caused some fundamental divisions in the early years. Hodgkin was interested in a forum for both scientific discussion (of early ethnology , a discipline that hardly yet existed separately from the study of language), and protective activities based on lobbying. Buxton shortly became caught up in

11266-638: The indigenous peoples in the Hudson's Bay Company territory in western Canada were pursued both by correspondence with Sir George Simpson , and in the pages of the Intelligencer . In 1889 Henry Richard Fox Bourne became its editor, and took over as Chair of the APS. He was a critic of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition , and used the Intelligencer to accuse it for the first time of "atrocities". The Society continued until 1909, when it merged with

11397-504: The journals of the two societies were merged. The Quaker background and abolitionism were significant in the setting-up of the Society. In 1835 Parliamentary MP Thomas Fowell Buxton set up a Parliamentary Select Committee to examine the effect of white settlement on indigenous peoples, and various other colonial issues. Though a non-Quaker himself, Buxton was the brother-in-law of Quaker reformer and philanthropist Elizabeth Fry . In 1837, British physician Thomas Hodgkin prompted

11528-516: The kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world. Throughout the many 18th century wars in which Great Britain participated, the Quakers maintained a principled commitment not to serve in the army and militia or even to pay the alternative £10 fine. The English Quaker William Penn , who founded the Province of Pennsylvania , employed an anti-militarist public policy. Unlike residents of many of

11659-638: The largest Māori settlement in New Zealand, became the centre of a major campaign of non-violent resistance to land confiscations. One Māori leader, Te Whiti-o-Rongomai , quickly became the leading figure in the movement, stating in a speech that "Though some, in darkness of heart, seeing their land ravished, might wish to take arms and kill the aggressors, I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of their guns... I want not war". Te Whiti-o-Rongomai achieved renown for his non-violent tactics among

11790-409: The man who campaigned against the Congo Free State, but in fact, both campaigns were manifestations of the same racism since he believed that all black people were innately stupid and inferior to white people in all respects. Though Morel had been very forceful in condemning the cruel exploitation of the Congo Free State, he believed in a liberal imperialism, just not the cruel exploitative imperialism of

11921-518: The memory of the International Brigades and other militaristic interventions. Shortly after the war ended, Simone Weil , despite having volunteered for service on the republican side, went on to publish The Iliad or the Poem of Force , a work that has been described as a pacifist manifesto. In response to the threat of fascism, some pacifist thinkers, such as Richard B. Gregg , devised plans for

12052-409: The mid-nineteenth century. The London Peace Society, under the initiative of American consul Elihu Burritt and the reverend Henry Richard , convened the first International Peace Congress in London in 1843. The congress decided on two aims: the ideal of peaceable arbitration in the affairs of nations and the creation of an international institution to achieve that. Richard became the secretary of

12183-576: The most famous contribution with the satirical short story King Leopold's Soliloquy . Conrad and Ford Madox Ford also included a devastating parody of Leopold II in their cowritten novel The Inheritors . Morel's best allies, however, may have been the Christian missionaries who furnished him with eyewitness accounts and photographs of the atrocities, such as those given by the Americans William Morrison and William Henry Sheppard , and

12314-663: The obliteration of force, and opposition to violence under any circumstance, even defence of self and others. Historians of pacifism Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat define pacifism "in the sense generally accepted in English-speaking areas" as "an unconditional rejection of all forms of warfare". Philosopher Jenny Teichman defines the main form of pacifism as "anti-warism", the rejection of all forms of warfare. Teichman's beliefs have been summarized by Brian Orend as "... A pacifist rejects war and believes there are no moral grounds which can justify resorting to war. War, for

12445-416: The occupied Rhineland . Morel was elected to Parliament in 1922 as a Labour candidate, defeating the incumbent Winston Churchill for his seat, and was re-elected in 1924, dying in office. Morel collaborated closely with future Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and was considered for the post of Foreign Secretary , though he ultimately acted only as an unofficial adviser to MacDonald's government. Morel

12576-407: The other cheek philosophy. "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well ... Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." He also believed that murder is a sin and repeated the commandment of " Thou shalt not kill ". The New Testament story

12707-483: The outbreak of war accepted that the fight was lost, and with Charles Trevelyan , Norman Angell and Ramsay MacDonald , formed the Union of Democratic Control to press for a more responsive foreign policy (he also resigned his candidature at this time). He was Secretary of the UDC until his death. The main demands of the UDC were: (1) that in future to prevent secret diplomacy there should be parliamentary control over foreign policy; (2) there should be negotiations after

12838-450: The outside of military recruiting offices or entering air force bases and hammering on military aircraft. Not all nonviolent resistance (sometimes also called civil resistance ) is based on a fundamental rejection of all violence in all circumstances. Many leaders and participants in such movements, while recognizing the importance of using non-violent methods in particular circumstances, have not been absolute pacifists. Sometimes, as with

12969-455: The pacifist, is always wrong." In a sense the philosophy is based on the idea that the ends do not justify the means. The word pacific denotes conciliatory. Pacifism may be based on moral principles (a deontological view) or pragmatism (a consequentialist view). Principled pacifism holds that at some point along the spectrum from war to interpersonal physical violence, such violence becomes morally wrong. Pragmatic pacifism holds that

13100-465: The pacifistic argument that a just person would not harm anyone. In Plato 's earlier work Crito Socrates asserts that it is not moral to return evil with further evil, an original moral conception, according to Gregory Vlastos , that undermines all justifications for war and violence. Several Roman writers rejected the militarism of Roman society and gave voice to anti-war sentiments, including Propertius , Tibullus and Ovid . The Stoic Seneca

13231-486: The party to oppose Neville Chamberlain 's policy of appeasement . The League of Nations attempted to play its role in ensuring world peace in the 1920s and 1930s. However, with the increasingly revisionist and aggressive behaviour of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan , it ultimately failed to maintain such a world order. Economic sanctions were used against states that committed aggression, such as those against Italy when it invaded Abyssinia , but there

13362-531: The population by force and began to campaign to expose the abuses. In collaboration with Roger Casement , Morel led a campaign against slavery in the Congo Free State , founded the Congo Reform Association and published the West African Mail . With the help of celebrities such as Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain , the movement successfully pressured the Belgian King Leopold II to sell

13493-572: The public, anti-war and anti- Pitt demonstrations convened and peace literature was widely published and disseminated. The first peace movements appeared in 1815–16. In the United States the first such movement was the New York Peace Society , founded in 1815 by the theologian David Low Dodge , and the Massachusetts Peace Society . It became an active organization, holding regular weekly meetings, and producing literature which

13624-409: The rights of Māori in 1848, and worked on Charles Dickens as opinion-former, with some success (as Dickens wrote to George Payne Rainsford James ). He was a perceptive analyst of the difficulties in reconciling the interests of indigenous people and settlers. Other campaigns included the case of a black man in the Cape Colony accused of stealing from a white man and punished by torture (1850),

13755-401: The same heroic simplicity in pursuing and proclaiming political truth." George Orwell , writing in 1946, described Morel as "heroic but rather forgotten man." Author Jasper Morel Fforde states that Morel is his great-grandfather. In assessing Morel's impact on the Congo, contemporary author Adam Hochschild —whose bestseller King Leopold's Ghost had revived Morel's reputation—wrote: Did

13886-437: The self-discipline of whites, had an uncontrolled sexuality and often wrote about that subject. Morel believed that because of the high infant mortality in the tropics Africans had evolved in such a way as to be obsessed with sex, to the exclusion of everything else, as they needed a high birth rate to maintain their numbers. Precisely because Morel believed in the uncontrolled sexuality of blacks, he considered it self-evident that

14017-522: The states involved. He wrote Morocco in Diplomacy (1912) to express his views on the issue. At this time he was also selected by the Liberal Party as a prospective House of Commons candidate for Birkenhead . As the tension grew in the run-up to World War I , Morel was again sympathetic to Germany, disinclined to stand by Belgium under German pressure, and opposed to the United Kingdom and France getting involved in war. He campaigned for neutrality but on

14148-458: The support of famous writers such as Joseph Conrad (whose Heart of Darkness was inspired by a voyage to the Congo Free State), Anatole France , Nobel laureates Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and John Galsworthy , Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle , civil rights activist Booker T. Washington , and Mark Twain . Conan Doyle wrote The Crime of the Congo in 1908, while Twain gave

14279-415: The terrible barbaric incarnation of a barbarous policy, embodied in a so-called peace treaty which puts the clock back 2,000 years". Morel wrote that "black savages" have uncontrolled sexual impulses that " must be satisfied upon the bodies of white women! " (emphasis in the original). The phrase that Morel coined to describe the alleged terror by Senegalese troops in the Rhineland was the " Black Horror on

14410-557: The theme of the futility of war and the slaughter of the youth by old fools were published, including, Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington , Erich Remarque 's translated All Quiet on the Western Front and Beverley Nichols 's expose Cry Havoc . A debate at the University of Oxford in 1933 on the motion 'one must fight for King and country' captured the changed mood when the motion was resoundingly defeated. Dick Sheppard established

14541-466: The title of which was "Black Scourge In Europe Sexual Horror Let Loose by France On Rhine Disappearance of Young German Girls". In it, Morel wrote that France is "thrusting her black savages into the heart of Germany" and that the "primitive African savages, the carriers of syphilis, have become a horror and a terror" to the Rhinelanders. In his article, Morel claimed that the Senegalese soldiers serving in

14672-519: The use of bonded labour of black children in the Transvaal Republic (1880), and, later continued protesting the exploitation of indigenous South Africans during the time preceding the Second Boer War (1899–1902), which, they said, was often perpetrated under a "guise of philanthropy and Christianity". In 1870 the APS bought Lennox Island (Prince Edward Island) on behalf of a community of

14803-520: The war with other democratic European countries in an attempt to form an organisation to help prevent future conflicts; (3) that at the end of the war the terms of peace should neither humiliate the defeated nation nor artificially rearrange frontiers, as this might provide a cause for future wars. The Union of Democratic Control became the most important of all the anti-war organisations in Britain, with membership reaching 650,000 by 1917. His political courage

14934-618: The war. After World War I's official end in 1918, peace movements across the continent and the United States renewed, gradually gaining popularity among young Europeans who grew up in the shadow of Europe's trauma over the Great War. Organizations formed in this period included the War Resisters' International , the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom , the No More War Movement ,

15065-472: The war. The former Kingdom of Hungary was stripped of more than two thirds of its territory and most of its population in the 1920 Treaty of Trianon . Morel portrayed Hungary as a victim of French rapacity that reduced it to "Hopeless, Heart-Breaking Bondage". As part of his general opposition to French foreign policy, Morel played a key role in launching the British-based part of the Black Shame campaign,

15196-497: Was 'nothing but the tool of the satiated imperialist powers'." Lansbury was eventually persuaded to resign as Labour leader by the non-pacifist wing of the party and was replaced by Clement Attlee . As the threat from Nazi Germany increased in the 1930s, the Labour Party abandoned its pacifist position and supported rearmament, largely as the result of the efforts of Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton , who by 1937 had also persuaded

15327-568: Was affiliated and which adopted his critical view of the Treaty of Versailles . Morel explained his decision to join the Independent Labour Party to a friend: I have long been gravitating towards the Socialist position—of course there is Socialism and Socialism, and mine is of the reasonable and moderate kind. When I look over my public efforts through the years, it seems to me that I have been

15458-531: Was assassinated by a nationalist fanatic on 31 July 1914. The national parties in the Second International increasingly supported their respective nations in war, and the International was dissolved in 1916. In 1915, the League of Nations Society was formed by British liberal leaders to promote a strong international organisation that could enforce the peaceful resolution of conflict. Later that year,

15589-581: Was born in the Avenue d'Eylau , Paris. His father, Edmond Pierre Marie Morel de Ville, was a French civil servant; his mother, Eliza Emmeline de Horne, was from an English Quaker family and landed gentry - the De Hornes of Stanway Hall. Edmond died when his son was four years old, leaving no pension, and Emmeline subsequently fell out with her late husband's family. As a consequence, Emmeline changed her name to Deville and raised her son on her own. To remove her son from

15720-560: Was damaging Elder Dempster's business. He came to be critical of the Foreign Office for not supporting the rights of Africans under colonial rule. His vision of Africa was influenced by the books of Mary Kingsley , an English traveller and writer, which showed sympathy for African peoples and a respect for different cultures that was very rare amongst Europeans at the time. Groups such as the Aborigines' Protection Society had already begun

15851-592: Was equivalent to the action of a domestic police force suppressing crime. In the 1960s, some pacifists associated with the New Left supported wars of national liberation and supported groups such as the Viet Cong and the Algerian FLN , arguing peaceful attempts to liberate such nations were no longer viable, and war was thus the only option. Advocacy of pacifism can be found far back in history and literature. During

15982-525: Was established, "to ensure the health and well-being and the sovereign, legal and religious rights of the indigenous peoples while also promoting the civilization of the indigenous people who were subjected under colonial powers". Other members brought experience from around the world: Saxe Bannister (Australia), Richard King (North America), John Philip (South Africa). The founders were, on King's account, Buxton, Hodgkin, William Allen , Henry Christy , Thomas Clarkson , and Joseph Sturge . Buxton, after

16113-509: Was expected to be appointed as Foreign Secretary in the government of Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, but MacDonald decided to serve as his own Foreign Secretary. Possibly in compensation, MacDonald led an attempt to nominate Morel for the Nobel Prize for Peace . In August 1924, Morel is believed to have persuaded MacDonald to recognise the communist government in the Soviet Union and nominations on

16244-602: Was known as a friend and supporter of Morel, was hanged for treason (he had contacted the Germans seeking support for Irish nationalism). Morel was even the victim of occasional physical assaults. On 22 August 1917 Morel's house was searched and evidence was discovered that he had sent a UDC pamphlet to Romain Rolland in Switzerland, a neutral country, which was a breach of the Defence of

16375-506: Was no will on the part of the principal League powers, Britain and France, to subordinate their interests to a multilateral process or to disarm at all themselves. The Spanish Civil War proved a major test for international pacifism, and the work of pacifist organisations (such as War Resisters' International and the Fellowship of Reconciliation ) and individuals (such as José Brocca and Amparo Poch ) in that arena has until recently been ignored or forgotten by historians, overshadowed by

16506-587: Was not entirely frowned upon throughout Europe. It was considered a political stance against costly capitalist-imperialist wars, a notion particularly popular in the British Liberal Party of the twentieth century. However, during the eras of World War One and especially World War Two , public opinion on the ideology split. Those against the Second World War, some argued, were not fighting against unnecessary wars of imperialism but instead acquiescing to

16637-483: Was praised by people such as Bertrand Russell and the writer Romain Rolland , but his leading role in the pacifist movement exposed him to violent attacks led by the pro-war press. He was pictured as an agent of Germany in the Daily Express , a newspaper that also listed details of future UDC meetings and encouraged its readers to attend and break them up. The accusation gained some credibility when Roger Casement, who

16768-464: Was sent up country by the Foreign Office for an investigation. Casement was outraged by the evidence of atrocities that he discovered and wrote a blistering report in 1904 , discussing its contents with the London press even before its official release. Morel was introduced to Casement by their mutual friend Herbert Ward just before the publication of the report and realised that in Casement he had found

16899-590: Was severely critical of the Treaty of Versailles and warned that it would lead to another war. He particularly opposed the assignment of "war guilt" exclusively to the Central Powers as well as the mandate system for former German colonies. The latter theme became the focus of his 1920 book The Black Man's Burden . He did not give up his career as a journalist, becoming director of the UDC's journal, originally titled The UDC , later Foreign Affairs: A Journal of International Understanding . Foreign Affairs became

17030-564: Was spread as far as Gibraltar and Malta, describing the horrors of war and advocating pacificism on Christian grounds. The London Peace Society (also known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace) was formed in 1816 to promote permanent and universal peace by the philanthropist William Allen . In the 1840s, British women formed "Olive Leaf Circles", groups of around 15 to 20 women, to discuss and promote pacifist ideas. The peace movement began to grow in influence by

17161-611: Was very anti-French because of his opposition to the Treaty of Versailles but also the nature of France's mission civilisatrice ("civilizing mission") in Africa, with any African willing to embrace the French language and culture becoming French and theoretically the equal of whites, threatened to upend Morel's beliefs in the essential biological inferiority of blacks. Morel believed that the Africans were committing outrageous crimes against Germans in

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