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.
Introduction: it is not the neutrals or lukewarms that make history; 1. Neutrality on the eve of the industrial age; 2. Neutrality, neutralisation and the Concert of Europe; 3. The neutrals' war: Britain and the global implications of the Crimean War; 4. How to be neutral: negotiating neutrality in the wars of nationhood, 1859-1872; 5. Neutrality as an international and patriotic ideal; 6. Regulating neutrality from The Hague to The Hague, 1898-1907; 7. Neutral no more: neutrality and the origins of the First World War; Conclusion: international law's 'finest and most fragile flower'; Bibliography; Index.