The Hague's War, 1914-1918: British and American Newspaper References to The Hague During the First World War

Abstract

As with many events that occurred in the decades preceding 1914, the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907 are often viewed through the lens of the Great War. It is because the First World War occurred so soon after the meetings at The Hague that much of the analysis of the conferences is focused on their 'failure'. Examining the conferences through this simplistic success-failure framework conceals contemporaries' engagement with them. The proceedings and conventions of the Hague conferences of 1899 and 1907 gave the public conversation about war and peace a coherency that continued throughout the First World War. Historians have not studied the continued relevance of The Hague in the public sphere during the war, and this thesis examines how The Hague was represented in British and American newspapers to reveal contemporary views on issues of war, peace and international organisation. The thesis provides a series of case studies in which British and American newspaper coverage during key periods of the war is examined, and argues that despite the conflict occurring on a scale and in a manner unforeseen by the conferences' delegates, Britons and Americans turned to the established framework The Hague provided to understand it. Between 1914 and 1918, The Hague determined the way in which contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean evaluated the behaviour of belligerents and neutrals, and highlighted ways that war might be avoided in the future. The Hague underpinned ideas of internationalism, which became an important concept in the post-war years for both countries. The Hague also defined the international law of war and shaped perceptions of international justice and civilisation. Above all, I argue that The Hague was utilised as a common framework of reference within the political debate concerning Britain's and the United States' future place in the world. Examining British and American newspapers' references to The Hague allows us to recapture the sophisticated contemporary debates about the war's meaning and conduct, which have largely been omitted from historians' accounts of the conflict.