In the Cause of Humanity

"Focusing on case studies such as the international fight against the slave trade (1807-1890), the military interventions of the major European powers on humanitarian emergency aid for Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire (1827-1878) and the intervention of the United States in the Cuban War of Independence (1898), the book investigates the emergence of the military practice and related legal debates on the protection of humanitarian norms by violent means. The central result of the book is that the idea of humanitarian intervention established itself as a recognized instrument in international politics during this period. In this respect, the international fight against the slave trade became the primal type of this new practice and played a key role in the emergence of a new understanding of humanitarian interventionism. As a result, guidelines under international law were developed, which served as justification for military intervention in various crisis regions of the world. Thus, the "long 19th century" can be indeed described as the genuine "century of humanitarian intervention", in which military interventionism under the banner of humanity was significantly intertwined with colonial and imperial projects"--