In the Cause of Humanity
A History of Humanitarian Intervention in the Long Nineteenth Century
Human Rights in History Series

In the Cause of Humanity is a major new history of the emergence of the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention during the nineteenth century when the question of whether, when and how the international community should react to violations of humanitarian norms and humanitarian crises first emerged as a key topic of controversy and debate. Fabian Klose investigates the emergence of legal debates on the protection of humanitarian norms by violent means, revealing how military intervention under the banner of humanitarianism became closely intertwined with imperial and colonial projects. Through case studies including the international fight against the slave trade, the military interventions under the banner of humanitarian aid for Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire, and the intervention of the United States in the Cuban War of Independence, he shows how the idea of humanitarian intervention established itself as a recognized instrument in international politics and international law.

Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Interventionism and humanitarianism under the sign of internationalism; 2. The struggle against the Atlantic slave trade and the emergence of a humanitarian understanding of intervention; 3. Humanitarian intervention and its solidification as an imperial and colonial practice; Epilogue: Perspectives on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; Bibliography; Index.

Fabian Klose is Professor of International History and Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Cologne. He is the author of Human Rights in the Shadow of Colonial Violence (2013), and Editor of The Emergence of Humanitarian Intervention (2016) and Humanity. A History of European Concepts in Practice (2016). The German edition of In the Cause of Humanity received the Carl Erdmann Prize of the German Historical Association 2018 and Geisteswissenschaften International 2020.