Editing Peace congress

{{short description|Forum to carry out dispute resolution in international affairs}}

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The genesis of the idea of a [[meeting]] of representatives of different [[nation]]s to obtain by peaceful arbitration a settlement of differences has been traced back as far as 1623 in modern history, to a French monk, [[Émeric Crucé]], who wrote a work entitled "The New Cyneas", a discourse showing the opportunities and the means for establishing a general [[peace]] and [[liberty of conscience]] to all the world and addressed to the monarch and the sovereign princes of the time. He proposed that a city, preferably [[Venice]], should be selected where all the powers had ambassadors and that there should be a [[world government|universal]] union, including all [[people]]s. He suggested careful arrangement as to priority, giving the first place to the pope.

The concept of a peaceful community of [[nation]]s had also been outlined in 1795, when [[Immanuel Kant]]’s ''Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch''<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/kant/kant1.htm |last=Kant |first=Immanuel |publisher=Mount Holyoke College| title=Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch|access-date=2008-05-16}}</ref> outlined the idea of a league of nations that would control conflict and promote peace between states.<ref>Skirbekk and Gilje 2001, p. 288</ref>

The forerunner of the League of Nations, the [[Inter-Parliamentary Union]] (IPU), was formed by peace activists [[William Randal Cremer]] and [[Frédéric Passy]] in 1889. The organization was international in scope with a third of the members of [[parliament]], in the 24 countries with parliaments, serving as members of the IPU by 1914. Its aims were to encourage governments to solve international disputes by peaceful means and arbitration and annual conferences were held to help governments refine the process of international arbitration. The IPU's structure consisted of a Council headed by a President which would later be reflected in the structure of the League.<ref>{{Cite web | title =Before the League of Nations | publisher = The United Nations Office at Geneva | url =http://www.unog.ch/80256EE60057D930/(httpPages)/B5B92952225993B0C1256F2D00393560?OpenDocument | access-date =2008-06-14}}</ref>

In 1881, the [[President of the United States]] invited the independent countries of North and South America to meet in a general congress at [[Washington, D.C.]], on 24 November 1882, "for the purpose of considering and discussing methods of preventing war between the nations of America". This meeting did not take place owing to a variety of reasons, but subsequently, by virtue of an [[Act of Congress of the United States]] an invitation was issued by the president to Mexico, the Central and South American Republics, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Brazil to join in a conference to be held in the city of Washington, the project being to consider:

# Measures tending to preserve the peace and promote the prosperity of the South American States;

# measures looking to the formation of an American Customs Union;

# the establishment of regular and frequent communication between the various countries;

# the establishment of a uniform system of customs regulations, invoices, [[sanitation of ships]], and [[quarantine]];

# the adoption of a uniform system of [[weights and measures]], and of laws to protect patent rights, copyrights, and trade marks, and for the extradition of criminals;

# the adoption of a common silver coin;

# the adoption of a definite plan of arbitration of all questions, disputes, and differences; and

# such other subjects relating to the welfare of the several States as might be presented by any of them.

* 3rd congress: [[Lausanne]] (1869)

A series of international peace congresses called Universal Peace Congress (French: Congrès universel de la paix) took place between 1889 and 1939.<ref name=listofUPCs>{{cite web|title=Peace Congress|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~nobel/peacecongress.html|publisher=India University Bloomington|access-date=11 January 2016}}</ref>

* 2nd congress: [[London]] (1890)<ref>{{Citation |title = Proceedings of the Universal peace congress, held in the Westminster Town hall, London, from 14th to 19th July, 1890 |year = 1890 |publisher = Pub. at the office of the Congress |url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001153841 |publication-date = 1890}}</ref>

* 5th congress: [[Chicago]] (1893)<ref>{{Citation |title = Official report of the fifth Universal Peace Congress held at Chicago, United States of America, August 14 to 20, 1893 |publisher = The American peace society |url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006587024 |publication-date = 1893 }}</ref>

* 6th congress: [[Antwerp]] (1894)<ref>{{Citation |title = Bulletin officiel du VIme Congrès international de la paix tenu à Anvers (Belgique) du 29 août au 1r septembre 1894 |year = 1895 |publisher = Impr. veuve de Backer |url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008681456 |publication-date = 1895 }}</ref>

* 10th congress: [[Glasgow]] (1901)[https://archive.org/details/proceedingstent00berngoog]

* 13th congress: [[Boston]] (1904).<ref>{{Cite web | title =Official Report -- The 13th Universal Peace Congress| publisher = Cornwell University Library| url =https://archive.org/stream/cu31924005213818/cu31924005213818_djvu.txt | access-date =2011-09-04}}</ref> Speakers included [[Jane Addams]] and [[William James]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Jane Addams and William James on Alternatives to War |author= Linda Schott |journal= Journal of the History of Ideas |volume= 54 |year=1993 |issue= 2 |pages= 241–254 |doi= 10.2307/2709981 |jstor= 2709981 }}</ref>

* 17th congress: [[London]] (1908)<ref>{{Citation |title = Official report of the seventeenth Universal Congress of Peace, held at Caxton Hall, Westminster, London, July 27th to August 1st, 1908 |year = 1909 |publisher = The National Council of Peace Societies |url = http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007693318 |publication-date = 1908 }}</ref>

* ''Congrès mondial des partisans de la paix'', Paris 1949

* [[International Peace Conference]], London,10 December 2005)

* [[Peace Society]]

* [[List of peace activists]]

**Scott, ''Text of the Peace Conference at The Hague 1907-1909''

* [https://archive.org/details/proceedingstent00berngoog Transcript of the Proceedings of the Tenth Universal Peace Congress, Glasgow, 1901]

{{Peace}}

{{Anti-war}}

[[Category:Peace mechanisms|Congress]]