Peace and Truce of God The first mass peace movements were the Peace of God (, proclaimed in AD 989 at the
Council of Charroux) and the Truce of God, which was proclaimed in 1027. The Peace of God was spearheaded by bishops as a response to increasing violence against monasteries after the fall of the
Carolingian dynasty. The movement was promoted at a number of subsequent church councils, including
Charroux (989 and c. 1028),
Narbonne (990),
Limoges (994 and 1031),
Poitiers (c. 1000), and
Bourges (1038). The Truce of God sought to restrain violence by limiting the number of days of the week and times of the year when the nobility was able to employ violence. These peace movements "set the foundations for modern European peace movements."
Peace churches '' (1847), by
Edward Hicks The
Reformation gave rise to a number of Protestant sects beginning in the 16th century, including the
peace churches. Foremost among these churches were the Religious Society of Friends (
Quakers),
Amish,
Mennonites, and the
Church of the Brethren. The Quakers were prominent advocates of pacifism, who had repudiated all forms of violence and adopted a pacifist interpretation of
Christianity as early as 1660. Throughout the 18th-century wars in which Britain participated, the Quakers maintained a principled commitment
not to serve in an army or militia and not pay the alternative £10 fine.
18th century The major 18th-century peace movements were products of two schools of thought which coalesced at the end of the century. One, rooted in the secular
Age of Enlightenment, promoted peace as the rational antidote to the world's ills; the other was part of the
evangelical religious revival which had played an important role in the campaign for the
abolition of slavery. Representatives of the former included
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in ''Extrait du Projet de Paix Perpetuelle de Monsieur l'Abbe Saint-Pierre
(1756); Immanuel Kant in Thoughts on Perpetual Peace'', and
Jeremy Bentham, who proposed the formation of a peace association in 1789. One representative of the latter was
William Wilberforce; Wilberforce thought that by following the Christian ideals of peace and brotherhood, strict limits should be imposed on British involvement in the
French Revolutionary Wars.
19th century , a prominent advocate of pacifism During the
Napoleonic Wars (1793–1814), no formal peace movement was established in Britain until hostilities ended. A significant grassroots peace movement, animated by universalist ideals, emerged from the perception that Britain fought in a reactionary role and the increasingly visible impact of the war on the nation's welfare in the form of higher taxes and casualties. Sixteen peace petitions to Parliament were signed by members of the public; anti-war and anti-
Pitt demonstrations were held, and peace literature was widely disseminated. The first formal peace movements appeared in 1815 and 1816. The first movement in the United States was the
New York Peace Society, founded in 1815 by theologian
David Low Dodge, followed by the
Massachusetts Peace Society. The groups merged into the
American Peace Society, which held weekly meetings and produced literature that was spread as far as
Gibraltar and
Malta describing the horrors of war and advocating pacifism on Christian grounds. The
London Peace Society, also known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, was formed by philanthropist
William Allen in 1816 to promote permanent, universal peace. During the 1840s, British women formed 15-to-20 person "Olive Leaf Circles" to discuss and promote pacifist ideas. The London Peace Society's influence began to grow during the mid-nineteenth century. Under
Elihu Burritt and
Henry Richard, the society convened the first
International Peace Congress in London in 1843. The congress decided on two goals: to achieve the ideal of peaceable
arbitration of the affairs of nations, and to create an international institution to achieve it. Richard became the society's full-time secretary in 1850; he held the position for the next 40 years, and became known as the "Apostle of Peace". He helped secure one of the peace movement's earliest victories by securing a commitment for arbitration from the
Great Powers in the
Treaty of Paris (1856) at the end of the
Crimean War. Wracked by
social upheaval, the first peace congress on the European continent was held in
Brussels in 1848; a second was held in
Paris a year later. By the 1850s, these movements were becoming well organized in the major countries of Europe and North America, reaching middle-class activists beyond the range of the earlier religious connections. Support decreased during the resurgence of militarism during the
American Civil War and the
Crimean War, the movement began to spread across Europe and infiltrate fledgling
working-class socialist movements. In 1870,
Randal Cremer formed the
Workman's Peace Association in London. Cremer and the French economist
Frédéric Passy were the founding fathers of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union, the first international organization for the arbitration of conflicts, in 1889. The
National Peace Council was founded after the 17th
Universal Peace Congress in London in July and August 1908. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the novelist Baroness
Bertha von Suttner (1843–1914) after 1889 became a leading figure in the peace movement with the publication of her pacifist novel,
Die Waffen nieder! (
Lay Down Your Arms!). The book was published in 37 editions and translated into 12 languages. She helped organize the
German Peace Society and became known internationally as the editor of the international pacifist journal
Die Waffen nieder! In 1905 she became the first woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Mahatma Gandhi and nonviolent resistance , leader of the
Indian independence movement and advocate of
nonviolent resistance Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) was one of the 20th century's most influential spokesmen for peace and non-violence, and
Gandhism is his body of ideas and principles Gandhi promoted. One of its most important concepts is nonviolent resistance. According to M. M. Sankhdher, Gandhism is not a systematic position in metaphysics or political philosophy but a political creed, an economic doctrine, a religious outlook, a moral precept, and a humanitarian worldview. An effort not to systematize wisdom but to transform society, it is based on faith in the goodness of human nature. Gandhi was strongly influenced by the pacifism of
Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy wrote
A Letter to a Hindu in 1908, which said that the Indian people could overthrow colonial rule only through
passive resistance. In 1909, Gandhi and Tolstoy began a correspondence about the practical and theological applications of
nonviolence. Gandhi saw himself as a disciple of Tolstoy because they agreed on the issues of opposition to state authority and colonialism, loathed violence, and preached non-resistance. However, they differed on political strategy. Gandhi called for political involvement; a nationalist, he was prepared to use nonviolent force but was also willing to compromise. Gandhi was the first person to apply the principle of nonviolence on a large scale. The concepts of nonviolence (
ahimsa) and
nonresistance have a long history in Indian religious and philosophical thought, and have had a number of revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. Gandhi explained his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography,
The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Some of his remarks were widely quoted, such as "There are many causes that I am prepared to die for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for." Gandhi later realized that a high level of nonviolence required great faith and courage, which not everyone possessed. He advised that everyone need not strictly adhere to nonviolence, especially if it was a cover for cowardice: "Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence." Gandhi came under political fire for his criticism of those who attempted to achieve independence through violence. He responded, "There was a time when people listened to me because I showed them how to give fight to the British without arms when they had no arms ... but today I am told that my non-violence can be of no avail against the Hindu–Moslem riots; therefore, people should arm themselves for self-defense." Gandhi's views were criticized in Britain during the
Battle of Britain. He told the British people in 1940, "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions ... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves man, woman, and child to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
World War I Although the onset of the
First World War was generally greeted with enthusiastic patriotism across Europe, peace groups were active in condemning the war. Many
socialist groups and movements were
antimilitarist. They argued that by its nature, war was a type of governmental coercion of the
working class for the benefit of capitalist elites. In 1915, the
League of Nations Society was formed by British
liberal leaders to promote a strong international organization which could enforce peaceful conflict resolution. Later that year, the
League to Enforce Peace was established in the United States to promote similar goals.
Hamilton Holt published "The Way to Disarm: A Practical Proposal", an editorial in the
Independent (his New York City weekly magazine) on September 28, 1914. The editorial called for an international organization to agree on the arbitration of disputes and guarantee the territorial integrity of its members by maintaining military forces sufficient to defeat those of any non-member. The ensuing debate among prominent internationalists modified Holt's plan to align it more closely with proposals in Great Britain put forth by
Viscount James Bryce, a former ambassador from the U.K. to the U.S. These and other initiatives were pivotal to the attitude changes which gave rise to the
League of Nations after the war. In addition to the peace churches, groups which protested against the war included the
Woman's Peace Party (organized in 1915 and led by
Jane Addams), the
International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) (also organized in 1915), the
American Union Against Militarism, the
Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the
American Friends Service Committee.
Jeannette Rankin (the first woman elected to Congress) was another advocate of pacifism, and the only person to vote "no" on the U.S. entrance into both world wars.
Henry Ford Peace promotion was a major activity of American automaker and philanthropist
Henry Ford (1863–1947). He set up a $1 million fund to promote peace, and published numerous antiwar articles and ads in hundreds of newspapers. According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. The losing side in the war typically suffered heavy damage. Small business were especially hurt, for it takes years to recuperate. He argued in many newspaper articles that capitalism would discourage warfare because, "If every man who manufactures an article would make the very best he can in the very best way at the very lowest possible price the world would be kept out of war, for commercialists would not have to search for outside markets which the other fellow covets." Ford admitted that munitions makers enjoyed wars, but he argued the typical capitalist wanted to avoid wars to concentrate on manufacturing and selling what people wanted, hiring good workers, and generating steady long-term profits. In late 1915, Ford sponsored and funded a
Peace Ship to Europe, to help end the raging World War. He brought 170 peace activists;
Jane Addams was a key supporter who became too ill to join him. Ford talked to President Woodrow Wilson about the mission but had no government support. His group met with peace activists in neutral Sweden and the Netherlands. A target of much ridicule, Ford left the ship as soon as it reached Sweden.
Interwar period children's refuge in the French Pyrenees
Organizations A popular slogan was "
merchants of death" alleging the promotion of war by armaments makers, based on a widely read nonfiction exposé
Merchants of Death (1934), by
H. C. Engelbrecht and
F. C. Hanighen. The immense loss of life during the First World War for what became known as futile reasons caused a sea-change in public attitudes to militarism. Organizations formed at this time included
War Resisters' International, the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the
No More War Movement, and the
Peace Pledge Union (PPU). The
League of Nations convened several disarmament conferences, such as the
Geneva Conference. They achieved very little. However the
Washington conference of 1921–1922 did successfully limit naval armaments of the major powers during the 1920s. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom helped convince the U.S. Senate to launch an influential investigation by the
Nye Committee to the effect that the munitions industry and Wall Street financiers had promoted American entry into World War I to cover their financial investments. The immediate result was a series of
laws imposing neutrality on American business if other countries went to war.
Novels and films Pacifism and revulsion to war were popular sentiments in 1920s Britain. A number of novels and poems about the futility of war and the slaughter of youth by old fools were published, including
Death of a Hero by
Richard Aldington,
Erich Maria Remarque's
All Quiet on the Western Front and
Beverley Nichols'
Cry Havoc! A 1933
University of Oxford debate on the proposed motion that "one must fight for King and country" reflected the changed mood when the motion was defeated.
Dick Sheppard established the
Peace Pledge Union in 1934, renouncing war and aggression. The idea of
collective security was also popular; instead of outright pacifism, the public generally exhibited a determination to stand up to aggression with economic sanctions and multilateral negotiations.
Spanish Civil War The
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was a major test of international pacifism, pacifist organizations (such as War Resisters' International and the
Fellowship of Reconciliation), and individuals such as
José Brocca and
Amparo Poch. Activists on the left often put their pacifism on pause in order to help the war effort of the Spanish government. Shortly after the war ended,
Simone Weil (despite volunteering for service on the Republican side) published
The Iliad or the Poem of Force, which has been described as a pacifist manifesto. In response to the threat of fascism, pacifist thinkers such as
Richard B. Gregg devised plans for a campaign of
nonviolent resistance in the event of a fascist invasion or takeover.
World War II , Berkeley At the beginning of
World War II, pacifist and anti-war sentiment declined in nations affected by the war. The communist-controlled
American Peace Mobilization reversed its anti-war activism, however, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Although mainstream
isolationist groups such as the
America First Committee declined after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, a number of small religious and socialist groups continued their opposition to the war.
Bertrand Russell said that the necessity of defeating
Adolf Hitler and the
Nazis was a unique circumstance in which war was not the worst possible evil, and called his position "relative pacifism".
Albert Einstein wrote, "I loathe all armies and any kind of violence, yet I'm firmly convinced that at present these hateful weapons offer the only effective protection." French pacifists
André and Magda Trocmé helped to conceal hundreds of Jews fleeing the Nazis in the village of
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. After the war, the Trocmés were declared
Righteous Among the Nations. and Norwegian pacifist
Olaf Kullmann (who remained active during the German occupation) died in concentration camps. Austrian farmer
Franz Jägerstätter was executed in 1943 for refusing to serve in the
Wehrmacht.
Conscientious objectors and war
tax resisters existed in both world wars, and the United States government allowed sincere objectors to serve in non-combat military roles. However,
draft resisters who refused any cooperation with the war effort often spent much of each war in federal prisons. During World War II, pacifist leaders such as
Dorothy Day and
Ammon Hennacy of the
Catholic Worker Movement urged young Americans not to enlist in the military. Peace movements have become widespread throughout the world since World War II, and their previously-radical beliefs are now a part of mainstream political discourse.
Anti-nuclear movement Peace movements emerged in Japan, combining in 1954 to form the Japanese Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. Japanese opposition to the Pacific nuclear-weapons tests was widespread, and an "estimated 35 million signatures were collected on petitions calling for bans on nuclear weapons". In the United Kingdom, the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held an inaugural public meeting at
Central Hall Westminster on 17 February 1958 which was attended by five thousand people. After the meeting, several hundred demonstrated at
Downing Street. The CND advocated the unconditional renunciation of the use, production, or dependence upon nuclear weapons by Britain, and the creation of a general disarmament convention. Although the country was progressing towards de-nuclearization, the CND declared that Britain should halt the flight of nuclear-armed planes, end nuclear testing, stop using missile bases, and not provide nuclear weapons to any other country. The first
Aldermaston March, organized by the CND, was held on
Easter 1958. Several thousand people marched for four days from
Trafalgar Square in London to the
Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, near
Aldermaston in
Berkshire, to demonstrate their opposition to nuclear weapons. The Aldermaston marches continued into the late 1960s, when tens of thousands of people participated in the four-day marches. but the resolution was overturned the following year and did not appear on later agendas. The experience disillusioned many anti-nuclear protesters who had previously put their hopes in the Labour Party. Two years after the CND's formation, president
Bertrand Russell resigned to form the
Committee of 100; the committee planned to conduct sit-down demonstrations in central London and at nuclear bases around the UK. Russell said that the demonstrations were necessary because the press had become indifferent to the CND and large-scale, direct action could force the government to change its policy. One hundred prominent people, many in the arts, attached their names to the organization. Large numbers of demonstrators were essential to their strategy but police violence, the arrest and imprisonment of demonstrators, and preemptive arrests for conspiracy diminished support. Although several prominent people took part in sit-down demonstrations (including Russell, whose imprisonment at age 89 was widely reported), many of the 100 signatories were inactive. during the
Cuban Missile Crisis Since the Committee of 100 had a non-hierarchical structure and no formal membership, many local groups assumed the name. Although this helped civil disobedience to spread, it produced policy confusion; as the 1960s progressed, a number of Committee of 100 groups protested against social issues not directly related to war and peace. In 1961, at the height of the
Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by
Women Strike for Peace marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. It was the century's largest national women's
peace protest. In 1958,
Linus Pauling and his wife presented the United Nations with a petition signed by more than 11,000 scientists calling for an end to
nuclear weapons testing. The 1961
Baby Tooth Survey, co-founded by Dr.
Louise Reiss, indicated that above-ground nuclear testing posed significant public health risks in the form of
radioactive fallout spread primarily via milk from cows which ate contaminated grass. Public pressure and the research results then led to a moratorium on above ground nuclear weapons testing, followed by the
Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed in 1963 by
John F. Kennedy,
Nikita Khrushchev, and
Harold Macmillan. On the day that the treaty went into force, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded Pauling the
Nobel Peace Prize: "Linus Carl Pauling, who ever since 1946 has campaigned ceaselessly, not only against nuclear weapons tests, not only against the spread of these armaments, not only against their very use but against all warfare as a means of solving international conflicts." Pauling founded the
International League of Humanists in 1974; he was president of the scientific advisory board of the
World Union for Protection of Life, and a signatory of the
Dubrovnik-Philadelphia Statement. missiles in Europe On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's
Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the Cold War
arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear
protest and the largest political demonstration in American history. International Day of Nuclear-disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983, at 50 locations across the United States. In 1986, hundreds of people walked from
Los Angeles to
Washington, D.C. in the
Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. Many
Nevada Desert Experience protests and peace camps were held at the
Nevada Test Site during the 1980s and 1990s. Forty thousand anti-nuclear and anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York on May 1, 2005, 60 years after the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The protest was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades. The
International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, held in
Oslo in February 2008, was organized by the
government of Norway, the
Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the
Hoover Institute. The conference, entitled "Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons", was intended to build consensus between states with and without nuclear weapons in the context of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In May 2010, 25,000 people (including members of peace organizations and 1945 atomic-bomb survivors) marched for about two kilometers from lower
Manhattan to United Nations headquarters calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Vietnam War protests on October 21, 1967. The anti-Vietnam War peace movement began during the 1960s in the United States, opposing U.S. involvement in the
Vietnam War. Some within the movement advocated a unilateral withdrawal of American forces from
South Vietnam. Opposition to the Vietnam War aimed to unite groups opposed to U.S. anti-communism,
imperialism,
capitalism and
colonialism, such as
New Left groups and the
Catholic Worker Movement. Others, such as
Stephen Spiro, opposed the war based on the
just war theory. In 1965, the movement began to gain national prominence. Provocative actions by police and protesters turned anti-war demonstrations in Chicago at the
1968 Democratic National Convention into a riot. News reports of American military abuses such as the 1968
My Lai massacre brought attention (and support) to the anti-war movement, which continued to expand for the duration of the conflict. High-profile opposition to the Vietnam war turned to street protests in an effort to turn U.S. political opinion against the war. The protests gained momentum from the
civil rights movement, which had organized to oppose
segregation laws. They were fueled by a growing network of
underground newspapers and large rock festivals, such as
Woodstock. Opposition to the war moved from college campuses to middle-class suburbs, government institutions, and
labor unions.
Europe in 1980s A very large peace movement emerged in East and West Europe in the 1980s, primarily in opposition to American plans to fight the Cold War by stationing nuclear missiles in Europe. Moscow supported the movement behind the scenes, but did not control it. However, communist-sponsored peace movements in Eastern Europe metamorphosed into genuine peace movements calling not only for détente, but for democracy. According to Hania Fedorowicz, they played an important role in East Germany and other countries in resurrecting civil society, and helped instigate the successful 1989 peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe. ==Peace movements by country==