The Dutch League of Nations Union Mobilizing Internationalism

The League of Nations encouraged the creation of a flourishing peace movement. Pacifist organisations blossomed on a religious, political and humanitarian basis, and became transnationally organized. From the years of optimism in the wake of World War I to the growing crisis from the end of the 1920s, the peace movement had to respond to rapidly changing international politics.

Dutch League of Nations Union
This chapter assesses the circumstances under which the Dutch League of Nations Union, the ‘Vereeniging voor Volkenbond en Vrede’, used different types of arguments in order to forge public opinion in favour of the League of Nations. It demonstrates that international politics profoundly influenced both the type of argumentation and the nature of the Vereeniging: as the international political situation declined, moral arguments prevailed over pragmatic arguments and the Dutch peace movement changed its character accordingly. As such, it suggests that the Dutch peace movement was more internationally oriented than the literature has assumed until now.