UNITED STATES SENATE

FUNDAMENTAL PEACE IDEAS

including

THE WESTPHALIAN PEACE TREATY
(1648)

and

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
(1919)

in connection with

International Psychology and Revolutions

By ARTHUR MAC DONALD
Anthropologist: Washington, D. C.

(Reprinted from the Congressional Record July 1, 1919,
United States Senate)

WASHINGTON
1919

125746—19572

The Westphalian Peace Treaty (1648) and the League of Nations (1919) in Connection With International Psychology and Revolutions.

BY ARTHUR MAC DONALD,

Anthropologist, Washington, D. C, and Honorary President
of the International Congress of Criminal
Anthropology of Europe.

INTRODUCTION.

The League of Nations may only be a first step in the direction of permanent peace, yet not a few persons seem doubtful of its utility. However, the league may be the lesser evil as compared with the old régime, which appears to have resulted in total failure after a very long and fair trial.

Whatever be the ultimate outcome of the league and of the problems to be solved, the one encouraging thing is that all the people are thinking seriously on the subject and longing for some way to stop war. It may be true that lasting peace can only be secured when both people and leaders (sometimes the people lead the leaders) realize the necessity of peace and the senselessness of war. But to reach such a happy realization of the truth what are we, the people, to do now? Already the discussions of the league (pro and con) have fertilized the soil; the minds of the people are open as never before; and now is the supreme moment to sow peace seeds. The sooner, more thoroughly, and wider they are scattered, the better. In this way we may be able to so impress peace ideas upon everyone, as to avoid the terrible necessity of a future war, in which both sides become exhausted, as in the Thirty Years' War, which would be a much more horrible war than the present war.

To escape such a catastrophe and make a league of nations or any kind of peace arrangements endure is preeminently an educational problem, and consists mainly in repeatedly filling the minds of the people, old and young, everywhere with fundamental peace conceptions. Shall we not begin at once and persist in doing this until political wars become as impossible in the future as religious wars are now?

SUGGESTIONS OF THE PEACE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.[1]

The conference of nations that has taken place around the peace table at Paris is doubtless the most important of any in history. One reason is the fact that the plan the conference has decided to carry out will necessarily concern most all countries of the world. For railroads, steamships, aeroplanes, telegraphs, telephones, and wireless telegraphy, as never before, have made communication between nations so easy, quick, and direct that distance is almost eliminated, enabling the whole world to think, reason, and act at the same time, and to be influenced as one human solidarity.

There seems to be a strong desire in all lands that the peace conference will make future wars not only improbable but practically impossible. But how can this be done? For years countless peace plans and theories have been proposed filling volumes of books, but they are mainly of a speculative nature. Since theoretical grounds have proved inadequate, is there then any experience in the history of the world which can be made a basis for permanent peace? Is there, for instance, any kind of war that has resulted in doing away with itself permanently? The answer would point to the Thirty Years' War, closing with the peace of Westphalia (1648), which seems to have put an end to all religious wars.

How, then, does it happen that the peace treaty of Westphalia, of all the treaties in the world, is the only one that has succeeded in stopping all religious wars? We are certainly dealing here with a phenomenal fact in history. The writer has been unable to find any discussion of this phase of the matter. It would therefore seem of interest and importance, especially at the present time, to make a brief anthropological study of the Thirty Years' War which led to such an exceptional and successful treaty.

NEW FIELD FOR ANTHROPOLOGY.

From the anthropological point of view, history can be looked upon as a vast laboratory for the purpose of studying humanity and assisting in its progress. In the past anthropology has concerned itself mainly with savage and prehistoric man, but it is due time that it take up the more important and much more difficult subject of civilized man, not only as an individual but as an organization[2] or nation, or group of nations. It is true that other departments of knowledge, such as history and political science, have pursued these fields, but unfortunately not always in the scientific sense; to use an ancient pun, it is his story, rather than all the facts. Anthropology in this new field should seek to establish only those truths which can be based upon facts. There are doubtless many very important truths which can not be established by scientific methods, but perhaps they can be better treated in political science, psychology, ethics, philosophy, and theology.

In the present inquiry the anthropological problem is this: As religious wars are admitted to be the most intense, most idealistic, and most sacrificial of all wars, and therefore most difficult to stop, can it be ascertained just how the Thirty Years' War, culminating in the peace of Westphalia, brought about the end of all religious wars? This might suggest how all political wars may be made to cease. If the seventeenth century accomplished the more difficult task, the peace conference at Paris ought to succeed in the less difficult one. If the twentieth century prides itself on being superior in diplomacy, practical statesmanship, and general mental caliber, it will now have an opportunity to show such superiority by formulating a treaty which will make all future political wars not only improbable but impossible.

PRINCIPLES OF A PEACE CONFERENCE.

In following the present peace conference and comparing it with the peace congress of Westphalia, it may be well to mention a few of the principles of such congresses in general. In a treaty of peace there are first of all the usual articles, as, e.g., a declaration that peace is restored and amnesty clauses, including restitution of such conquests as are not intended to be retained, and of rights suspended by the war. Also there are provisions to remove the causes out of which the war arose, redress grievances, and prevent their recurrence. This is the most essential thing for the congress to do. Then there is the indemnity article to make satisfactory reparation for injury sustained and cost of war.