Internationalism Toward Diplomatic Crisis: The Second International and French, German and Italian Socialists

ISBN-13: 9783030740863 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Elisa Marcobelli

Opis

This book analyzes how the Second International reacted to international diplomatic crises and what was the attitude of French, German and Italian socialists between 1889 and 1915, the year in which Italy entered the World War. This book shows that the Second International became over the years more and more involved in the fight against war and learnt to respond to situations of diplomatic crisis. An example of this is the fact that its last congress before the outbreak of the First World War, the Basel Congress of 1912, was nothing less than a great international socialist demonstration of opposition to war. However, the fact that France, Germany or Italy were involved in a diplomatic crisis hindered the International's ability to respond effectively to it. For all these factors, the attitude of the International is very different from one crisis to another.

Spis treści

1.     Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. General introduction

1.2. Development of the research

1.3. Socialism in the three countries

1.3.1.     France

1.3.2.     Germany

1.3.3.     Italy

1.4. Time frame of the research

1.5. Historiographic framework

1.6. Sources

2      Chapter 2. Creating a sense of community: the II International between 1889 and 1900

2.1  The II International, its practices, its opposition to war

2.2  Paris 1889

2.3  Brussels 1891

2.4  Zurich 1893

2.5  London 1896

2.6  The first challenge: the Fachoda crisis (1898)

2.6.1       A “war of nerves”

2.6.2       International reactions

2.6.3       The French attitude

2.6.4       In Germany and Italy 

3      Chapter 3. “Doppelkrise” and shy reactions

3.1  The Russo-Japanese War

3.1.1       A conflict no so far away

3.1.2       International socialism and the conflict: Amsterdam 1904

3.1.3       The reaction of the Italian socialists

3.2  The first Morocco crisis

3.2.1       The Tangier crisis

3.2.2       A slow and cautious international response

3.2.3       Socialists confronting the Morocco crisis

3.2.3.1  In France

3.2.3.2  Reaction to reaction: wait-and-see attitude of the German Social-Democrats

3.2.3.3  French and Italians facing the German attitude

3.2.4       After the crisis

3.3  An internationalist practices: international inquiry 

4      Chapter 4. Two-speed reactions

4.1  Stuttgart 1907: The discussion on the war

4.2  International tensions in 1908: an ISB resolution between Stuttgart and Copenhagen

4.3  The second Morocco crisis and the firs international reactions

4.3.1       The “jump of the Panther”

4.3.2       At the international level

4.3.3       Relations between parties: unity

4.3.4       The Jena Congress

4.3.5       French commentaries about Jena

4.3.6       Italian comments to the Jena congress

4.3.7       The limits of this unit: French uncertainties

4.3.8       The limits of this unit: the attitude of the PSI

4.4  The Italo-Turkish War

4.4.1       Context and meaning

4.4.2       PSI’s relations with the International

4.4.3       The Italian socialists facing the Italian-Turkish war

4.4.4       In France and Germany: the reactions 

5      Chapter 5. Commitment against the war

5.1  The debates on military reforms and socialist imperialism

5.1.1       Military reforms in the three countries

5.1.2       Socialist imperialism

5.1.3       Italy and militarism in France and Germany

5.2  The Balkan Wars

5.2.1       The conflicts

5.2.2       ISB’s response

5.2.3       The Basel congress of 1912

5.2.4       French, German and Italian socialists and the situation in the Balkans 

6      Chapter 6. Internationalism in crisis?

6.1  Before the war

6.1.1       An “improbable war” for the socialists?

6.1.2       Socialism around August 1914

6.1.3       At international level

6.2  The outbreak of the war

6.2.1       In Italy

6.2.2       In France

6.2.3       In Germany

6.2.4       New ministers Sembat and Guesde: German and Italian reactions

6.3  The Italian neutrality

6.3.1       Seeking to convince the Italian socialists

6.3.2       Mussolini and the war

6.4  Italy enters the war 

7      Chapter 7. Conclusion

O autorze

Elisa Marcobelli is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Picardie-Jules Verne, France. In 2015 she defended a doctoral thesis at the EHESS in Paris, France, and at the FU in Berlin, Germany. She is a specialist of international socialism and of the French, German and Italian socialist parties, as well as of the history of the First World War. She has published, among others, La France de 1914 était-elle antimilitariste? (2013) and L'Internationalisme a l'épreuve des crises (2019). She is a member of the international research group on socialism EuroSoc, the Société d'études jaurésiennes and the editorial board of the review Cahiers Jaurès.

Blurb

This book analyzes how the Second International reacted to international diplomatic crises and what was the attitude of French, German and Italian socialists between 1889 and 1915, the year in which Italy entered the World War. This book shows that the Second International became over the years more and more involved in the fight against war and learnt to respond to situations of diplomatic crisis. An example of this is the fact that its last congress before the outbreak of the First World War, the Basel Congress of 1912, was nothing less than a great international socialist demonstration of opposition to war. However, the fact that France, Germany or Italy were involved in a diplomatic crisis hindered the International's ability to respond effectively to it. For all these factors, the attitude of the International is very different from one crisis to another.

Elisa Marcobelli is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Picardie-Jules Verne, France. She defended her thesis in 2015 at EHESS Paris and FU Berlin. She is also a member of the EuroSoc research team at the University of Rouen-Normandie, France.