1914
THE WORLD REMEMBERS — LE MONDE SE SOUVIENT
1918
WWI AND THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT
I am a Canadian teacher working at Neuchatel Junior College,
in Switzerland, where we encourage students to develop a
global perspective. We have taken students on many study
trips to sites from both World Wars as well as to memorial
sites such as Dachau and the Auschwitz camps.
It’s impossible to visit any war cemeteries in Belgium, France
or the Netherlands without feeling tremendous sadness about
what the men and women who lost their lives might have
contributed to society. The Great War took the lives of some
nine million mostly military people, while the Second World
War dead estimates run to anywhere from 50 to 70 million, the
majority of them civilians this time. Every year, Remembrance
Treat of Versailles Section XIII at the ILO Building in Geneva.
ceremonies all over the world try to honour the memory of
those who gave their lives. Historians, families, various organizations and governments are still trying to identify many
of those who died or were assumed to have died, but who have no known graves.
Has the world learned anything from these great conflicts?
Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points aimed at some positive outcome, and the idea of a League of Nations was born. Could
nations learn to resolve their conflicts without resorting to warfare? The League unfortunately had no “teeth” to enforce
its decisions, and what began as a noble goal could do little more than impose diplomatic or economic sanctions, which
many violators ignored. But, at least the notion of an intermediary body was born. It’s critical to see that the writers of
the Treaty of Versailles understood that a major cause of warfare was labour and social injustice, and in Section XIII of
the Treaty, they specifically addressed the need to promote social justice worldwide. The Treaty included the creation of
the International Labour Organization, which attempted to negotiate disputes and to advocate for social justice, while the
Socialist International renewed appeals to working class solidarity to achieve world peace, though results were certainly
mixed. Despite a second global conflict, which began as early as 1931 in Asia and lasted till 1945, the concept of conflict
resolution and internationalism endured. The creators of the United Nations in 1945 tried to avoid the powerless aspect of
the League by giving it enforcement potential through the Security Council. While the UN has had its detractors and its
failures, it has successfully intervened in many conflicts which might have had much worse consequences had there not been
an intermediary. The UN, through its aid organizations has aimed at greater international cooperation and understanding,
while also trying to prevent conflict by dealing with its root causes, such as hunger, resources competition, disease, etc.
Photo from Imperial Ware Museum.
1914
THE WORLD REMEMBERS — LE MONDE SE SOUVIENT
1918
International schools, some of which dated back to the 19th century, attempted
to achieve international understanding by getting young people from around
the world to study and live together. The creation of the United Nations
International School founded in New York City in 1947 gave impetus to others
to create similar schools, and since the 1950s, international schools have seen
rapid growth. While their original purpose was to serve “expatriate” children,
their existence and philosophies reflected the principle of internationalism. The
first United World College, founded by K. Hahn in 1962 was geared specifically
to mixing students from around the world so they could learn from each others’
cultures and learn to respect differences and the need for international social
and economic justice. There are now 14 U.W. Colleges, including one in Canada,
Lester Pearson U.W. College of the Pacific, in B.C., appropriately named for our
Prime Minister who won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end an escalating
Middle-East crisis in the Suez region.
Will such schools and international organizations prevent another horrendous
bloodbath like the Great War? Let’s hope that creating a greater sense of the global community with our young people
will accomplish that goal. Let’s hope that as they and their elders remember the war dead, they will say to themselves and
their global brothers and sisters, “Never again!”
D.Y. Martin
Senior Master, Neuchâtel Junior College, Suisse
Photo from Killmaster Thomson Collection.