The Origins of Global Humanitarianism
Religion, Empires, and Advocacy

This book locates the historical origins of modern global humanitarianism in the recurrent conflict over the ethical treatment of non-Europeans.

Peter Stamatov (Author)

9781107021730, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 December 2013

246 pages
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.47 kg

'This monumental book unearths a dazzling array of sources to found a new genealogy of global culture. Early-modern Catholic and Protestant churches in Europe sanctioned colonization abroad, but some Spanish and British activists also deployed religion to enlarge the rights of distant colonial subjects. Deciphering the causes of their growing long-distance aid to cultural strangers comprises a puzzle about our times that is every bit as striking as the rise of nationalism or of democratic insurgency. Peter Stamatov has posted a landmark in understanding Western engagement in the world to our day.' Richard Biernacki, University of California, San Diego

Whether lauded and encouraged or criticized and maligned, action in solidarity with culturally and geographically distant strangers has been an integral part of European modernity. Traversing the complex political landscape of early modern European empires, this book locates the historical origins of modern global humanitarianism in the recurrent conflict over the ethical treatment of non-Europeans that pitted religious reformers against secular imperial networks. Since the sixteenth-century beginnings of European expansion overseas and in marked opposition to the exploitative logic of predatory imperialism, these reformers - members of Catholic orders and, later, Quakers and other reformist Protestants - developed an ideology and a political practice in defense of the rights and interests of distant 'others'. They also increasingly made the question of imperial injustice relevant to growing 'domestic' publics in Europe. A distinctive institutional model of long-distance advocacy crystallized out of these persistent struggles, becoming the standard weapon of transnational activists.

Introduction
1. Caribbean beginnings, 1511–20
2. Pro-indigenist advocacy in the Iberian Atlantic
3. Religious radicalization and early antislavery
4. Quaker reformers and the politicization of antislavery
5. Forging an abolitionist network
6. The emergence of a new model
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Sociology [JHB], Religion: general [HRA], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ]