EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS:

CONGRESS OF VIENNA TO THE LEAGUE OF

NATIONS

Prepared by

DR. AFROZ ALAM

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICS
NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, ORISSA
E-MAIL: afrozalam2@gmail.com
afroz@nluo.ac.in

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 EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: CONGRESS OF
VIENNA TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

Structure

2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Rationale for the International Organisations:
2.3 Evolution of International Organisations:
2.3 Philosophical Roots of International Organisations:
2.4 Institutional Evolution of International Organisation:
2.4.1 Congress of Vienna (1814-15):
2.4.2 The Hague Conferences (1899 and 1907):
2.5 The Creation of the League of Nations:
2.6 Let Us Sum Up
2.7 Some Useful Books

2.0 Objectives:
This chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the history of the international
organisations but rather a glimpse at the evolutionary processes that were a responsible for creating a
base for their existence in today’s world. After going through this chapter you should be able to:
• know the rationale for the existence of international organisations
• identify the different phases of the evolution of international organisation
• develop an insight on the role and importance of Congress of Vienna and the Hague
Conferences as well as the creation and failure of League of Nations

2.1 Introduction:
In the previous lesion, we have discussed the meaning, nature, scope, classification, functions and
importance of international organisations. As we saw, international organisations (intergovernmental
or international nongovernmental) play a decisive role in an era of globalisation. They have become
indispensable in today’s growing interdependence of global community. However, these important

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international players do not exist in vacuum nor they are without roots. They have definite historical
background. We cannot understand their role in the present world, if we are not equipped with the
historical and philosophical basis of the international organisations. The understanding of the historical
and philosophical roots of these organisations may help us to shed light on their future evolution.

2.2 Rationale for the International Organisations:

Through out the course of world history, the people aspired for global peace, security, socio-political
and economic cooperation, cultural relationship, brotherhood, and global federations. The international
organisations symbolise these hopes and aspirations. As the world shrinks through science and
technology, the amount of international economic and social cooperation multiplies by the effective
and sustainable role of international organisations. Thus, the international organisations help the people
and government of different states to integrate with the world and form an agency of mutual
advantage.
To the world duly characterised by the war, conflict, dissension, morbid arms race and terrorism, the
international organisations as platform of stress accommodation and cooperation across national
boundaries become the need of the hour. The existence of international organisations is the constant
reminder of the world peace and security. For example, the emergence of the League of Nations and
United Nations was accompanied by a philosophy of idealism concerning the possibility of world order
through national restraint and cooperation utilising the principles of collective security.
Thus, all these ideas and practices of resolving state differences, promoting mutually assured
development and intergovernmental cooperation are enough to provide rationale to the existence of
international organisations.

2.3 Evolution of International Organisations:

Historically, international organizations have reflected the interests of the world’s most powerful
nations, or great powers. Many international organizations were established during times of global
hegemony—that is, when one nation has predominated in international power. These periods have
often followed a major war among the great powers. Today’s international organizations—such as the
UN, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the World Bank—were created after World War
II ended in 1945, when the United States was powerful enough to create rules and institutions that
other countries would follow.

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Although rooted in power, international organizations and regimes generally serve the interests of most
participating nations and usually endure even when hegemony wanes. Most countries share mutual
interests, yet find it hard to coordinate their actions for mutual benefit because of the lack of a central
authority. Nations also face the temptation to bend the rules in their own favour. For example, it is in
everyone’s interest to halt production of chemicals that damage the earth’s ozone layer. However, a
country can save money by continuing to use those chemicals. The coordination of efforts to write new
rules and monitor them requires an international organization. For example, the United Nations
Environment Program helped countries negotiate a treaty to stop producing ozone-destroying
chemicals. Thus, nations find it useful to give international organizations some power to enforce rules.
Most countries follow the rules most of the time.

2.4 Philosophical Roots of International Organisations:

In every period of recorded history, there were number of political philosophers who advocated the
ideal of international accommodation and cooperation. A broad legacy of ideas for controlling warfare,
the ultimate goal of present day international organisations, could be traced back to the Greek
philosophers, Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC), who deplored and unjustified the war
except in self defence. In this same pattern, the medieval thinkers and the spokesmen for the Church,
St. Augustine (354-430) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), also opposed the war as inhuman and
wasteful except against the infidel. Ancient Chinese philosophers such as Confucius (551-479 BC)
deplored the use of coercion and advocated good faith and moderation as the key doctrines of interstate
relations. Another Chinese, Mo Ti (fifth century BC), showed an even greater aversion to war as not
only a criminal act but also as an economic waste. The Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466-
1536), as a humanist, pacifist, and internationalist, expressed clearly his rejection of war as brutal,
wicked, wasteful, and stupid. Willam Ellery Channing (1780-1882), the pioneer of American Peace
Movement, attacked war as the greatest of all moral evils. Just prior to World War I, Norman Angell
(1874-1967), an English publicist, in his book The Great Illusion argued that modern wars were
unprofitable for both the victors and the vanquished. Furthermore, military preparedness was socially
and economically wasteful and futile. Like Channing, he believed that people ideas would have to
change before effective peace machinery could be erected.
Many alternatives, that have taken variety of forms, have been proposed for settling disputes or for
channelling peaceful change. One alternative to state conflict is world unity in the form of universal
empire. In this context, Dante Alighieri (1265-1312) eulogised the consolidation of territory under the
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Roman Empire, and for him the restoration of the conditions of the Roman Empire represented the
most hopeful approach to universal peace. Cosmopolitanism was suggested another alternative by the
Cynics and Stoics. The Cynics rejected the idea of patriotism and the need for separate states. The
Stoics held the idea of humans joined by universal reason in a universal society. Both Cicero and
Seneca were influential Roman stoics. Cicero believed in universal and superior law of justice derived
through reason, where as Seneca emphasised virtue through service to a world society.
During the past four centuries, philosophers have advocated such diverse approaches to world order as
the development of international law, decolonisation, disarmament, and free trade. Hugo Grotius
(1583-1645), the father of modern international law, in his book On the Law of War and Peace
believed that law is necessary in the relations among nations and that it serves as a limitation upon
sovereignty. Jeremy Bentham in his Principles of International Law (1786-89) focussed on the
decolonisation and general disarmament as twin fundamental principles for attaining an orderly world.
J.A. Hobson, a British economist, through his book Imperialism (1902) attacked colonialism and
anticipated the mandate and trusteeship systems of the League of Nations and the United Nations by
advocating international responsibility for colonial states to ensure against exploitation of non-self-
governing peoples. Richard Cobban (1804-65) advocated free trade as the main key to world peace.
Several elaborate plans for international peace machinery were also suggested that include the setting
up of confederacies or loose political unions of one type or another. Pierre Dubois (1250-1322)
suggested an alliance of Christian rulers under French leadership to wage wars against infidels and
peace among Christian nations. In 1963, another Frenchman, Emeric Cruce proposed the creation of a
universal organisation for the promotion of trade, arts, travelling and agreements for the stabilisation
and exchange of currencies and for the standardisation of weights and measures. The disputes would
be heard and settled by a permanent assembly of ambassadors, with decisions by majority vote and
enforcement of this decision by mutual military sanctions. In 1694, William Penn and early in the
following century Abbe de Saint-Pierre also proposed the establishment of a general parliament or
assembly to settle all disputes by a three-fourths vote, with collective sanctions including armed force.
Abbe thought that peace would promote the greater prosperity of all, and he proposed a series of
bureaus to develop cooperation in commercial law, weights and measures, and monetary systems.
In his thinking about plans for peace, Immanuel Kant foresaw in his book Perpetual Peace (1795) a
world society made up of republican states as the ideal basis for peace. The main elements in Kant’s
plan included a federation open to voluntary membership of any state; a congress to settle disputes; no
standing armies; no territorial changes by conquest, inheritance or purchase; no loans for external

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purposes; no interference by one state in the internal affairs of another; the right of self-determination;
and world citizenship and freedom of movement between countries based on a universal law of
hospitality.
Prior to the creation of League of Nations, William Ladd, an American Quaker, in his Essay on a
Congress of Nations (1840) advocated the establishment of a Congress of Nations and a Court of
Nations with legislative and judicial powers to develop and apply international law. The congress
would develop law by unanimous decision in the form of treaties. The court would hear cases
submitted with the mutual consent of the contending states and would apply principles of international
law, and in their absence, principles of equity and justice. He also advocated the abolition of standing
armies.
Despite the existence of sound philosophical basis discussed above, the growth of international
institutions has come only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The reasons could be many. First,
the ideas were not necessarily dominant or exclusive in their impact upon the ruler’ thoughts and
behaviour. Second, unlike today the conditions of their age were not conducive to an increased
emphasis on international cooperation.

2.5 Institutional Evolution of International Organisations:

However, the movement to establish international organisations in their institutional form is mostly
confined to the past 100 years, with the greatest development since World War II ended in 1945.
Nonetheless, the institutional model upon which modern international organisation is built can be
traced through many centuries. However, the evolution of international organisation can be divided
into many phases:
Indeed, the ancient Greeks could be credited with the first formal organisation, the Amphietyonic
League, created in the early sixth century BC for regulating relations between their city states. A
confederation, Delos, was created a little later between maritime states of the Aegean islands who
contributed ships and men to maintain a common navy. A little later still, 70 Greek states formed the
Achaean League of the Hellense. These could have been the prototype of the regional
intergovernmental organisations of today.
The spread of Roman Empire from Mediterranean area to the most of Western and Central Europe and
its remoteness from other centres of power such as China and India precluded inter-state relations of a
permanent kind. The Romans evolved military, administrative and legal techniques that were useful in
the evolution international organisations and international law. With the decline of Roman Empire, the

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Roman Church grew in power and remains to this day a powerful international nongovernmental
organisation.
The Middle Ages witnessed several alliances and associations. A famous group concerned with the
promotion of trade, which took on some political aspects as well, was the Hanseatic League. In 1315, a
treaty among the Swiss cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden gave rise to a confederation.
As the medieval system disintegrated and new developments—the Reformation, Renaissance, the
scientific innovations, industrial revolution and the consequent expansion of trade and commerce—that
took place in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changed the whole complexion of
international relations. Political, economic and diplomatic relationship became more widespread. As
the world started becoming closer, new complexities of interdependence emerged that gave birth to
extended diplomacy in the form of international conferences, treaties and formal peace. The first
significant event in this context was the Congress of Westphalia (1648) that closed the Thirty Years'
War and readjusted the religious and political affairs of Europe by creating sovereign and independent
states.
In the 18th century, German philosopher Immanuel Kant and French philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau broadly outlined the concept of a global federation of countries resembling today’s UN.
However, nations joined the first intergovernmental organisations in the 19th century. These were
practical organizations through which nations managed specific issues, such as international mail
service and control of traffic on European rivers.
2.5.1 Congress of Vienna (1814-15):
Congress of Vienna (1814-15), which was called to re-establish the territorial divisions of Europe at
the end of the Napoleonic Wars after the downfall of Napoleon, is treated as the first systematic effort
to regulate international affairs by means of regular international conferences. Though the attempt to
restore the world order was successful only partially and temporarily, the foundation was laid for a
political and international system which lasted for practically a century and shaped the course of world
affairs, particularly European. The principal architect of the peace settlement devised at the conference,
Austrian foreign minister Prince Klemens von Metternich, believed that the key to making peace
durable was the balance of power. According to this diplomatic principle, the major nations of Europe
should distribute power relatively evenly among themselves to deter any one of them from seeking
dominance over the continent. If any country were to attempt to disturb the balance of power, the
others would oppose it as an alliance. The central agency to enforce the Vienna settlement was the
Quadruple Alliance of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia; it became a Quintuple Alliance in

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1818 when France joined it. The Congress also evolved the procedure of having a presiding officer and
committees for the conduct of its business. It also provided a threefold classification of envoys and laid
down the principle of the basic equality of all the states Furthermore, it went beyond its political
business to consider a variety of socio-economic issues as well.
The Congress of Vienna is to be regarded a milestone in the evolution of international organisations for
several reasons. First, despite the hostilities, the alliance, which was formed in this conference,
continued to enforce peace. Second, there were frequent periodic conferences. Third, despite the
suspicions of the smaller powers it was generally agreed that the maintenance of peace depended on
this sort of big power collaboration. These notions were carried over into both the League of Nations
and the United Nations.
The Vienna Congress set the similar patterns of informal consultations and conferences and occasional
concerted action. Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria were now dedicated to a European
territorial settlement maintained by a new mechanism called the Concert of Europe. Any changes
would have to be made by prior consultation among the five major powers. The Eastern Question
revolved around the fear that one of the European powers would upset the balance of power by taking
advantage of any internal changes made in the domains of the Ottoman Empire. The Concert of Europe
preserved the peace until the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853. Several other conferences took
place right down to 1914. The Paris Conference of 1856 and the Berlin consultations of 1871 dealt
with the problems of the Balkans. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 dealt with the issue of Turkey. The
concert of Europe, however, was not able to cope with the nationalistic rivalries and divisive
tendencies which led to the World War I.
2.5.2 The Hague Conferences (1899 and 1907):
Another important events which was regarded as a landmark in the development of international
organisations was the two international peace conferences known as The Hague Conferences. The first
conference was called on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia for the purpose of bringing
together the principal nations of the world to discuss and resolve the problems of maintaining universal
peace, reducing armaments, and ameliorating the conditions of warfare. Twenty-six countries accepted
the invitation to the conference issued by the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands.
The delegates to the conference entered into three formal conventions, or treaties. The first and most
important one set up permanent machinery for the optional arbitration of controversial issues between
nations. This machinery took the form of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, popularly known as The
Hague Court or Hague Tribunal. The second and third conventions revised some of the customs and

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laws of warfare to eliminate unnecessary suffering during a war on the part of all concerned, whether
combatants, non-combatants, or neutrals. These two conventions were supplemented by three
declarations, to stay in force five years, forbidding the use of poison gas, expanding (or dumdum)
bullets, and bombardment from the air by the use of balloons or by other means.
Despite the failure of the conference to limit armaments, or to provide for compulsory arbitration of
international disputes—the great nations refused to adopt compulsory arbitration because it infringed
on their national sovereignty—the conference was one of the most significant international conferences
of modern times, because it was the first multilateral international conference on general issues since
the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and pointed forward to the later League of Nations, forerunner of the
United Nations.
The idea of holding the Second International Peace Conference was first promulgated by U.S.
Secretary of State John Milton Hay in 1904, and it was called three years later on the direct initiative of
the Russian government. The conference took place at The Hague from June 15 to October 18, 1907,
and was attended by representatives from 44 countries. The second conference resulted in 13
conventions, which were concerned principally with clarifying and amplifying the understandings
arrived at in the first conference. In particular, new principles were established in regard to various
aspects of warfare, including the rights and duties of neutrals, naval bombardment, the laying of
automatic submarine contact mines, and the conditions under which merchant ships might be
converted into warships. The second conference recommended that a third conference be held within
eight years. The government of the Netherlands actually began preparations for such a conference, to
be held in 1915 or 1916; the outbreak of World War I, however, put an end to the preparations. After
1919, and until the formation of the UN in 1945, the functions of the Hague conferences were largely
carried on by the League of Nations.
From the middle of nineteenth century on wards, there was a considerable growth in administrative
international institutions, at both intergovernmental and non-governmental levels. For example, the
European Commission for the Danube (1856). Other institutions too came up, such as: the Geodetic
Union (1864); the International Telegraph Union (1865), later renamed as International
Telecommunication Union (ITU); the International Meteorological Organisation (1873); the General
Postal Union (184), later renamed as Universal Postal Union (UPU); the International Copyright Union
(1886); the Central Office for International Railway Transport (1890); and the United International
Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property (1893). Such organizations proliferated in the 20th

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century to cover a wide variety of specific issues. At the same time, the scope of international
organizations expanded, culminating with the creation of the League of Nations in 1920.

Check Your Progress 1

Note: Use the space given below for your answer. Also check your answer with the model answer
given at the end of the Unit.
Q. 1 Why there is need to have the international organisations in the modern world?
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Q. 2 Discuss the importance of Congress of Vienna and The Hague Conferences with respect to the
formation of international organisations.
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2.6 The Creation of the League of Nations:

World War I (1914-18) brought an end to Concert of Europe and a scheduled third Hague peace
conference. But following the war, the two concepts reappeared and were merged into the formation of
the League of Nations, which retained the great power executive committee status of Concert in
combination with the egalitarian universality of the Hague idea. However, The idea of the actual
League of Nations appears to have originated with British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, and it was
enthusiastically adopted by the Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel
Edward M. House as a means of avoiding bloodshed like that of World War I. The creation of the
League was a centerpiece of Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace, specifically the final point: "A
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general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording
mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."
The Paris Peace Conference accepted the proposal to create the League of Nations on January 25,
1919. The Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted by a special commission, and the League
was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28, 1919. Initially, the
Charter was signed by 44 states, including 31 states which had taken part in the war on the side of the
Triple Entente or joined it during the conflict. Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the
League, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, the United States neither ratified the
Charter nor joined the League due to opposition in the U.S. Senate, especially influential Republicans
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and William E. Borah of Idaho, together with Wilson's refusal to
compromise.
The League held its first meeting in London on January 10, 1920. Its first action was to ratify the
Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I. The headquarters of the League moved to Geneva
on November 1, 1920, where the first general assembly of the League was held on November 15, 1920
with representatives from 41 nations in attendance.
Born with the will of the victors of the First World War to avoid a repeat of a devastating war, the
League of Nations objective was to maintain universal peace within the framework of the fundamental
principles of the Pact accepted by its Members : to develop cooperation among nations and to
guarantee them peace and security.
The first years of existence of the League of Nations were marked by great successes. In accordance
with the provisions of the Pact, several international disagreements – between Sweden and Finland and
between Greece and Bulgaria – were resolved peacefully. The Locarno Agreements signed in October
1925, which marked the beginnings of a Franco-German reconciliation, were entrusted to the League.
A direct consequence, Germany, beaten and excluded from the League by the Treaty of Versailles in
1919, became a Member in 1926. In 1929, the delegate from France, Aristide Briand, put forward to
the Assembly the very first political project of a European Federal Union.
In spite of these early successes, the League of Nations did not manage to prevent neither the invasion
of Mandchuria by Japan, nor the annexation of Ethiopia by Italy in 1936, nor that of Austria by Hitler
in 1938. The powerlessness of the League of Nations to prevent further world conflict, the alienation of
part of its Member States and the generation of the war itself, added to its demise from 1940.
The failure, politically, of the mission of collective security of the League of Nations must nevertheless
not make one overlook its success in, what was from the beginning to be a secondary aspect of its

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objectives: international technical cooperation. Under its auspices, in fact, considerable number of
conferences, intergovernmental committees and meetings of experts were held in Geneva, in areas as
diverse as health and social affairs, transport and communications, economic and financial affairs and
intellectual cooperation. This fruitful work was validated by the ratification of more than one hundred
conventions by the Member States. The unprecedented work on behalf of refugees carried out by the
Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen from 1920 should also be stressed.
The concept of international organization was however firmly embedded in minds and on the 1st
January 1942, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, announced the term, United
Nations. On 26 June 1945, the Representatives of fifty countries meeting in San Francisco adopted the
Charter of the United Nations, founder of the new international organization. The United Nations
Organization was born officially on 24th October 1945 when the signatory countries ratified the
Charter. Dissolved at a final Assembly held in Geneva in April 1946, the League of Nations handed
over its properties and assets to the United Nations Organization.
In spite of its political failure, the legacy of the League of Nations at the same time appears clearly in a
number of principles stated by the Charter and in the competencies and experiences developed in the
area of technical cooperation: the majority of the specialized institutions of the United Nations system
can in fact be considered the legacy of the work initiated by the League of Nations.
Check Your Progress 2
Note: Use the space given below for your answer. Also check your answer with the model answer
given at the end of the Unit.
Q. 1 What factors were responsible for the creation of the League of Nations?
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Q. 2 Write a short note on the philosophical roots of international organisations.
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2.7 Let Us Sum Up

To sum up, the international organisations have a definite history. While surveying the historical roots
of international organisations, we find that, in all ages, people, scholars and the states felt the need of
an international body to resolve their disputes and to establish peace. It is their hope and aspirations of
a better world order worked as the basis of present day international organisations. Furthermore, the
sound historical base of international organisations is just like a workshop from where they learned the
art to play an effective role in the contemporary world system.

2.8 Some Useful Books

1) LeRoy Bennett, International Organisations: Principles and Issues, New Jersey: Prentice
Hall Inc., 1998
2) Kalpana Rajaram (ed.), International Organisations, Conferences and Treaties, New Delhi:
Spectrum Books, 2005.
3) F.S. Northedge, The League of Nations: Its Life and Times, 1920-1946, Holmes: 1986
4) Jean E. Krasno (ed.), The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society,
London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004
5) John Baylis and Steve Smith, The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to
International Relations, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

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