Conclusion

Abstract

In this book, I have highlighted the creative tension between the state imperative of military conflict, on the one hand, and the emergence of powerful moral and legal norms that emphasized the need to wage civilized and humane wars, on the other. For most of the time, this tension between the growth of violence and the preservation of life was productive. For example, the differentiation between civilians and combatants, and the exceptional status of women and children were acknowledged by legal writers. These principles were implemented in administrative regulations and international agreements from the beginning of the eighteenth century. These exemptions could always be revoked, and practices were highly contingent throughout the period. But in the eighteenth century, the customary laws of war, the law of nations, and humanitarian patriotism encouraged the states to try to get the upper hand on the moral front and treat their prisoners better than their enemies did theirs. In itself, this account contrasts with the Francophobic and Anglophobic perspectives explored by other historians....