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The First Peace Conference : A World Of Codes Of Chivalry

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The first Peace Conference was held at The Hague in the Netherland. Most of the conference was spent discussing the creation of an international arbitrary court, armaments, and the laws of war. Though many of the agreed upon terms were broken at the start of World War I,
The laws of war in particular needed to be discussed because the conduct of war needed to be changed. The world was changing from a world of codes of chivalry to following and setting laws. While at The Hague the laws of war set were the treatment of poisoners of war, treatment of civilians during war, and the procedure of declaring and surrendering wars.
During the time many people were against war. They thought that many of their men were being killed just for the sake of war. The people of America understanding that the times were changing but the treatment of soldiers were poor. “Every peasant and every village a fortification,” this quote from Dr. Parkhurst shows that Americans are viewing war as a flaw. However, Parkhurst was part of the clergy at the time and there was still a strong religious influence on many lawmakers. However, Parkhurst was not happy with the International Peace Conference. He believed that those at the Peace Conference created results it did not meet expectations. He did agree with the Conference that war was humanly but instead it was vile and barbaric.
Articles written in the late 1890s seem to be fairly positive when discussing Laws of War at the Hague Conference.
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