Abstract

In historical research on internationalism and the international sphere, the rise of the international congress during the nineteenth century has long played a prominent role. This article investigates the making of the international congress as a phenomenon by comparing three early series of meetings – anti-slavery conventions, peace congresses and philanthropic congresses during the 1840 s and 1850 s – as communicative events. The analysis shows that their staging was influenced by the fact that these meetings were organised to mobilise reform movements, and that they relied on a public sphere where elite groups, gathered in the metropoles of Europe, could expect that their speeches would reach geographically dispersed audiences through print media. A general conclusion is that these meetings pioneered a new way of being international – called ‘representative internationality’ in the article – through how they were arranged as independent actors beyond local contexts that could both ‘speak for’ and ‘speak to’ different collectives.

摘要

在有关国际主义和国际领域的历史研究中，十九世纪国际大会的兴起长期发挥了重要作用。本文通过比较三个早期系列会议（1840年代和1850年代的反奴隶制公约，和平代表大会和慈善代表大会）作为交流活动来研究国际代表大会的形成。分析表明，这些会议的举办受到以下事实的影响：这些会议是为动员改革运动而组织的，而且它们依赖于公共领域，聚集在欧洲大都市中的精英团体可以期望他们的演讲会传遍各地的听众。通过印刷媒体。