The Right of Self-Determination of Peoples The Domestication of an The right of self-determination of peoples holds out the promise of sovereign statehood for all peoples and a domination-free international order. But it also harbors the danger of state fragmentation that can threaten international stability if claims of self-determination lead to secession. Covering both the late eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury independence movements in the Americas and the twentiethcentury decolonization worldwide, this book examines the conceptual and political history of the right of self-determination of peoples. It also addresses the political contexts in which the right and concept were formulated and the practices developed to restrain its potentially anarchic character; its inception in anticolonialism, nationalism, and the labor movement; its instrumentalization at the end of the First World War in a formidable duel that Wilson lost to Lenin; its abuse by Hitler; the path after the Second World War to its recognition as a human right in 1966; and its continuing impact after decolonization. is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Zurich. Anita Mage is an academic translator and doctoral candidate in philosophy at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Human Rights in History Edited by Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, University of California, Berkeley Samuel Moyn, Harvard University This series showcases new scholarship exploring the backgrounds of human rights today. With an open-ended chronology and international perspective, the series seeks works attentive to the surprises and contingencies in the historical origins and legacies of human rights ideals and interventions. Books in the series will focus not only on the intellectual antecedents and foundations of human rights but also on the incorporation of the concept by movements, nation-states, international governance, and transnational law. Also in the Series: Young-sun Hong, Cold War Germany, the Third World, and the Global Humanitarian Regime Heide Fehrenbach and Davide Rodogno, editors, Humanitarian Photography: A History Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, editor, Human Rights in the Twentieth Century Sarah B. Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War: A Transnational History of the Helsinki Network Jay Winter and Antoine Prost, René Cassin and Human Rights: From the Great War to the Universal Declaration
The Right of Self-Determination of Peoples The Domestication of an JÖRG FISCH Universität Zürich TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY ANITA MAGE Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, ny 10013-2473, usa Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Information on this title: /9781107688209 Verlag C.H. Beck ohg, München 2010 English edition Cambridge University Press 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published as Das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Völker 2010 First English edition 2015 Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Fisch, Jörg, author. The right of self-determination of peoples : the domestication of an illusion /, Universitat Zurich; Anita Mage. pages cm (Human rights in history) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-107-03796-0 (Hardback : alk. paper) isbn 978-1-107-68820-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Self-determination, National. I. Mage, Anita, 1968 author. II. Title. kz1269.f57 2016 341.26 dc23 2015014004 isbn 978-1-107-03796-0 Hardback isbn 978-1-107-68820-9 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International Translation Funding for Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG WORT, and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association).
Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Maps page viii ix x Prologue National Unity and Secession in the Symbolism of Power 1 Introduction A Concept and Ideal 8 part i theory of self-determination 15 1 Individual Self-Determination 17 2 Collective Self-Determination 25 3 The People 29 4 Self-Determination and the Right of Self-Determination 39 The Division of the World into States: Personality Principle and Territorial Principle 40 Secession 42 Reward and Punishment: The Right of Self-Determination as an Absolute and as a Conditional Right 46 Internal and External Self-Determination: Autonomy 51 Self-Determination and Democracy 52 The Right of Conquest and the Principle of Freedom from Domination 56 part ii self-determination in practice 59 5 Early Modern Europe: Precursors of a Right of Self-Determination? 61 Popular Sovereignty 61 The Right of Resistance 62 v
vi Contents Individual Self-Determination as a Supplement or as the Opposite of Collective Self-Determination: The Right to Emigration and Option 63 The Consent of Estates and the Classics of International Law 66 6 The First Decolonization and the Right to Independence: The Americas, 1776 1826 69 European Expansion and the Emancipation of the Colonies 69 The American Revolution and the Right of Resistance 70 The Latin American Revolutions and the Right to Independence 72 Independence, Self-Determination, and Uti Possidetis 77 7 The French Revolution and the Invention of the Plebiscite 82 Popular Sovereignty and the Plebiscite 82 The Rise and Fall of the Revolutionary Plebiscite 85 8 From the European Restoration to the First World War, 1815 1914 91 The Americas, Australia, and South Africa: Anticolonial Right to Independence (Decolonization) and Uti Possidetis 92 The American Civil War and the Prohibition of Secession 98 Europe: Conquest, Freedom from Domination, and the Failure of the Plebiscite 104 The Advent of the Expressions Self-Determination and Right of Self-Determination 116 Africa: The Right to Alien Determination 122 Asia as Intermediate Case between the Americas, Africa, and Europe 123 9 The First World War and the Peace Treaties, 1918 1923 126 A Right in Reserve 126 Lenin 129 Wilson 132 The Peace Treaties, 1918 1923: The Right of Conquest and the Right of Self-Determination 137 The League of Nations and the Peaceful Transformation of the Balance of Power 145 The Renaissance of the Plebiscite 147 10 The Interwar Period, 1923 1939 160 Majorities and Minorities 160 The Dialectic of Revisionism 163 Hitler and Revisionism 164 The Colonies 172 11 The Second World War: The Perversion of a Great Promise 175 The Aggressors and the Defeated 175 The Defenders and the Victors 179 From the Forced Expulsions to the Second Decolonization: The Provisional End and the Resurgence of Self-Determination 182
Contents vii 12 The Cold War and the Second Decolonization, 1945 1989 190 The Right of Self-Determination as Discredited Principle and as a Beacon of Hope 190 The Codification of the Right of Self-Determination: From a Vague Principle to the Highest Human Right and Right of Peoples 191 Praxis I: Decolonization 203 Praxis II: Europe and the Aftermath of the Second World War 217 13 After 1989: The Quest for a New Equilibrium 218 The End of Decolonization and the Third World 218 The End of the Cold War and the Dissolution of Federations 223 Epilogue The Right of the Weak 234 Notes 252 Bibliographical Essay 271 Bibliography 284 Maps 312 Chronological Index of Cited Legal Documents 321 Index 327
Figures 1 Beijing, Mausoleum of Mao Zedong page 2 2 Washington, DC, The Mall 4 viii
Tables 1 Plebiscites on Secession from the Union, 1861 page 101 2 Plebiscites in Northern Italy, 1848 109 3 Plebiscites in the Context of Italian Unification, 1860 1870 110 4 Referendum on the Annexation of Austria by Germany, April 10, 1938 168 ix
Maps 1 Decolonization in the Americas up to 1830 313 2 Plebiscites in Western Europe in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 314 3 Languages of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe in 1910 315 4 Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 316 5 Territorial Changes in Central Europe after 1918 317 6 Territorial Changes under Hitler, 1935 1939 318 7 Decolonization in Africa after World War II 319 8 Decolonization in Asia after World War II 320 x