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How a Forgotten Battle Created a More Peaceful World
Why the legacy of Solferino is in more danger than ever
On a June day near Solferino, a town in what’s now northern Italy, something depressingly common happened. Two European armies clashed in combat, and thousands of men lost their lives.
The Battle of Solferino was considered an important event at the time — it was the biggest European battle since the Napoleonic Wars, and it paved the way for the establishment of an independent Italy — but it’s faded from public memory outside of Italy. Its narratives are obscure these days because of the complexity of the conflict it helped to end (the battle involved France, Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Austrian Empire). It doesn’t show up in high school history classes like Waterloo, Austerlitz, Sedan, and Gettysburg do.
But it did change the world in unexpected ways. In fact, one man’s encounter with suffering at Solferino helped to make the world a little bit better. A combination of strange coincidence and basic human emotion became the foundation of the rickety structure that we call international law — a system that is in great danger today.
Switzerland during the early 19th century was captivated by a religious movement called the Réveil — the revival. The movement’s leaders reinvigorated Calvinist…
