Early Modern Roots of Maritime Neutrality

Booktalk

In this seminar, Leos Müller will presents his book Neutrality in World History  with focus on the practice and theory of maritime neutrality.  The author traces the origins of early modern neutrality to Hugo Grotius discourse of mare liberum and neutrality at sea. He argues that the practice of exploitation of neutral flag, used in naval conflicts in seventeenth-century Europe, merged with the the legal discourse of neutrality in the eighteenth century. The process culminates in the two so-called Leagues of Armed neutrality in 1780-1783 and 1800-1801.