American humanitarian intervention during the Armenian crisis in the late XIX - early XX centuries

Abstract

The paper deals with the early history of American humanitarian organizations, which represents an understudied research area in Russian historiography. The paper features the activities of American humanitarian organizations in response to the Armenian crisis in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian massacres, which started in 1894, aroused a mass humanitarian movement. Due to the broad use of mass media the movement became nationwide in its scope and achieved astounding inancial success in terms of fundraising. Each outbreak of Armenian crisis (in 1909, 1912 and 1915) aroused mass public response in the USA. Three organizations were involved in relief work: the American Red Cross, the Near East Relief, and American Relief Administration. They were closely connected with the White House and the federal government. This was a characteristic of American humanitarianism. The most fruitful period of their activities was between 1915 and 1930, during which Americans successfully implemented short-term programs of humanitarian emergency, although medium-term programs of rehabilitation achieved small results due to inancial obstacles. The conclusion is made that the Armenian campaign was a watershed in the history of American humanitarianism. Started as a small-scale relief operation, it turned into the irst broad national appeal of its kind. It was unprecedented in its use of the media and support from celebrity spokespeople as well as volume of donations from American public, political and business elite. The negative aspect of the campaign was paternalistic attitudes. The conidence in their civilizing mission permeated humanitarian organizations' work with Armenians. Program to modernize the Armenians was essentially a project to „americanize" them