ABSTRACT
The Red Cross had spread throughout Europe and around the world. The conference in Geneva in 1863 had brought together no more than a handful of interested individuals from a score of European states; by contrast, the Tenth Conference in 1921 was attended by hundreds of delegates from Red Cross societies spread over six continents. National Red Cross societies, though not mentioned in the 1864 Convention, were formed to meet its stated goal, "the amelioration of the condition of the sick and wounded in war." The states that had championed militarized charity did not know what would happen to their Red Cross societies when the Great War ended. If they were no longer needed to ensure that noncombatants did their part for the war effort, and if a fresh outbreak of war was too horrible to contemplate, then logically the societies would become moribund.
