Humanitarian was first applied to organizations such as the International Red Cross/Crescent, founded in 1864 by the Swiss philanthropist Jean-Henri Dunant (1828–1910), in response to his experience with wounded soldiers at the Battle of Solferino, Italy, in 1859. From the beginning the term was thus allied with an ethical vision for the use of science and technology (initially in the form of medicine) to benefit human beings who may have previously been harmed by technology (at first in the form of military weapons).

Background

Humanitarianism is an ethical vision closely associated with the creation of the social sciences. During the nineteenth century, modern natural science began to explore social phenomena, in part to deal with the challenges presented by new human powers over the natural world. Industrial technologies created urban centers that needed better management for the benefit of the human beings who lived...