![Rows of flags outside the U.N. headquarters at the Palais des Nations in Geneva](/content/images/size/w1304/2023/03/un-headquarters-geneva.jpg)
International cooperation is shaped by a history of waterways and wars
The first international organization dates to an 1804 treaty on the Rhine River. In the 20th century, organizations for carrying out a lot of the world's cooperation and development proliferated to find complex solutions and prevent wars.