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Origins of European Integration: Historical Background
September 29, Wednesday
Main question:
After many centuries of warfare, why did the European states decide to merge their economic and political systems?
Today: the background
Economic Political Ideological
Economic background:
Interwar years Severe inflation Breakdown of the int’l monetary system Nationalistic economic policies Great Depression (1929-1932)
World War II Devastated European economies
Dresden, 1944
Churchill’s Zurich Speech (1946)“…over wide areas a vast quivering mass of
tormented, hungry, careworn and bewildered human beings gape at the ruins of their cities and homes, and scan the dark horizons for the approach of some new peril, tyranny and terror”.
Political Background
The German problem The Cold War context Domestic Communist “threat”
Ideological background
Origins go back to antiquity,
however European states
never united voluntarily
Europe united: Roman Empire (5th cent BC – 5th cent AD)
Europe united:
Charlemagne’s Frankish empire
Napoleon
Napoleon Crossing the Alps on 20th May 1800Museum of Palace of Versailles, Paris, France
Ideological background
Abbey of Saint-Pierre Kant’s pacific union Coudenhove-Kalergi and the Paneuropa
movement Churchill’s Speech in Zurich “The Tragedy of
Europe”