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”