Formation of EU
Chapter 1
Early post-war period
In 1945, a family standing almost anywhere in Europe found themselves in a nation which was, or had recently been: (a) ruled by a brutal fascist dictator, (b) occupied by a foreign army or (c) both. As a direct result of these governmental failures, tens of millions of Europeans were dead and Europe’s economy lay in ruins. Worse yet, the Second World War was not an isolated historical event. If the parents were middle-aged, it would have been their second experience of colossal death and destruction; the Second World War started just two decades after the cataclysm of the First World War (1914–18). Indeed, the Second World War was the fourth time in 130 years that France and Germany were at the core of increasingly horrifying wars. 1.1.1 A climate for radical change In 1945, it was plain to all that something was desperately wrong with the way Europe governed itself. Minds were open to radical changes. It is hard for students born in the 1980s or later to connect emotionally with the misery and hardship that were so commonplace in Europe at the end of the Second World War. Difficult, yet it is essential. One simply cannot understand European integration without comprehending the mindset of Europeans in the late 1940s.
The war also caused enormous economic damage. Figures are difficult to find for central and eastern Europe, but the estimates for Western Europe are staggering. The war cost Germany and Italy four decades or more of growth and put Austrian and French GDPs back to nineteenth-century levels. Refugees, hunger and political instability The economic, political and humanitarian situation in Europe was dire in the years 1945–47, especially in Germany. Food production in 1946 was low and the 1946–47 winters were especially harsh. Hunger was widespread. Food was rationed in most European nations up to the mid-1950s. At times, rations fell to just 900 calories per day in some parts of Germany (2000 calories per day is the
Early post-war period
In 1945, a family standing almost anywhere in Europe found themselves in a nation which was, or had recently been: (a) ruled by a brutal fascist dictator, (b) occupied by a foreign army or (c) both. As a direct result of these governmental failures, tens of millions of Europeans were dead and Europe’s economy lay in ruins. Worse yet, the Second World War was not an isolated historical event. If the parents were middle-aged, it would have been their second experience of colossal death and destruction; the Second World War started just two decades after the cataclysm of the First World War (1914–18). Indeed, the Second World War was the fourth time in 130 years that France and Germany were at the core of increasingly horrifying wars. 1.1.1 A climate for radical change In 1945, it was plain to all that something was desperately wrong with the way Europe governed itself. Minds were open to radical changes. It is hard for students born in the 1980s or later to connect emotionally with the misery and hardship that were so commonplace in Europe at the end of the Second World War. Difficult, yet it is essential. One simply cannot understand European integration without comprehending the mindset of Europeans in the late 1940s.
The war also caused enormous economic damage. Figures are difficult to find for central and eastern Europe, but the estimates for Western Europe are staggering. The war cost Germany and Italy four decades or more of growth and put Austrian and French GDPs back to nineteenth-century levels. Refugees, hunger and political instability The economic, political and humanitarian situation in Europe was dire in the years 1945–47, especially in Germany. Food production in 1946 was low and the 1946–47 winters were especially harsh. Hunger was widespread. Food was rationed in most European nations up to the mid-1950s. At times, rations fell to just 900 calories per day in some parts of Germany (2000 calories per day is the