Editing History of the European Union (section)

==Ideas of European unity before 1948==
{{Main|Ideas of European unity before 1948}}
[[File:Europe As A Queen Sebastian Munster 1570.jpg|thumb|''[[Europa regina]]'' in [[Sebastian Münster]]'s "''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]''", 1570]]

Apart from the ideas of [[federation]], [[confederation]], or [[customs union]] such as [[Winston Churchill]]'s 1946 call for a "[[United States of Europe]]", the original development of the European Union was based on a [[Supranational union|supranational]] foundation that would "make war unthinkable and materially impossible"<ref name="Schuman Project"/><ref name="schuman.info"/> 
A peaceful means of some consolidation of European territories used to be provided by [[dynastic union]]s; less common were country-level unions, such as the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] and [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/european-union/|title=The World Factbook|work=cia.gov|date=16 February 2022}}</ref>

In 15th century, [[King of Bohemia]] [[George of Poděbrady]] proposed the [[Treaty on the Establishment of Peace throughout Christendom]] which sought to end military conflict between Christian kingdoms of Europe. The treaty proposed a multilateral framework, including a peaceful dispute resolution process, but despite a vigorous promotional campaign, the proposal was ultimately unsuccessful.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Le Goff |first=Jacques |title=The birth of Europe |last2=Le Goff |first2=Jacques |date=2005 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-22888-2 |edition=1. publ |series=The making of Europe |location=Malden, Mass. |pages=158-159}}</ref> This effort has been occasionally noted as a first coherent proposal for a proto-European Union.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Koten |first1=Marek |title=George of Bohemia: The Father of the European Union |url=https://3seaseurope.com/george-of-bohemia-podebrady-czechia-european-union/ |website=3 Seas Europe |access-date=17 July 2024 |date=21 September 2022}}</ref>

In the [[Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)|Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1818]], [[Alexander I of Russia|Tsar Alexander]], as the most advanced internationalist of the day, suggested a kind of permanent European union and even proposed the maintenance of international military forces to provide recognised states with support against changes by violence.<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Modern World |author=R. R. Palmer |page=461 }}</ref>

Pan-European political thought truly emerged during the 19th century, inspired by the liberal ideas of the [[French Revolution|French]] and [[American Revolution]]s. The following [[Napoleonic Wars]] and [[First French Empire]] (1804–1815), brought down the [[Holy Roman Empire]], enabled [[nationalism]] and following the [[Congress of Vienna]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Ghervas|first=Stella|title=EUtROPEs. The Paradox of European Empire|publisher=University of Chicago Center in Paris|year=2014|isbn=978-2-9525962-6-8|editor-last=Boyer|editor-first=John W.|pages=49–81|chapter=Antidotes to Empire: From the Congress System to the European Union|editor-last2=Molden|editor-first2=Berthold}}</ref> the ideals of internationalism like with [[Immanuel Kant]] and European unity flourished across the continent, especially in the writings of [[Wojciech Jastrzębowski]] (1799–1882)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pinterič |first1=Uroš |last2=Prijon |first2=Lea |title=European Union in 21st Century |publisher=University of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Social Sciences |date=2013 |isbn=978-80-8105-510-2}}</ref> or [[Giuseppe Mazzini]] (1805–1872).<ref>{{cite book |last=Mack Smith |first=Denis |authorlink=Denis Mack Smith |title=Mazzini |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-300-17712-1}}</ref> The term ''[[United States of Europe]]'' ({{langx|fr|États-Unis d'Europe}}) was used at that time by [[Victor Hugo]] (1802–1885) during a speech at the [[International Peace Congress]] held in Paris in 1849:

{{blockquote|A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood ... A day will come when we shall see ... the United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, reaching out for each other across the seas.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Metzidakis |first=Angelo |title=Victor Hugo and the Idea of the United States of Europe |journal=Nineteenth-Century French Studies |volume=23 |issue=1/2 |pages=72–84 |date=1994 |jstor=23537320}}</ref>}}

===From World War I to World War II===
[[File:Former Flag of the International Paneuropean Union.svg|thumb|1922 [[European flag]] of the [[Paneuropean Union]]]]
[[File:Aristide Briand.png|thumb|upright=.8|[[Aristide Briand]]]]
During the [[interwar period]], the consciousness that national markets in Europe were interdependent though confrontational, along with the observation of a larger and growing US market on the other side of the ocean, nourished the urge for the economic integration of the continent.{{sfn|Kaiser|Varsori|2010|p=140}} In 1920, advocating the creation of a European [[economic union]], the British economist [[John Maynard Keynes]] wrote that "a Free Trade Union should be established ... to impose no protectionist tariffs whatever against the produce of other members of the Union."<ref>John Maynard Keynes, ''Economic Consequences of the Peace'', New York: Harcourt, Brace & Howe, 1920, pp. 265–66.</ref> During the same decade, the [[Austrians|Austrian]] [[Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi]], in light of the dissolution of the [[Habsburg Empire]], imagined as one of the first modern political unions of Europe, founded the [[Paneuropean Union|Pan-Europa Movement]].<ref>{{citation |last=Rosamond |first=Ben |year=2000 |title=Theories of European Integration |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |oclc=442641648 |pages=21–22}}</ref> His ideas influenced his contemporaries, among whom was then-[[Prime Minister of France]] [[Aristide Briand]]. As French prime minister, [[List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates|Nobel Peace Prize laureate]] for the [[Locarno Treaties]] and follower of the Paneuropean Union Aristide Briand delivered a widely recognized speech at the [[League of Nations]], the precursor of the [[United Nations]],<ref>{{citation |editor1-last=Weigall |editor1-first=David |editor2-last=Stirk |editor2-first=Peter M. R. |year=1992 |title=The Origins and Development of the European Community |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_he0AAAAIAAJ |location=Leicester |publisher=Leicester University Press |isbn=9780718514280 |pages=11–15}}</ref> in [[Geneva]] on 5 September 1929 for a [[federal Europe]] to secure Europe and settle the historic [[Franco-German enmity]].<ref name="Schulz 2010 g046">{{cite web | last=Schulz | first=Matthias | title=Der Briand-Plan und der Völkerbund als Verhandlungsarena für die europäische Einigung zwischen den Kriegen | publisher=IEG(http://www.ieg-mainz.de) | date=December 3, 2010 | url=http://ieg-ego.eu/de/threads/europaeische-netzwerke/politische-netzwerke/europa-netzwerke-der-zwischenkriegszeit/matthias-schulz-briand-plan-und-voelkerbund-in-der-zwischenkriegszeit | language=de | access-date=November 16, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Nelsson 2019 n549">{{cite web | last=Nelsson | first=Richard | title=Aristide Briand's plan for a United States of Europe | website=the Guardian | date=September 5, 2019 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2019/sep/05/aristide-briands-plan-for-united-states-of-europe-september-9 | access-date=November 16, 2023}}</ref>

=== World War II (1939–1945) ===
[[File:Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. CL3400.jpg|thumb|After two devastating world wars, the political climate favoured an international unity that could preserve peace in Europe effectively ([[Hamburg]], after a massive [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|bombing in 1943]] in the picture).]]

[[World War II]] from 1939 to 1945 demonstrated more than ever the horrors of war, but particularly also of [[extremism]], of discrimination and of genocide. As with devastating wars before, there was a desire to ensure it could never happen again, particularly with the war bringing the world [[nuclear weapon]]s. Most European countries failed to maintain their [[Great Power]] status, with the exception of the [[Soviet Union]], which became a superpower after World War II and maintained that status for 45 years. This left two rival ideologically opposed superpowers.<ref>[http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=243 Europe in ruins in the aftermath of the Second World War] ena.lu</ref>

With large scale war being waged in Europe once again in the 1930s and becoming [[World War II]], the question of what to fight against and what for, had to be agreed on. A first agreement was the [[Declaration of St James's Palace]] of 1941, when [[World War II resistance|Europe's resistance]] gathered in London. This was expanded on by the 1941 [[Atlantic Charter]], establishing the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] and their common goals, inciting a new wave of global international institutions like the [[United Nations]] ([[United Nations Conference on International Organization|founded 1945]]) or the [[Bretton Woods System]] (1944).<ref name="Office of the Historian 1946 r351">{{cite web | title=Milestones: 1937–1945 | website=Office of the Historian | date=March 8, 1946 | url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/bretton-woods | access-date=November 16, 2023}}</ref>

During the [[Moscow Conference (1943)|1943 Moscow Conference]] and [[Tehran Conference]] plans to establish joint institutions for a post-war world and Europe became increasingly an agenda. This led to a decision at the [[Yalta Conference]] in 1944 to form a [[European Advisory Commission]], later replaced by the [[Council of Foreign Ministers]] and the [[Allied Control Council]], following the German surrender and the [[Potsdam Agreement]] in 1945. 

With war still raging, resistance movements formulated their vision of a post-war Europe, the [[Ventotene Manifesto|Ventotene prison Manifesto]] of 1941 by [[Altiero Spinelli]] propagated European integration through the [[Italian Resistance]] and after 1943 through the Italian [[European Federalist Movement]]. In March 1943, in a radio address, the [[United Kingdom]]'s leader Sir [[Winston Churchill]] spoke warmly of "restoring the true greatness of Europe" once victory had been achieved, and mused on the post-war creation of a "Council of Europe" which would bring the European nations together to build peace.<ref name="Klos 2017 51">{{cite book |last=Klos |first=Felix |title=Churchill's Last Stand: The Struggle to Unite Europe |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |date=2017 |pages=51 |isbn=978-1-78673-292-7}}</ref><ref name="Churchill">{{cite web |last=Churchill |first=Winston |title=National Address |url=https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1941-1945-war-leader/national-address/ |website=The International Churchill Society|date=21 March 1943}}</ref>

===Aftermath (1945–1948)===
[[File:President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill seated on the quarterdeck of HMS PRINCE OF WALES for a Sunday service during the Atlantic Conference, 10 August 1941. A4815.jpg|thumb|[[Winston Churchill]] (right, during the [[Atlantic Charter|Atlantic Conference]]), consistent advocate of continential European integration, later along with his son-in-law [[Duncan Sandys]]]]
By the end of the war European integration became seen as an antidote to the [[extreme nationalism]] which caused the war.<ref>{{cite web|title=The political consequences|publisher=CVCE|url=http://www.cvce.eu/obj/die_politischen_folgen-de-bafcfa2d-7738-48f6-9b41-3201090b67bb.html|access-date=28 April 2013}}</ref> On 19 September 1946 in a much recognized speech [[Winston Churchill]] reiterated his calls since 1930 for a "European Union" and "Council of Europe", at the [[University of Zürich]]. After leaving office, Churchill called as a civilian for a [[United States of Europe]]. Coincidentally<ref name="Union of European Federalists (UEF)">{{cite web | title=Union of European Federalists (UEF): Churchill and Hertenstein | website=Union of European Federalists (UEF) | url=https://www.federalists.eu/uef/our-achievements/churchill-and-hertenstein | access-date=2022-05-17 | archive-date=5 June 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605224333/https://www.federalists.eu/uef/our-achievements/churchill-and-hertenstein | url-status=dead }}</ref> parallel to his speech the [[Hertensteiner Cross|Hertenstein Congress]] [[Weggis|in the Lucerne Canton]] was being held, resulting in the [[Union of European Federalists]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.zeit.de/reden/die_historische_rede/200115_hr_churchill1_englisch|title=Ein britischer Patriot für Europa: Winston Churchills Europa-Rede, Universität Zürich, 19. September 1946|newspaper=Zeit Online|access-date=13 January 2010|trans-title=A British Patriot for Europe: Winston Churchill's Speech on Europe University of Zurich, 19 September 1946}}</ref> one of the then founded and later constituting members of the [[European Movement]]. [[Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi]], who successfully established during the [[interwar period]] the oldest organization for European integration, the [[Paneuropean Union]], founded in June 1947 the [[European Parliamentary Union]] (EPU). To ensure Germany could never threaten the peace again, its heavy industry was partly dismantled (See: [[Allied plans for German industry after World War II]]) and its main coal-producing regions were either awarded to neighbouring countries ([[Province of Silesia|Silesia]]), managed as separate directly by an occupying power ([[Saarland]])<ref>{{Cite web|last=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=2019-09-12|title=Saarland|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Saarland|access-date=2021-08-19}}</ref> or put under international control ([[Ruhr area]]).<ref name="yoder">{{cite journal|last=Yoder|first=Amos|date=July 1955|title=The Ruhr Authority and the German Problem|url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500014261|journal=Review of Politics|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=17|issue=3|pages=345–358|doi=10.1017/S0034670500014261|s2cid=145465919 }}</ref><ref>*[http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=6584 French proposal regarding the detachment of German industrial regions] 8 September 1945<br />[http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/saar.htm France, Germany and the Struggle for the War-making Natural Resources of the Rhineland][http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=465 Letter from Konrad Adenauer to Robert Schuman] (26 July 1949) Warning him of the consequences of the dismantling policy. (requires Flash Player)<br />[http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=16822 Letter from Ernest Bevin to Robert Schuman] (30 October 1949) British and French foreign ministers. Bevin argues that they need to reconsider the Allies' dismantling policy in the occupied zones (requires Flash Player)</ref>

Though by 1947 a growing rift between the western Allied Powers and the [[Soviet Union]] became evident as a result of the rigged [[1947 Polish legislative election]] which constituted an open breach of the [[Yalta Agreement]], followed by the announcement of the [[Truman Doctrine]] on 12 March 1947. On 4 March 1947 France and the United Kingdom signed the [[Treaty of Dunkirk]] for mutual assistance in the event of future military aggression in the aftermath of [[World War II]] against any of the pair. The rationale for the treaty was the threat of a potential future military attack, specifically a Soviet one in practice, though publicised under the disguise of a German one, according to the official statements. Immediately following the [[1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état|February 1948 coup d'état]] by the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia]], the [[London Six-Power Conference]] was held, resulting in the [[Soviet]] boycott of the Allied Control Council and its incapacitation, an event marking the beginning of the [[Cold War]]. The remainder of the year 1948 marked the beginning of the institutionalised modern European integration.