Editing History of Europe (section)

==Recent history==
{{Further |Cold War (1979–1985)|History of the European Union|International relations since 1989}}

[[File:Thefalloftheberlinwall1989.JPG|thumb|right|Germans standing on top of the [[Berlin Wall]] at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], November 1989; it would begin to be torn apart in the following days.]]
[[File:Cold War border changes.png|thumb|upright=1.182|Changes in national boundaries after the end of the Cold War and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991]]

Western Europe began economic and then political integration, with the aim to unite the region and defend it. This process included organisations such as the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] and the [[Council of Europe]]. The [[Solidarność]] movement in the 1980s weakened the [[Polish People's Republic|Communist government in Poland]]. At the time the Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] initiated [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]], which weakened Soviet influence in Europe. In 1989 after the [[Pan-European Picnic]] the [[Iron Curtain]] and the [[Fall of the Berlin Wall|Berlin Wall came down]] and Communist governments outside the Soviet Union were deposed. In 1990 the Federal Republic of Germany absorbed East Germany. In 1991 the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in Moscow collapsed, [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|ending the USSR]], which split into fifteen independent states. The most violent dissolution happened in Yugoslavia. Four out of six Yugoslav republics declared independence and for most of them a violent war ensued, in some parts lasting until 1995. In 2006 Montenegro seceded and became an independent state. [[Kosovo]]'s government [[2008 Kosovo declaration of independence|unilaterally declared independence]] from Serbia on 17 February 2008.
The [[European Economic Community]] pushed for closer integration, co-operation in foreign and home affairs, and started to increase its membership into the neutral and former communist countries. In 1993, the [[Maastricht Treaty]] established the [[European Union]], succeeding the EEC. The neutral countries of Austria, Finland and Sweden acceded to the EU, and those that did not join were tied into the EU's economic market via the [[European Economic Area]]. These countries also entered the [[Schengen Agreement]] which lifted border controls between member states.<ref name="Europa History 90-99">{{cite web|title=A Europe without frontiers|publisher=[[Europa (web portal)]]|url=http://europa.eu/abc/history/1990-1999/index_en.htm|access-date=25 June 2007|archive-date=17 March 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317105311/http://europa.eu/abc/history/1990-1999/index_en.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''[[euro]]'' was created in 1999 and replaced all previous currencies in participating states in 2002, forming the ''[[eurozone]]''.

The EU did not participate in the [[Yugoslav Wars]], and was divided on supporting the United States in the 2003–2011 [[Iraq War]]. NATO was part of the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|war in Afghanistan]], but at a much lower level of involvement than the United States.

In the [[post–Cold War era]], NATO and the EU have been gradually admitting most of the former members of the Warsaw Pact. In 2004, the EU [[2004 enlargement of the European Union|gained 10 new members]]. ([[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], and [[Lithuania]], which had been part of the Soviet Union; [[Czech Republic]], Hungary, Poland, [[Slovakia]], and [[Slovenia]], five former-communist countries; [[Malta]], and the divided island of [[Cyprus]].) These were followed by [[2007 enlargement of the European Union|Bulgaria and Romania in 2007]]. Russia's regime interpreted these expansions as violations against NATO's promise to not expand "one inch to the east" in 1990.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315-2.html|title=NATO's Eastward Expansion: Calming Russian Fears|author=Spiegel Online, Hamburg|date=26 November 2009|newspaper=Der Spiegel|access-date=17 June 2015|archive-date=9 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609045426/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315-2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Russia engaged in bilateral disputes about gas supplies with [[Belarus]] and [[Ukraine]] which endangered the European supply, and engaged in a [[Russo-Georgian War|war with Georgia]] in 2008.
Public opinion in the EU turned against enlargement, partially due to what was seen as over-eager expansion including Turkey gaining candidate status. The [[Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe|European Constitution]] was rejected [[Referendums related to the European Union|in France and the Netherlands]], and then (as the [[Treaty of Lisbon]]) in Ireland, although a second vote passed in Ireland in 2009.

The [[2008 financial crisis]] and the [[Great Recession]] affected Europe, and government responded with [[austerity]]. Limited [[National accounts|ability]] of the smaller EU nations (most notably [[Economy of Greece#2010–2018 government debt crisis|Greece]]) to handle their debts led to social unrest including the [[anti-austerity movement]], government liquidation, and financial insolvency. In May 2010, the German parliament agreed to loan 22.4&nbsp;billion euros to Greece over three years, with the stipulation that Greece follow strict austerity measures. See [[European sovereign-debt crisis]].

Beginning in 2014, [[Ukraine]] has been in a [[Revolution of Dignity|state of revolution]] and unrest. On 16 March, a [[2014 Crimean status referendum|disputed referendum]] was held in [[Crimea]] leading to the ''de facto'' secession of Crimea and its largely internationally unrecognized [[Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation|annexation]] to the Russian Federation.

In June 2016, in a [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|referendum in the United Kingdom]] on the [[European Union–United Kingdom relations|country's membership in the European Union]], 52% of voters voted to leave the EU, leading to the complex [[Brexit]] separation process and negotiations, which led to [[Aftermath of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|political and economic changes]] for both the UK and the remaining European Union countries. The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. Later that year, Europe was affected by the [[COVID-19 pandemic]].

According to the ''Wall Street Journal'' in 2021 as [[Angela Merkel]] stepped down as [[Chancellor of Germany]] after 16 years:<blockquote> Ms. Merkel leaves in her wake a weakened Europe, a region whose aspirations to act as a third [[superpower]] have come to seem ever more unrealistic. When she became chancellor in 2005, the EU was at a high point: It had adopted the [[euro]], which was meant to rival the [[United States dollar|dollar]] as a [[World currency|global currency]], and [[Enlargement of the European Union|had just expanded by absorbing former members of the Soviet bloc]]. Today’s EU, by contrast, is geographically and economically diminished. Having lost the U.K. because of [[Brexit]], it faces deep political and cultural divisions, lags behind in the global race for innovation and technology and is increasingly squeezed by the mounting [[China–United States relations|U.S.-China strategic rivalry]]. Europe has endured thanks in part to Ms. Merkel’s pragmatic stewardship, but it has been battered by crises during her entire time in office.<ref>Bojan Pancevski, "Merkel Says Auf Wiedersehen to a Diminished Europe: The long-serving German chancellor helped the EU survive a string of crises, but her caution and focus on her own country’s interests have undermined the continent’s once-grand aspirations" [https://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-says-auf-wiedersehen-to-a-diminished-europe-11632495640  ''Wall Street Journal'' Sept 24. 2021] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927103547/https://www.wsj.com/articles/merkel-says-auf-wiedersehen-to-a-diminished-europe-11632495640 |date=27 September 2021 }}</ref></blockquote>Russia began an [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|invasion of Ukraine]] on 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]] that began in 2014. It is the largest [[conventional military attack]] in Europe since World War II.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Herb|first1=Jeremy|last2=Starr|first2=Barbara|author-link2=Barbara Starr|last3=Kaufman|first3=Ellie|others=Oren Liebermann and Michael Conte|date=24 February 2022|title=US orders 7,000 more troops to Europe following Russia's invasion of Ukraine|publisher=CNN|url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/us-military-ukraine-russia/index.html|access-date=27 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220227052443/https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/us-military-ukraine-russia/index.html|archive-date=27 February 2022|quote=Russia's invasion of its neighbor in Ukraine is the largest conventional military attack that's been seen since World War II, the senior defense official said Thursday outlining United States observations of the unfolding conflict}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Karmanau|first1=Yuras|last2=Heintz|first2=Jim|last3=Isachenkov|first3=Vladimir|last4=Litvinova|first4=Dasha|others=Photograph by [[Evgeniy Maloletka]] (AP Photo)|date=24 February 2022|title=Russia presses invasion to outskirts of Ukrainian capital|publisher=ABC News|location=United States|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-attacks-ukraine-defiant-putin-warns-us-nato-83078619|url-status=live|access-date=26 February 2022|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220227/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/russia-attacks-ukraine-defiant-putin-warns-us-nato-83078619|archive-date=27 February 2022|quote=... [a]mounts to the largest ground war in Europe since World War II.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Tsvetkova|first1=Maria|last2=Vasovic|first2=Aleksandar|last3=Zinets|first3=Natalia|last4=Charlish|first4=Alan|last5=Grulovic|first5=Fedja|others=Writing by Robert Birsel and Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by William Mallard, Angus MacSwan and David Clarke|date=27 February 2022|title=Putin puts nuclear 'deterrence' forces on alert|agency=[[Reuters]]|location=[[Kyiv]]|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/western-allies-expel-key-russian-banks-global-system-ukraine-fights-2022-02-27/|url-status=live|access-date=27 February 2022|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220227/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/western-allies-expel-key-russian-banks-global-system-ukraine-fights-2022-02-27/|archive-date=27 February 2022|quote=... [t]he biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.}}</ref>