Editing History of the European Union (section)

=== 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>