Dresden on February 15, 1945: the symbol of a destroyed Europe
1.
Introduction
a) The European suicide
European nations at the beginning of the XXth century
were almighty. The extremely wealthy
European Nation-States controlled the world through the colonial expansion. The problem was
that the efficient nation-model state led to rising tensions as the different European states tried to impose their hegemony over each
other and fight for a bigger part of the colonial cake. That brought the Triple Alliance (1882) and the Triple Entente (1907). Rearmament was the
rule as Europe entered the era of the “Armed
Peace” (Si vis pacem para bellum).
The result was
that France, Prussia, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the rest of European
states ended up fighting each other in the First
World War, an apocalyptic conflict that destroyed them. Starting with assassination in Sarajevo and the ensuing dominos fall. That led to an apocalyptic conflict. One example would be enough to realize the horror of
the conflict. The 22 august 1914, in one
single day, in a few hours, 27.000 French soldiers were killed in what is
so far the bloodiest battle in French History. It is the same amount of
soldiers killed in the War of Algeria between 1954 and 1962. And half of the
total US soldiers killed in the Vietnam War (1964-1975). 900 French soldiers were killed daily during the 1.556 days that the
War lasted (1.4 million).
Corpses of French Soldiers outside a Trench
The consequences of the war was the crisis of the liberal state model and
the implosion of the nation-state
system. But First
World War was nevertheless the first
step towards the almost complete destruction of Europe in World War Two. In
the Inter War period (1918-1939) European nationalism got stronger and
stronger as consequence of the totalitarian approach resulting from the Soviet revolution (1917).
Lenin giving a speech in October 1917
and its contrary reactions: Italian Fascism (1922)Benito Mussolini and the crowds
and German Nazism (1933).
Hitler and the masses
Where did all this come from?
The liberal
model of the state allowed the western nation-states to achieve unprecedented levels of economic and
technological development, exponentially bolstered by a series of inventions and innovations facilitating
the triumph of capitalism. These
major advances and burgeoning wealth, however, were not equally shared by society's different strata. Beneath an
extraordinarily rich ruling class the vast majority of the people struggled
just to survive. This growing and glaring contrast between rich and poor
generated the “social question,” a
conflict addressed by a series of “socialist” thinkers who denounced the exploitation of the working class and proposed a fairer
redistribution of wealth. In the wake of the Communist Manifesto
(1848) the proletarians intensified their efforts to organize and transform the social order, whether via revolution or
the progressive triumph of universal suffrage and other reforms.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
The trauma of World War I and the triumph
of the Russian Revolution knocked the liberal state back on its heels. In
some countries parliamentary democracies were replaced by totalitarian
regimes that sought to impose their model around the world, and this increased exponentially nationalists
feelings to the point that confrontation generated the growing tensions
tensions that would lead to World War II, because of Hitler’s Lebensraum.
b) A post-war Europe in ruins
In 1945 Europe was a continent in ruins. Especially Germany. The bombing of Dresden at the end of the War in a joint British and American operation, was a symbol of this. In four raids, between 13 and 15 February 1945, 772 heavy bombers of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and 527 of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city. The bombing and the resulting fire destroyed more than 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of the city centre and killed around 25,000 people. This action has been considered by some historians a mass murder as Dresden was a cultural landmark with little strategic significance, and the attacks were not proportionate to military gains.
Dresden after the bombing (13 and 15 February 1945)
The city of Berlin
also paid a heavy toll as it was almost completely destroyed after the Battle of Berlin (16 April-2 May 1945)
that costed half a million beings their lives, their well-being or their sanity.
Berlin in May 1945
For realizing how it was you must see the 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel movie Downfall (Der Untergang) that narrates the last days of Hitler in the Bunker. Impressive!!!
c) A World divided between the US and the USSR: the cold war (1948-1991)
The problem was that in 1945 Europe had almost disappeared from the World scene. The European
Nation-States that in 1914 were controlling the world in three decades had
become destroyed countries with no influence in the Planet. After their suicide
in the two World Wars of the first half of the 20th century, European
Nation-States, were in 1945 at the mercy
of both World Powers: the US and the USSR After being allies in the War,
both started to fight in a long conflict: The Cold War.
The situation of Europe was desperate. Europeans
were starving and needed everything. The solution was the American Aid as the United States were by then the only intact
economy. US aid started first in an disorderly way in a period called the Dollar Gap as the stock of US dollars was insufficient to satisfy the demand of European customers. At least until everything changed thanks to the Marshall Plan, technically known as the European Recovery Program, implemented by George C. Marshall who after being the Chief of staff of the US Army during World War II, from September 1930 to November 1945, had become the 50th US Secretary of State, under the Presidency of Harry Truman, from 1947 to 1949.
George Catlett Marshall (1880-1959)
The Marshall Plan proposed an orderly aid as it obliged the European Nation States to act co-ordinately in order to receive the US aid. The Plan was a success as it opened up for Europe a brilliant period of economic reconstruction of the decades known as the Thirty Glorious Years (1945-1975). The problem was that it was never accepted by Stalin, top the point that he decided to break up with its Western allies.
As you remember Stalin became an ally of Hitler from August 23 1939 (Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact), something that was surprising as so far Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany had been frontal enemies (fighting for instance in the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War). But suddenly their foreign policy changed completely and the two great powers became allies. Which remembers a little bit what has happened with the US and Russia with Trump and Putin.
Cartoon of Hitler and Stalin
Cartoon of Trump and Putin
The Nazi-Soviet Agreement had one aim: the distribution of Poland, which had been an independent country for the first time in its History since 1919. Twenty years later the Hitler-Stalin Alliance enabled the Wehrmacht to invade Poland in Dantzig the 1 september 1939, and 16 days later it was the turn of the Red Army. By the way Soviet occupation was far more bloody as Stalin coldly ordered the execution in the Katyn forest of 22.000 Polish . citizens, essentially military officers, policemen, intellectuals and civilians that on Stalin’s view could organize a solid opposition to the Soviet occupation and rule.
Exhumation in the Katyn’s Forest
Unexpectedly the “entente” between Hitler and Stalin did not last long, as it ended because Hitler ordered the invasion of Russia in what was called the Operation Barbarrossa that started on Sunday 22 June 1941. This decision was a fatal mistake for Hitler as it led to the disastrous 7 months battle of Stalingrad (17 July 1942 to 2 February 1943).
German troops in Stalingrad
After six months the German General Von Paulus surrendered the 90.000 men left from the 6th German Army. The number of casualties was of more than a million soldiers on each side. 40.000 civilians were killed. The defeat showed clearly to the world that Hitler will lose the War.
A destroyed city: Stalingrad
The Russians however paid the heaviest price for winning World War II, as they suffered 27 million casualties, both civilian and military, as a result of all war-related causes. The US had only 1 million casualties. As you can imagine that explains why the Russians were especially brutal during the Berlin’s final battle.
Photo of the Brandeburger Tor in May 1945
The United States and the Soviet Union ended the war in the same side. As proved the participation of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in the Conferences of Teheran (1943), Yalta (February 1945) and Postdam (July-August 1945).
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in the Yalta Conference
But Stalin's alliance
with the US did not last long, only 6 years (4
more than Hitler-Stalin’s Alliance, however), as it ended with the launching of the Marshall Plan (1947), as Stalin
would not accept American aid because that would have transformed the Soviet
Union in a free market economy. Stalin’s refusal led to the Berlin
Blockade (24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949), the first act of the
Cold War.
The Berlin Blockade and the ensuing Airlift
The result was
the Iron curtain (Churchill) and it's symbol: the Berlin
Wall (1961-1989). The interesting is that the Cold War did not
only affect Europe. Between 1948 and 1989 the whole World would be
divided between the countries that followed Capitalist Democracy and Communist
Model. There was not an open war but the USSR and the US were struggling in
all continents, until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
Map of US and USSR allies
d) The creation of
NATO and of the Two Germanies
Watching Stalin as an enemy instead of as an
ally was pretty scary for Europeans. Because the Soviet Union had a very powerful army that occupied all Eastern
Europe. The Western European states were really afraid as it was a clear
possibility that the Red Army could occupy them as well. So they decided to act
jointly with their American Ally to protect themselves from Stalin.
They took two
measures. The first one was the creation of NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Treaty of Washington) on April 4, 1949. A mutual
assistance military alliance including originally France, the UK and the
Benelux Countries (Western Union) plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. Today it includes 32 member states.
The second measure was the creation of an independent German State. Germany in 1945 was occupied by soldiers belonging to the US, USSR, France and UK. But after Stalin became an enemy the three remaining
western powers decided that it was a good idea to create a Western German State
as barrier against Soviet menace. So was founded the German Federal Republic (with its own constitution: the Bonn’s
Fundamental Law: Grundgesetz für die
Bundesrepublik Deutschland, approved on 8 May 1949). It would join NATO in
1955.
Five months later
Stalin pushed for the creation of the German
Democratic Republic, which became a country on 7 October of the same year.
Western and Eastern Germany would be separated 40 years, until the 3
October of 1990 with the dissolution of the
GDR and the integration of its Länder
in the GFR. Previously was signed on 12 September 1990 the Two plus Four
Agreement (Treaty on the Final
Settlement with Respect to Germany) in which the US, the USSR, the UK and
France accepted giving back to the
Germans full sovereignty to merge both Germanies.
The Two plus Four Agreement
e) How Communists
countries ended up losing the Cold War
Stalin died the 5 March 1953, being 74 years old. The Soviet regime became milder,
especially after February 1956, when Khrushchev, by now established as leader, delivered a speech titled “On the Cult of Personality and its consequences” to the Communist Party Congress. In this address, dubbed the ‘Secret Speech’, Khrushchev condemned Stalin’s use of oppression and brutality, attacked the Stalin personality cult, questioned Stalin’s leadership during World War II and accused his predecessor of economic mismanagement.
Of course tensions between the East and the
West did not disappear overnight. In 1950-1953 the US were involved in the
bloody Korean War. And from 1955 to
1975 in the Vietnam War. In 1955 was
established the Warsaw Pact, to
counteract NATO. In 1956 Russian tanks invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian Revolution. In 1959 a Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and in
October 1962 the World shook as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the 13 of August of 1961 the Berlin
appeared (it would last until the 9 of November 1989). Russian tanks went back
to Czechoslovakia during the Dubcek’s
Prague’s Spring (January-August 1968).
At the end
countries under communist’s regimes
ended up disappearing. Countries practising the “Real Socialism” (an euphemism for Communist regimes) lost the Cold
War not only because “capitalism” and “freedom” were more effective to insure
reconstruction and economic growth but because Western democracies were able to
solve the “Social Question” in a more effective way, through the development of
the Welfare State Model. A model that required State
interventionism on the economic field to avoid too much economic and social
inequality. A movement that paradoxically started in the US in the 1930’s with
the New Deal policy of FDR.
Mural symbolyzing Roosevelt's New Deal (1933-1941)
Europe
started following with France’s “Front Populaire” (Léon Blum) measures in 1937,
and after 1945 they did much better accepting the Beveridge Model in which Social
Security, and Public Welfare aids were supported all over Western Europe by tax
payers. Something that was initially possible thanks to the extraordinary
Economic growth of the Thirty Glorious years (1945-1975).
French poster of the 30 Glorious Years
It is very
significant that in the West, European Communists parties started rebelling
against Moscow, with the advent of Euro communism, with leaders as
Italian Enrico Berlinguer that was
General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) from 1972 to 1984, or the
Spaniard Santiago Carrillo, General Secretary of the Spanish Communist Party
(PCE) from 1960 to 1982.
Enrico Berlinguer (1922-1984)
The arrival to power of Margaret
Thatcher (1979-1990) and Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) was decisive as the West
took a huge economic leap forward and the USSR could not follow the rhythm of
the increase of American Military expenses, and ended up collapsing.
A process
that started with the Chernobyl Crisis (26 April 1986), continued with
the changes of Perestroika and Glasnost introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev
(March 1985 to August 1991), and was completed by the Fall of the Berlin Wall
on the 9 of November of 1989. The USSR was dissolved by the Belovezha
Accords (8 December 1991) that denounced the Treaty of 1922 creating the
USSR.
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022)
After the
collapsing of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the only two real communist countries
are Cuba and North Korea.
f) The post cold
war world (Since 1991)
Apparently the
American capitalist model had won the Cold War and some arrogant Western
intellectuals even spoke of “The End of
History” The September 11. 2001 attacks showed that the US were pretty
vulnerable after all. Islamic Terrorism since then is part of the daily life of
Westerners.
NYC September 11, 2001 : the beginning of a new phase of History
On the other hand
Capitalism in the 21st century has led to an increasingly unequal
World provoked mainly the anti-regulation movement of the 1980’s spearheaded by
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, who tried to bring back the Laissez
faire in a neo-liberal wave.
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: the deregulation leaders
Capitalism after the
1980’s neoliberal way has produced a
substantial rising of economic and social inequalities, that is leading to
a new oligarchic model of the State controlled by the Establishment. To the point that in the 21st
century 1% of the World population controls 50% of the total wealth of the
planet (80 million out of 8000 millions). With the worrying consequence that
the Middle class is melting which is bringing the dangerous phenomenon of
political populisms. And that means increasing tensions and the fading out
of Democracy.
On the other hand
it is important to stress that after 1989, the transition from Communism to
Capitalism in the ex-communist regimes has been pretty badly handled.
Especially in Russia, where Boris
Yeltsin (1991-2000) started a too fast and radical transition to Capitalism
following the advice of Russian economist Yegor
Gaidar.
Boris Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidr on his right
The consequence was that the largest country
in the world was dominated by powerful multimillionaire oligarchs protected
by Putin as far as they back his regime. Because otherwise they end like Roman
Abramovich, Mijail Jodorkovski or Boris Berezovski who after having rebelled
against Putin was found dead in his London home in March 2013.
Boris
Berezovski (1946-2013)
When Yeltsin was
found unable to rule by the new masters or Russia, they decided to bring along
so replace him an obscure ex Colonel of the KGB that had worked in Eastern
Germany and after 1991 was obliged to drive a Cab in Saint Petersburg to
survive. His name was Vladimir
Vladimirovich Putin. The oligarchs made the biggest mistake of their lives
as Putin have been able to reach absolute power and refund a Neo tsarist regime with the idea that
the Might of the old USSR was to be restored. And so far he has been in power for a quarter of a century and Russia is one of the
countries that matter in the international scene. Essentially because Putin spend 40% of Russian budget in
weapons and the reinforcement of the Army. Think that Europe is having a
big trouble to bring up the average military spending over 2%, because most of the tax money is spent on financing the
Welfare State.
Putin: the New Tsar
For understanding what happened in Russia
between 1991 and 2000, and why Putin has become the Lord and Master of the
Russian Federation you should see the David Cronenberg’s movie Eastern Promises (2007) and read the
book by Emmanuel Carrère Limonov (2011). Do not miss them.
Eduard Limonov (1943-2020)
Another interesting book to understand how bad
liberalism did in the former Communist countries is Lea Ypi’s “Free. Coming of Age at the End of History” (2021), where
the author tells us how she lived the fall of communism in Albania, and how
people suffered more under the new capitalist regime. To the point that she
ended up dedicating her life to teach Marxism in the London Scholl of
Economics.
Lea Ypi (b. 1979)
And then there is the case of Communist China,
as Maoism disappthe rule of Den Xiaoping (1978-1992) who opened upthe
Era of Market Socialism that has transformed China in a
leading World Power in the 21st century. A very powerful Dictatorial state that
surprisingly is playing full by the Market rules. An amazing contradiction that
is without huge disadvantages.
Den Xiao Ping: the hero of Modern China
g) A Multilateral
World
The “socialization”
of Western capitalism and the “capitalization” of Eastern
Communism has led in very efficient way to the globalization of
the World. We have no more two big powers, the US and the USSR, as during the
Cold War but also the BRIC's: Brazil, Russia, India, China, initially, and the extremely wealthy Petro
Monarchies (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, etc) that are still
ruled by absolutists monarchies. So now
the tensions have to be dealt globally.
This global
approach to World tensions is not new. It started with the creation of
the League of Nations (1920-1946), that was substituted by
the United Nations since 1945). The rule since then is
that International Organizations (WTO, GATT, IMF, World
Bank) created by Treaties, seek to rule the world through
negotiation and governance instead of through authority and
military intervention. The consequence of globalization from the
International Relations perspective is may be the beginning of a global
constitutional history.
But Russia
and China are trying to impose their authoritarian model to the globalized
world, as an alternative to the Western Democratic System.
Xi Jiping and Putin
h) Europe in the
era of posdemocratic US (since January 20, 2025)
It is clear that Democracy is in crisis, with
the rise of populisms. Even in the US,
a country that used to lead the Free World. Think of the end of the first Term
of the Trump Administration that brought the shameful episode of the storming
of the United States Capitol by the mob of Trump supporters on January
6, 2021. In the Second Term the first thing Trump has done is to release 1600
people who were in Jail for attempting to break the US constitutional system.
Scary. But what would you expect from a country that has elected a President
convicted by a popular Jury of 24 felonies. A frightening symptom of the
weakness of the democratic model.
Washington D.C. 6 of January 2021: the Capitol Attack
The
Rule of Law and the Democratic systems still prevail in Europe. But one may
ask for how long, as the countries who lead the world in 2025 are Russia and
China which are clearly not democratic. And the US is entering as Harari says
in a “Posdemocratic Era” with Donald
Trump. Could Europe maintain its independence and the respect of the Rule of
Law? Because looking at what is happening to the US, a country that after
1945 was supposed to be the champion of the Free world, we have to admit
that the European Union is from this perspective doing much better.
Simply because the Rule of Law is one of the pillars of European integration,
along with a respect of the Welfare State principle.
The European Union is facing the 21st century
as a colossal market with a huge GDP, the third at the global level after China
and the US. In the
beginning of 2025, according to the International Monetary Fund the biggest GPD
was China’s with 19,29 billion international dollars, followed by the US with
14,84 and then the EU with 14,19. Russian GPD in 2024 was a little less than 7
billion (per capita income nr 66 of 192, behind Kazakhstan, the EU nr. 25).
(Source: https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PPPSH@WEO/EU/CHN/USA, last
retrieved 17 March 2025). Consequently the EU can afford more military expenses.
The problem is that we Europeans
lack of a political system that will ensure strong leadership. The EU has
not a strong Executive. Compare the strength of
Ursula von der Leyen compared to Xi Jiping, Vladimir Putin of Donald Trump. We
certainly are democratic Nation States that respect the rule of law, but we are
doing very poorly at the global level. We are irrelevant compared
to China, Russia, India or even the Petro Monarchies as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or
the United Arab Emirates. And most of this countries –with may be with the
exception of India- are not real democracies. And US Democracy is going through
a deep crisis.
Is the Democratic system and the Rule of Law unfit for our contemporary
world? Would we Europeans end up submitting to the
autocratic powerful countries? The answer is yes, if we are not able to defend
ourselves.
The overwhelming victory of Peter Magyar and his Tisza Party
on 12 of April od 2026 elections over pro Russian Viktor Urban
give hope to European democracies
i) Could Europeans
afford to defend themselves?
Europeans have weak armies since the German
defeat in 1945. And so far we have been able to survive thanks to the Military
Aid of the United States of America. Since 1945 Europe has not been a World power in military terms.
Essentially because since 1947 the Western European Nation States decided to spend money in reconstruction aided by
the Marshall Plan, and because the military
protection was provided essentially by the US through NATO, since in 1948 Stalin broke its alliance with the West and the started
Cold War Started.
In 1952 there was certainly a
proposal for the creation of a European
Community of Defense (ECD). But it failed as the French National Assembly
refused to ratify the treaty. Mainly because France was involved in the
Indochina War, a conflict they lost at the Dien
Bien Phu Battle (13 March to 7 May 1954). And then, from 1954 to 1962, they
were involved in the “dirty” Algerian
War. A conflict that brought back Charles de Gaulle to power in 1958, who
signed the Evian Accords on 18 March 1962, granting Algeria its independence. A
solution that almost costed him his life as the O.A.S.tried to kill him of
several occasions. Do not the miss the Fred Zinneman’s Film The Day of the Jackal (1973). Impressive
and based in a true story.
The traditionally almighty British and French
Armies were also unable to keep the
control of the Suez Canal, when Egyptian President Nasser nationalized it.
They sent troops but the fighting was short, from 29 October to 7 November 1956. British and French
were humiliated as Egypt was backed not only by the USSR (Nasser’s Ally) but by
the US, which wanted to make clear that the European colonial times were over.
The Suez Crisis: an humiliation for France and the UK
Since 1956 Europe has been protected by the
US, essentially after the creation of NATO, that interestingly survived after the
disappearance of the Warsaw Pact (may
1955 to June 1991) In fact it is its existence that is seen as a threat by
Vladimir Putin. Ukraine was invaded on 24 of February 1922 with the pretext
that Ukrainian Government pretended to join NATO.
Since then Zelenski has been able to resist
total occupation because the US and the EU established economic sanctions on Putin’s Russia and provided with money and
military aid Ukraine.
Von der Leyer and Zelenski: an "Entente Cordiale"
But the equilibrium
was broken since Trump started its second Mandate on January 20, 2025, as
he apparently has decided to ally with Putin and leave Europe alone to defend
the Westernization of Ukraine. On the 28 of February
of 2025, Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski was literally expelled from the
White House after a resounding quarrel with President Donald Trump Trump and
his VP James David Vance.
The consequence was that US withdraw their military
aid to Ukraine, and Elons Musk its satellites. After three years of War (since
February 24 of 2022, Vladimir Putin seems to be the victor thanks to the US aid. Europe is left alone against Putin
(we knew he has been attacking us from the beginning) and now against Trump,
who has declared that the European Union was created to weaken the US. For the first time in 80 years Europe and the
US we are enemies.
For the EU the consequence of all that is that
for the first time in 80 years Europeans we are left alone to fight in the
international field, as we are no longer
protected by the American Military shield.
The question is: could we now defend ourselves?
The problem is that Europeans so far have not developed strong
armies because they were protected by the US military force. Today
Americans still have bases in Europe. In June 2024 there were still 65.754
active duty US troops in Europe, in the 38 US Military bases spread across the
Old continent. Including Zaragoza or Rota in Spain since the Bilateral Treaty
Spain- US of 23 September 1953. (Not anymore Torrejón where USAF forces
retreated between 21 May 1992 and the 12 February 2004).
US Military basis all over the world
In any case Europe has
understood that from now on we have to defend ourselves. It is significant that
on 4 March the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has
presented for approval a program of
800.000 million Euros as aids for rearmament. And even more important that
on 14 March 2025 the French President Emmanuel Macron and the British Prime
Minister Keir Starmer have agreed to send unilaterally peace keeping troops to
Ukraine.
Remember that British and French however still
have the two main Europeans armies,
including nuclear devices. The UK
was the third country in the world, after the US and the USSR to develop
nuclear weapons (since 1952). In France
it was General de Gaulle (1958-1969) a strong supporter of French independence
towards the US, who insisted in developing since 1963 nuclear weapons (Force de
frappe), leading military industry with the Mirage and Rafale of Dassault, and Nuclear Submarines.
j) “Europeans: We can work it
out” (The Beatles, Rubber Soul 1965)
Now that Europeans we are left
without the US military umbrella we are obliged to get back into the arm race
if we want to preserve our independence from Putin, Trump or Xi Jiping. The difficult part is that so far we have been spending most of our tax money
in Welfare programs to ensure that economic inequalities do not become
unbearable. So we would have to tighten
our belts and reduce our lifestyle. But even increasing our military
spending we will be much better of than the average Russian or Chinese. And
certainly that most of American people, as the number of poor in the US has dramatically increased in the last
decades.
It is in fact more of a
psychological matter, as for 80 years we left our defence in the hands of our
American allies. But now that we have lost them we have to roll up our sleeves.
And I am convinced that when we pusillanimous Europeans start doing something
seriously we can do really well. Let’s remember how Europe has done much better
than the US in civil aviation with Airbus
industries. Created in 1970 as a joint European project, today it is are
doing much better than Boeing.
See the documentary “Downfall: The Case against
Boeing”. (2022) directed by Rory Kennedy. A documentary that goes through the crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX planes which claimed the lives of 346 people on board. Accidents provoked because Boeing has been more concerned with financial gain than with the safety of their passengers.
And militarily we Europeans
have developed since 1994 a great fighting plane: the Eurofighter that is currently the plane of the German Army since
2003.
The Eurofighter
These successes can be
extended to other fields. US are leading in communications technology and AI,
but for how long. The Chinese have
developed Zoom, We chat and Tik Tok, and Deepseek, the equivalent of Open
AI ChatGpt. And if China has done it why not we Europeans that are wealthier
and are in principle better educated. Wea already have European AI assistants like Lumo:
Or Le chat:
If we need to survive, we can do a
great job, though we are slow taking decisions as a result of the structure of
the EU.
Conclusion
In the actual circumstances economical union
is not enough and if we Europeans want to maintain our democracies we
will have to fight for them. Unfortunately it is not sure at all that
Member States of the EU have understood the lesson of the Ukraine War, as today
it seems that Putin's Russia is doing much better and actually could win the
War. Which would be disastrous for Europe and for the Free World. The
main problem that Europe is facing to get back as a protagonist in World
history is that we have not found an effective way of getting together
to defend our interests and our political, legal, social and economical model. Why?
This is what we are going to find out in the next Teaching Guides.
Only when they
realized their critical situation European States governments understood that
the only way of being relevant again was getting together. First they tried the
federal way and the failure of this attempt led to the Communitarian
Integration (Teaching guides 9 and 10). But before getting there we should
remember what has been the position of Europe from 1945 to the present in the
World Order, especially after the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the
disappearance of the USSR in 1991. Until the beginning of the Ukrainian War
started by Putin in February 2022, and now after the beginning of the Iranian
War that apparently seems a big mistake that may put the US in a difficult position.
In any case
getting to an autonomous Europe is more important than ever.
The most important
idea you have to retain of Teaching Guide 8 is how after 1945 Europe
was left far behind World leadership, despite our considerable
economic expansion Nevertheless prosperity has not helped European
nation states to join the league of the leading protagonists of the World contemporary
history. Ukraine’s War and the new US foreign policy started by
Donald Trump has changed this situation after almost 8 decades, but it is not
sure that European States are willing or capable of resisting Putin and Xi
Jiping. Mainly because money still makes the world go round after
all.
2. How to study Teaching Guide 8:
a) Read the corresponding text to T.G. 8 in the “Aula Virtual”.
b) Familiarize yourself with the following basic Chronology of the
period:
CHRONOLOGY OF TG
8
a)
Armed Peace period (1871-1914)
19th
century
1817-1825 James Monroe 5th POTUS. America for the Americans.
1824 Ayacucho Battle. End of Spanish
presence in America.
1839-1842 Opium
Wars (UK against China. Hong Kong)
1861
12 April Beginning
of the American Civil War (Until 26
May 1865).
8 December Napoleon III orders a military French intervention in Mexico (until
1867)
1863 Henry Dunant founds the Red Cross.
1868 Beginning
of the Meiji Era in Japan (until
1912).
1870 22 of April Vladimir
Illich Ulianov –better known as Lenin-
is born in Simbirsk (Russian Empire)
1-2 September
French defeat at Sedan. End of the Franco-Prussian
War
1871, 18 January
Proclamation in Versailles of the German Empire (2nd Reich).
18 March to 28
May French Commune
1878, 6 December:
Joseph Dzugashvili –later known as Stalin-
is born in Gori (Georgia)
1882 Triple
Alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy.
1883, 29 July: Benito Mussolini is born in
Predappio (Kingdom of Italy)
1884 Beginning of the Berlin Conference regulating the European colonisation in Africa.
Height of European Colonial Imperialism.
1889, 20 April: Adolf Hitler is born in Braunau
am Inn (Austria)
1891 French-Russian
Alliance.
1892, 4 of December: Francisco Franco is born in
Ferrol (Galicia)
1893 The
US invade Hawaii (annexation in
1898).
1894 Advent of the Tsar Nicholas II (Until 1917)
1898 Spanish
American War in Cuba and Philipinnes.
1899-1901 Boxer
Rebellion in China against Western Powers.
20th
century
1903 Second
Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party: Lenin and the “Bolsheviks”.
1904
8 February
Beginning of the Russo-Japanese
War Until 5 september 1905.
8 April Entente
cordiale (Alliance of France and the United Kingdom).
1905
22 January Bloody Sunday. Beginning of the Russian Revolution.
7-18 December
Moscow uprising, height of the Russian revolution.
1906, 6 May
Russian Constitution.
1907 Triple
Entente (France, UK and Russia).
b)
First World War (1914 – 1918)
1914, 28 June Assassination
in Sarajevo of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Throne
28
July. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Beginning of World War I.
1916, 3d
January Sykes Picot Agreements. Europeans
decide the partition of the Ottoman Empire.
21 February to 18 December 1916: Verdun’s Battle.
1917,
8-16 March February Revolution in Russia
(Alexander Kerensky).
25 April-8 June
French Army mutinies
7 November Russian “October” Revolution
1918,
3 March Brest-Litovsk Treaty. Russia withdraw
from the War signing a separate peace with Germany.
16-17 July Assassination of Nicholas II and his family
in the Ipatiev House (Yekaterinburg)
11 November Signature
of the Armistice between the Axis
and the Allies. End of World War I.
c)
Interwar period (1918-1939).
1919, 5-12
January: Spartacist revolution (Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg).
28 June: Treaty of Versailles (Diktat).
11 August: Weimar Constitution
1920, 16 January First meeting of the League of Nations
24
February Foundation of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
1922,
28-31 October March on Rome. Mussolini
named head of the Italian Government (until 1942).
1923,
13
September Military
coup of Primo de Rivera in Spain (Dictatorship until 1931).
8-9
November: Beer Hall Putsch (Munich’s Putsch). Hitler in Jail.
1924, 21 January
Death of Lenin.
1929 , 11 February Lateran
Treaty. Creation of the Vatican State (Mussolini).
5 September Briand’s Proposal for a European Union
24 October Wall Street Crash (Black
Thursday)
1933, 30 January Adolph
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany.
23
March Enabling Act. Beginning of Hitler’s Dictatorship.
2
August: After the Death of Hindenburg, Hitler becomes also President (besides
being chancellor). He becomes the Führer.
1934, 30 June-2nd
July (Bavaria): Night of the Long Knives
1936,
18 July Beginning
of the Spanish Civil War (until 1st
April 1939).
1-16 August: Berlin
Olympic Games.
19-24
August: Beginning of the Moscow Trials. Stalin gets rid of all
soviet revolutionaries (Until 1938).
1938,
13 March:
Annexation of Austria to the 3d Reich (Anschluss).
30
September: Munich Agreement
(Integration in the 3d Reich of the Sudetenland)
d)
Second World War (1939-1945)
1939,
1 April End of the Spanish Civil War with the
complete victory of Franco.
1 September Germany
invades Poland. Beginning of World War
II.
1940,
18 June General Charles De Gaulle exhorts
French to resist the German invasion.
22 June Armistice. France surrenders. Pétain head of state (11 July 1940 to 25 August
1944).
1942, 20 January Wannsee Conference. 15 high-ranking
Nazi Party and German Government officials gather to discuss and coordinate the implementation
of the “Final Solution” (Endlösung).
1943, 3 February German troops surrender in Stalingrad.
1944, 6 June Normandy
Landings (Operation Overlord).
1945,
20 April Beginning
of the Berlin’s Battle (until May
2).
28 April Execution of Benito Mussolini and
Claretta Petacci.
30 April Hitler’s suicide.
8 May Germany
signs unconditional surrender. End of
World War II.
e)
Postwar period (1945-1948)
1945, November Beginning of Nuremberg Trials (Until October 1946).
1947 5 June US Secretary of State George Marshall
announces at Harvard University the European Recovery Program (ERP). US President Harry Truman signs the Economic Recovery Act better known as the Marshall Plan 1948 3 April
1948, 7-11 May Congress of the Hague (Project of
European Federal Integration)
f) Cold War (1948-1991)
1948, 24
June Beginning of the Berlin Blockade ordered by Stalin (ends
12 May 1949)
1949, 22 January: Mao troops
enter Beijing. Beginning of Communist
China.
4 April. Foundation of NATO.
18 April. Ireland becomes a Republic.
5 May Treaty of London. Creation of the Council of Europe
23 May. Approval of the Basic Law for the
German Federal Republic. (Deutsche Bundesrepublik, DBR. After 1968: BRD: Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
7 October. Creation of the German Democratic
Republic. (Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR)
1950, 9 May. R. Schuman as France’s Foreign
Minister makes what was going to be known as the Schuman Declaration.
European integration (Community Method) process gets underway.
1951, 18 April. Germany,
Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of
Paris, which constitutes the European
Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), entering into force on 23 July 1952.
1952,
6 February: Elisabeth II becomes queen of England
after the passing of her father George VI.
27 May. Signing of the European Defense Community (EDC) Treaty. Ratification rejected by
the French National Assembly.
1953, 5 March Death
of Stalin
1956, 29
October - 7 November Suez Crisis. The end of European
colonialism (France and the UK). The US and USSR decide the world order.
1957, 25 March. The
six sign the Treaties of Rome, which
constitutes the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic
Energy Community (EURATOM).
1959, 1st January: Fidel Castro troops enter in La Habana. Beginning of Cuban Revolution.
1960, 4 January. Creation
of the EFTA, an initiative of the
U.K.
1961, August 13 Beginning
of the construction of the Berlin Wall
1965, April. Executive Merger Treaty. Signing in
Brussels by the six member states of the three European Communities (ECSC, EEC
and EAEC-EURATOM). By virtue of these agreements the Communities become subject
to just one executive, a single Commission and a single Council. It enters into
force on 1 July 1967.
1966, 30 January. Luxembourg Compromise. The six agree
that unanimous votes (rather than by majority) shall be required to make
decisions affecting essential issues.
1973, 1 January. First enlargement of the European
Communities. Three new states join: Denmark, Ireland and the United
Kingdom. Begins the “Europe of the Nine.”
1975
March
18 Creation of the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF).
November
20 Death of Franco, ruler of Spain since 1st October 1936.
1979, 7-10 May. First elections to the European Parliament
by direct universal suffrage. This first democratic Parliament is constituted
on the following July 18. Since the elections take place every 5 years.
1987, 1
July The Single
European Act enters into force (signed February
1986)
1989, 9
November. Fall of the Berlin Wall.
1990, September 12. Signing in Moscow of the Two
Plus Four Agreement. England, France, the United States and the Soviet
Union renounce the rights they had vis-a-vis Germany since 1945.
1991, 21
December. Dissolution of the USSR (Alma-Ata Protocol).
g) The Post Cold War Period
1991 25 December Boris Yeltsin becomes the first President of the Russian Federation
(Until 31 December 1999).
1993
20 January Bill
Clinton becomes the 42 POTUS (until 2001).
November 1,
Enters into force the European Union
Treaty (Signed in Maastricht (Netherlands) on February 7 1992)
21st Century
2000 1st
January Vladimir Putin becomes the second President of the Russian
Federation
2001
20 January
George W. Bush becomes the 43 POTUS.
11 September Terrorists attacks in the US.
2002, January 1st. The
euro enters into force.
2004 11 March terrorists attacks in Madrid leave 193 dead from bombs in trains
and 1857 wounded.
2009,
20 January Barack Obama becomes the 44 POTUS
(Until 2017).
16 June Creation of the BRIC’s organization including: Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa would join in 2010. In
2024 Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and United Arab Emirates joined. Indonesia
integrated the organization in 2025.
1 December. The
Treaty of Lisbon enters into force
(Signed 13 December 2007).
2015, 13 November Bataclan
terrorist killings in Paris 130 persons killed 415 wounded.
2016, 23 June:
Brexit
referendum
8 November Victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential election (vs. Hillary Clinton).
2020,
31 January The
UK leaves the European Union.
11 March The
WHO declares a Pandemic situation as
a result of COVID 19. Until 5 May of
2023 it would provoke 7.111.504 deaths (though estimated around 18,2 to 33,5
million).
2022,
24 February Russian
invasion of Ukraine.
8
september: Elisabeth II of England dies at 96 years olds in Balmoral Castle,
Scotland. After 70 years and 214 days of reign.
22 October: Georgia Meloni, becomes the first woman
to be Primer Minister in Italy.
2023,
6 of May:
Crowning of Charles III of England.
7 October
: Hamas attacks on Southern Israel (50th anniversary of
Yom Kippur War). 1195 people were killed during the attack, at least 828
civilians. Beginning of the Gaza War.
Up to 2026 more than 80.000 people from Gaza were killed by Tsahal.
10 December: Javier Milei becomes President of
Argentina. End of 77 years of Peronist populist movement (since 1946).
2024,
26 July to 11 August
Paris Summer Olympic games.
Tuesday November 5 Second
victory of Donald Trump in a
Presidential election
8 December Fall of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
End of the Civil war after 53 years of rule of the al Assad family, which
started with Hafez al Assad (1971-2000).
2025
20 January Donald
Trump becomes the 47 POTUS
18 February
Vladimir Putin announces that
Russia and the United States have officially agreed to restore diplomatic
relations.
28 February Ukranian
President Zelenski is humiliated by
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance at the Oval Office in the White House.
28 March US
Vicepresident J.D. Vance makes an unofficial visit to Greenland, a territory that President Trump wants to annex from
Denmark.
8 May Robert Francis Prevost is elected as Pope Leo XIV becoming the first North American Pope in the History of the Catholic Church.
28 December Major protests in Iran following an intense inflation spike and a severe depreciation in the Iranian rial. Crowds publically demand the end of the Islamic Republic.
2026
3 January Nicolas Maduro is captured by a US
commando.
28 February Israel and the United States launch airstrikes on Iran. Beginning of the Iran War
c) Complete in your Class Notebook the following exercises:
CONCEPTS
Opium Wars/ Boxer Rebellion/ Meiji Era/ Red Cross/ French Commune (1871)/ Triple Alliance vs. Triple Entente/ Armed Peace/ Mitteleuropa / Ostraum/ Berlin Conference (1884)/ Sykes Picot Agreement (1916)/ ISIS/ Gavrilo Princip/ Allies vs Central Powers/ Technical vs Technological Revolution/ The big European migration/ Social question/ Proletariat/ Bismarck’s Sozialstaat/ Communist Manifesto/ Socialism vs Communism/ National Workshops” (1848)/ Gotha Congress (1875)/ Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland (SPD)/ Bolsheviks vs Mensheviks/ Brest Litovsk Treaty/ Kommintern vs Komminform/ Spartacist Revolution (Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg)/ Treaty of Versailles (1919)/ Weimar Constitution/ Suffragists/ League of Nations/ Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NDAP)/March on Rome (1922)/ Munich’s Putsch (1923)/ Black Thursday (1929)/ Enabling Act (1933)/ Lebensraum/ Night of the Long Knives (1934)/ Moscow Trials (1936)/ Anschluss (1938)/ Munich Agreement (1938)/ Wannsee Conference (1942)/ Endlösung/ Operation Overlord/ Nuremberg Trials/ European Recovery Program/ Berlin Blockade/ Iron Curtain/ Cold War/ NATO / Suez Crisis (1956)/ Berliner Mauer (1961)/ Den Xiao Ping/ New Deal vs Welfare State/ Thirty Glorious Years/ Perestroika/ Glasnost/ Alma-Ata Protocol: Belovezha Accords (1991)/ Leisure Class/ Deregulation/ Reaganomics/ Lehman Brothers/ Sans domicile fixe/ Occupy Wall Street/ Yellow Vests/ TINA vs TATA/ Post Democracy / Competitive Authoritarianism / Chinaleaks / Davos Class / Bilderberg Group / Lea Ypi/ BRIC’s organization (2009)
QUESTIONS
Concrete questions
1. Why did Henry Dunant founded the Red
Cross in 1863?
2. Explain how Chinese and Japanese
reacted differently to European expansion: think of the Boxer Rebellion vs the
Meiji Revolution.
3. What did Leopold II of Belgium in
Africa?
4. What happened in Rwanda from April to
July of 1994?
5. Why ISIS terrorists fight the West?
Think of why, despite their horrid methods, they are right from the
Constitutional history perspective.
6. Why the assassination of Franz
Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 provoked World War I?
7. Why Women generally started having the
right to vote in elections after World War I?
8. Why the “laissez faire” model of state
was replaced by an interventionist model of state after World War I?
9. What were the causes of the European
exorbitant demographic expansion in the 1840-1914 period? Which were the
economic and social consequences?
10.
Why conservative Bismarck adopted the “Sozialstaat” policy in Prussia?
11. Why Alexis de Tocqueville was against
the idea that the 1848 French constitution included the “right to work” and any
“social rights”? Did any constitution ended up adopting the principle of the
“Social rights”?
12. Who could vote in Russia under the
Lenin’s constitution of 1918?
13. What was the essential difference
between revolutionary socialism and social democracy? Think of how they wanted
to impose the reduction of economic and social inequalities?
14. Describe the Mussolini’s third way
between socialism and capitalism. How did the “Duce” tried to solve the Social
question?
15. Did Mussolini and Hitler abolished the
Italian and the German constitutions respectively?
16. Why did Lenin created the
“Kommintern”? Which were the consequences of its creation? Give some examples.
17. Why did Hitler consider the Versailles
Treaty of 1919 a “Diktat”?
18. Why did the Reichstag gave full powers
to Hitler through the “Enabling Act”?
19. What was Hitler’s idea of a German
nation? Which were the consequences of his idea?
20. Why did start World War II? Connect
the idea of Lebensraum, and the
Austrian Anschluss and the Sudenten
Crisis and the Munich Agreement with the invasion of Poland? Why Danzig was the
cause that pushed Hitler to invade Poland?
21. What was the purpose of the non
aggression pact that Hitler signed with Stalin in 1939? Think in terms of
territorial expansion.
22. Which was the cause of the Berlin
blockade that was at the origin of the Cold War? Why Stalin took this
initiative?
23. Explain the relationship between the European
Recovery Program (Marshall Plan) and the Iron Curtain.
24. Why NATO was created in the first
place?
25. Describe the essence of Den Xiao Ping
“Market Socialism” imposed in China after Mao’s death?
26. Why did F.D. Roosevelt started the
“New Deal” and how he was able to overcome the resistance of the US Supreme
Court?
27. What is the relationship between the
Thirty Glorious Years and the expansion of the Welfare State model? Think of
what is the essence of the Welfare state compared to Bismarck’s Social Laws and
Roosevelt’s New Deal. Think of why despite the fact that the US were the
country where the New Deal was invented, there are still not really a Welfare State?
28. Why the Thirty
Glorious Years have been called the “invisible revolution”?
29. Why Margaret Thatcher and Ronald
Reagan were against the Welfare State? How they did react against this State
model?
30. Why the economy is turning
“financial” getting away from real economy since 1974 oil crisis? Think in
terms of the theory of unlimited growth?
General questions
1. How the European model expanded all over the world
during the second half of the 19th century. Concentrate in
colonialism and the Big migration.
2. Explain why the Berlin Conference and the Sykes
Picot Agreement were nefarious instruments of European colonialism. Think of
the consequences.
3. Explain
the essential differences between the three Russian Revolutions: 1905, February
1917 and October 1917. Concentrate in the consequences of every one of these
revolutions.
4. Describe the economic and social policy of Hitler
in the first years of the Third Reich? Which were the consequences?
5. Describe how communism expanded after 1945. Cite as
many examples as you can of nation-states that became communists after the end
of World War II.
6. Explain what happened in the west governments after
the rule of Margaret Thacher and Ronald Reagan. Explain the meaning of the
acrostics: TINA and TATA. What means the expression “rising tide would lift all
boats”. What are politically the consequences of TINA? How should be governed
the State according to neoliberals that defend deregulation and unlimited
economic growth?
7. Why
neoliberal policies imposed by Thatcher and Reagan turned bad? Why they ended
up affecting very badly the economy? Which were the political consequences?
8. Why can we say that Democracy is receding today? How do actual thinkers call the new
tendencies as far as Democracy is concerned? Think of Putin’s Russia and Xi
Jiìng’s China. And compare to what is happening in Western Democracies with the
electoral victories of far right wing populists.
9. Why are we going towards a new oligarchic
model of state? Think of why Democracy is in crisis in our capitalists
countries? Think of what is the “Davos Class”?
10. Why State intervention in economy
could be considered a lesser evil?
Would Ukraine end up being part of the EU,
or a Satellite of the Russian Federation?
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