The failure of the Congress of The Hague seemed to end any hope about creating an integrated Europe. But the situation was unsustainable for European States as Stalin, reacting against the Marshall Plan broke with the Western allies and rose the “Iron Curtain”. The Cold War started with the Berlin Blockade (June 1948 to May 1949), and its response: the Berlin Airlift.
Bear in mind that after breaking with Stalin, European Western States were afraid that the powerful Red Army that already occupied Eastern Europe could invade them. They needed to do something to protect themselves. At the continental level they created a Western German State to ensure a defensive frontier against the Red wave, At the World level they requested the aid of the US through a defensive alliance.
The first defensive measure against Soviet imperialism was the creation of a new German State in ocuupied Germany. It was the German Federal Republic created the 23 May 1949, just at the end of the Berlin Blockade. Stalin responded 5 months later imposing the creation of the German Democratic Republic (7 October 1949).
The symbol of the two Germanies and of the Iron Curtain would be the Berlin Wall that started to be built on the 13 of August 1961, and would not be torn down until 9 November 1989. Almost three decades.
The second step for defending the West from Stalin was the creation of NATO in the same year (4 April 1949), a month before the creation of the West German State, at the demand of Europeans who considered they could not defend themselves from the Red Army, was an organization of Western defence backed by the US and Canada.
It is often said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. This is only partially true. In fact, the Alliance’s creation was part of a broader effort to serve three purposes: deterring Soviet expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encouraging European political integration.
The aftermath of World War II saw much of Europe devastated in a way that is now difficult to envision. Approximately 36.5 million Europeans had died in the conflict, 19 million of them civilians. Refugee camps and rationing dominated daily life. In some areas, infant mortality rates were one in four. Millions of orphans wandered the burnt-out shells of former metropolises. In the German city of Hamburg alone, half a million people were homeless.
In addition, Communists aided by the Soviet Union were threatening elected governments across Europe. In February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with covert backing from the Soviet Union, overthrew the democratically elected government in that country. Then, in reaction to the democratic consolidation of West Germany, the Soviets blockaded Allied-controlled West Berlin in a bid to consolidate their hold on the German capital. The heroism of the Berlin Airlift provided future Allies with some solace, but privation remained a grave threat to freedom and stability.
Creation of NATO, April 4, 1949
Fortunately, by then the United States had turned its back on its traditional policy of diplomatic isolationism.
... after much discussion and debate, the North Atlantic Treaty was signed on 4 April, 1949. In the Treaty’s renowned Article 5, the new Allies agreed “an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against them all” and that following such an attack, each Ally would take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force” in response.
President Truman signing the NATO Agreement
While the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty had created Allies, it had not created a military structure that could effectively coordinate their actions. This changed when growing worries about Soviet intentions culminated in the Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949 and in the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The effect upon the Alliance was dramatic. NATO soon gained a consolidated command structure with a military Headquarters … (Text extracted from the NATO web page) Reference: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_139339.htm [Last retrieved April 2022]
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But the founding of NATO and the creation of West Germany were short-term measures, and there was a growing feeling in European Western States that they should join their efforts to survive at the World Level between the tow super powers of the US and the USSR. The problem was how to do it as European governments were not willing to give up the smallest bit of sovereignty of their respective countries.
Fortunately European politicians did not pay any attention to a singular personality: Jean Monnet (1888-1979) who was essentially a pragmatic business man that had an essential role in World politics since World War 1, not only in Europe but the US, as part of the Think Tank of President F. D. Roosevelt. He was, for instance, determinant for the launching of the Marshall Plan under the Truman Administration.
Monnet was fully aware that nationalism of the European States made impossible to consider a united supranational Europe. But protected by NATO alliance and considering the success of the Marshall Plan, that for economic reasons worked at the supranational level, as it was a collective deal were European States accepted to submit for the purposes or reconstruction to a joint action, he thought that if remaining in the economic field an integration could be tried.
He was lucky to be a good friend of an important French politician, Robert Schuman, and that West Germany had as head of Government a lucid politician, Konrad Adenauer, that was more than willing to have Germany accepted as an equal by the other European Western States, in order to avoid the disaster of the 1919 "Versailles Diktat".
Monnet and Schuman agreed to launch a very modest first step towards European integration, as it was apparently limited to the joint production of Coal and Steel. But if you read carefully the brief Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, you will easily discover that the initiative had far more reaching consequences for the six initial member states.
The Schuman Declaration
The Treaty of Paris founding the European Coal and Steel Community was not a constitution. It was a contract, an agreement creating a six member European Community. Each of the signing states had their own constitution, legal system and full independence and sovereignty, with a tiny exception: they lost control on the production of coal, iron and steel that depended on a High Authority that imposed its decisions over the member states.
The European Coal and Steel Community
As the Communitarian way had worked, the founding members of the ECSC went for another try. In the beginning of the cold war, with the mighty Stalin Army on its borders, despite of the creation of NATO it made sense to create a European Defense Community.
But this was going too far too fast. Today, 71 one years after the creation of the first European Community, the Member States of the EU still do not accept to have an European Army. Despite the fact that every state could not face, for instance, in an open war the US, Russian or Chinese army.
Jean Monet understood that the only possible way of getting together was through economy, and this why at the Messina Conference (June 1955) he came along with the old idea of a Customs Union like the Prussian Zollverein. The result was the European Economic Community created with the European Atomic Energy Community in Rome in March 1957.
The Treaties of Rome (25 March 1957)
The EEC was a success as proved the fact that the UK tried to counteract it through the creation of the EFTA in 1960.
And shortly afterwards the British asked to join the EEC, though they did not count with the fierce opposition of Charles De Gaulle.
European integration was on its way but it had to slow down because De Gaulle got into power in France. From 1958 to 1969 French nationalism was too strong and could not accept a strong integration.
The result was the Empty Chair policy (France did not attend the European Summits) and the Luxembourg Compromise and the veto to the entry of the UK in the EEC.
The Empty Chair Crisis
De Gaulle’s gone finally the European integration had a restart. The UK (with Ireland and Danemark) joined Communitarian Europe in 1973.
A European Parliament was democratically elected since 1979. In 1981 Greece joined the Club, and in 1986 Spain and Portugal did so too. In 1985 the Schengen Treaty opened the way to the suppression of common frontiers and in 1986 the Common Market was relaunched through another Treaty: the Single European Act. Three Years later, the Fall of the Berlin Wall opened wide perspectives for a stronger integration. We will see its consequences in Teaching Guide number 12.
INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 260 to 267 FOR Teaching Guide 10 and 273 to 285 for Teaching Guide 11), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions.
Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 268-269 for TG 10 and 286-288 for TG 11) you should get familiar with the following dates:
1949,
23 May: Creation of the German Federal Republic.
7 October: Creation of the German Democratic Republic.
1950, 9 May: Schuman Declaration
1951: ECSC (Treaty of Paris). Europe of 6.
1952-1954: Failure of the EDC
1955, June: Messina Conference.
1957, 25 March : Treaties of Rome (EEC and EAEC)
1960 : EFTA
1965: Executive Merger Treaty.
1966: Luxembourg Compromise
1973, January 1st: First Enlargement of Communitarian Europe (UK, Ireland and Denmark). Europe of 9.
1975: Creation of the ERDF (Europe of Regions)
1979: First elections to the European Parliament.
1981. Second Enlargement: Greece joins Communitarian Europe. Europe of 10.
1985: Schengen Agreement
1986, January 1st: Third Enlargement: Spain and Portugal join an Europe of 12.
1987, 1st July : Single European Act enters into force amending the EEC.
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Should Communitarian Europe remain essentially economic?
Please consider the following aspects:
1. Review what was the Monnet and Schuman approach in the Schuman Declaration. What was the spirit of it?
2. Take into consideration the failure of the European Defense Community, proposed initially by France and rejected by the same country.
3. Consider the De Gaulle’s reaction that led to the Luxembourg Compromise
4. Which was the political aim of the European Regional Development Fund?
5. Why was necessary the Single European Act?
Spain signs the treaties for joining Communitarian Europe (12 June 1985)
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