The European Union is today a Community of States.
Though the present 27 States members are not as homogeneous as they apparently appear. On the one hand the states comprise “regions”. In fact we have not only a Europe of States we also have a Europe of Regions.
And to make things more complicated, in some of these regions a large part of the population are eager to become part of an independent state. And the are a bunch of these irredent regions as we see in the following map that show were are located European separatisms.
If I mention that is because, generally speaking, the State today is the most common political unit in the World. In fact the World is divided in 192 fully recognized States grouped in the United Nations. States have been the basic unit in Europe for a while. Concretely since the disappearance of the Universal model in the European continent that was consecrated in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). From then on we live in a Europe of States, with the annoying consequence that these states since then have been constantly quarrelling trying to impose their hegemony on the other states for almost 300 years. Up to 1945.
But on the other hand it is true that States are an efficient way of getting organized as a human group. And a complex one that required a long process of formation. States did not appear overnight with their actual limits. In fact, in order to be more powerful states have always tried to expand territorially. Actual European States are mostly the result of a long integration process, in which kings did their best to incorporate as much territories to their realms as they could by wars or marriages. For instance the Spanish State is the consequence of the Marriage in 1469 of Elisabeth of Castile with Ferdinand of Aragon.
However, one thing is to incorporate territories and another to integrate them permanently into a larger political unit. Some states are better integrated than others. Concerning the history of Spain the level of integration of territories was different in Castile and in Aragon. Castilian kings did a jolly good job in integrating Castile, Leon, Galicia, Extremadura, Murcia or Andalucia into a one firmly united realm.
This is why the kings of the Crown of Castile were really more powerful than the kings of the Crown of Aragon as Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, Catalonia, Sicily or Naples never fully integrated as one single unit.
Depending on the “model of integration” some states are more powerful than others. So it is about time to study different models of integration prior to the process of the Communitarian European integration started in 1950. We will examine today in Teaching Guide 8 some of them. And some others in Teaching Guide 9. Let’s start with the Composite Monarchy.
THE COMPOSITE MONARCHY
The oldest European model of integration of European States was the Composite monarchy. This occurs when a king becomes simultaneously the monarch of different kingdoms, a situation that does not mean however full unification as, at least initially, in Composite monarchies every member kingdom originally keeps its own “constitutional” status intact. And that includes: their own political institutions (Assembly of States), their own law and courts, and also, usually, a set of customs barrier protection. To understand how a Composite Monarchy works lets analyze two examples: The Spanish Monarchy and the United Kingdom.
a) The Spanish Monarchy
Spain is not a completely unified state because historically it was formed as a result of the Reconquest, that is the fight against the Muslims to retrieve the peninsular territory. As it lasted from 711 to 1492 the final result was that at the end the unity of the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo fully disappeared, and was replaced by different kingdoms or territories that became separate political units.
From the conquest of the Muslim kingdom of Granada, in january 1492, to the present, Spain was not a unity but an amalgam of different kingdoms. This is why the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset speaks of an "Invertebrated Spain". And this for such a long period of its history that it explains that the actual 1978 Constitution has defined Spain as the “State of the Autonomies” (a structure created by the "Integral State" constructed by the 1931 Second Republic Constitution). Lets say that "Autonomies" are territories with a very large self government. There are 17 actually, as you can see in the following map.
The actual situation is largely due to the fact that the Catholic Kings (1474-1504) did not integrate Castile and Aragon. The Crown of Castile was a unified state and the Crown of Aragon a Composite monarchy. Isabel (Queen of Castile) and Fernando (King of Aragon) did not unify their Spanish domains. In fact the Catholic Monarchy (it was the official name of the Spanish Monarchy) became itself a Composite Monarchy.
And neither did change this state of things Isabel and Fernando's grandson Carlos I (V). Castile was a fully integrated State and the Crown of Aragon was not. This is why in the Catholic Composite Monarchy Castille ended being the dominant kingdom, and the common language was Castilian. In Spain we speak Castilian an not Catalan because of this. Because the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon: Aragón Valencia, Mallorca and the Principate of Catalonia, remained separated and not integrated during the 16th and 17th centuries the monarchy relied on the strength of the Castilian State.
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It was not until the Spanish Succession War (1704-1715) that ended with the defeat of Aragon, Valencia, Aragon and Mallorca that these kingdoms lost their autonomy and self government. In fact they were integrated and unified in Castile thanks to the "Decretos de Nueva Planta". Because Philip V as victorious king imposed on the defeated the unification. Only were spared Navarre and the Basks provinces because they had not rebelled against Philip V. Therefore they could keep their own separate constitutional and legal frame. At least until the Carlists wars (1833-1876) in which both territories, as they did not want a woman but a man in the spanish throne, rebelled against Elisabeth II. As they lost the three wars, as punishment they got integrated in the Spanish State: Navarre in 1841, and Alava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya in 1876.
Spain was more or less an integrated State in 1900. Especially because after 1833, Javier de Burgos, a Minister of the Regent Maria Cristina, Ferdinand VII’s widow, divided Spain in the provinces that still today exist.
But the tradition of the Composite monarchy did not disappear entirely and Spain is not today a completely unified state as the independentists movements of Catalonia and the Basq country show. A part of these Territories’s population want to secede from Spain, France and Italy and become citizens of a new state: the Bask and the Catalan Republics. But easier said than done. Independentists so far are not, by far, the majority of the population.
The conclusion however of the territorial history of Spain is that the composite monarchy model as far as integration is concerned has not been a fully operative model, and this why Spain, unlike France, is not today a strong and unified state.
Another example of a composite monarchy is the United Kingdom (integrating England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) a State that despite its name is not as fully integrated as it seems. This is why, for instance in soccer international competitions we have a national team for England and another for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, for instance. So far the Bask and Catalan soccer players play with the Spanish national team.
b) The UK
Besides the Spanish State, another interesting State is the UK which originally was another omposite monarchy. The center of the Monarchy, England, integrated Wales in the 16th century and Scotland in the 17th-18th centuries, forming the United Kingdom with the Union Jack.
They also integrated Ireland from 1800 to 1922. Though now it integrates only Northern Ireland, as the Ireland Act of 1949 established that the region would not cease to be part of the United Kingdom unless its own Parliament decides otherwise.
But the British union is not as solid as it appears. Ireland became in the 20th century an independent State (with the exception of Northern Ireland). Scotland has since 1998 its own Parliament and its own government, and many Scottish want to be independent from the UK, though the referendum of 2014 failed. Also in 1998 Northern Ireland, as a result of the Belfast Agreement, intended to bring together the two communities (nationalists and unionists), was created the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont Belfast and a Northern Ireland Executive.
It is interesting that Scotland and Northern Ireland citizens were not happy with the Brexit as they preferred to “Bremain” in the EU. In fact the Northern Irish are so unhappy with Brexit that they required a special status concerning customs: the Northern Ireland Protocol or Backstop. In fact it means that despite Brexit Northern Ireland is still in the Common European Market
Again in the case of the UK, the Composite monarchy system does not guarantee a strong unified State. This is why some other models of integration appeared. One of them is the Confederation of States. The best example is Switzerland, the land of “cantons”.
THE SWISS CONFEDERATION
The Confederation formula is a stronger union than the Composite Monarchy. It was the first system of integration in the United States, from 1777 to 1787, before the establishment of the Federal Union that we will study in TG 9. Also during the American Civil War (1861-1865) the Southern States seceded from the US Federal State (the Union) and formed a new Confederation.
But the idea of a Confederation is not American it appeared in Europe. And more concretely in Switzerland.
The origins of the Swiss Confederation, get back to the Rutli Oath in 1291 that initially concerned only three cantons: Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden. Switzerland as a Confederation received full international recognition in the Peace of Westphalia (1648). Today 26 cantons are member states of the Swiss Confederation (Confederatio Helvetica).
If it is mopre efficient than the Composite monarchy, however, the Confederation it is not a powerful way of integration. In fact it gives an extremely decentralized model of integration. This is why in the Helvetic Confederation the 26 cantons have more power than the federal government in Bern. Even today. A Confederation is therefore also a quite weak form of integration. And this is why the United States in 1787 gave up the Confederate model and opted for a Federal Union, as we will see in the next Teaching Guide.
As integrating different States is a difficult task, sometimes rulers try an easiest way that only requires partial unification. A system that usually concerns only economics, as it is easier to agree on money than in politics. The first example was the German Custom Union called Zollverein.
THE "ZOLLVEREIN": A FIRST APPROACH TO PARTIAL INTEGRATION
Integrating politically the European states was an impossible task in the 19th century, and age of fierce nationalisms. But sometimes the political or economic needs forced some states to get together for developing ways of partial integration. It was the case of the Metternich System based in the Holy Alliance of 1815 that disappeared completely in 1848. Another example was the very interesting Customs Union of the German speaking States headed by Prussia and called the Zollverein. It was created in 1818 and consolidated by 1834, and constitutes an important precedent of the present Communitarian Europe.
INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 191 to 203), before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions.
Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 205-209) the crucial dates are the following:
Survival of the Universal Model:
800, 962, 1804, 1806, 1852-1870, 1871-1918 and 1933-1945.
Crown of Aragon:
1137, 1164-1196, 1276, 1283, 1349, 1442, 1474-1504 (Catholic kings), 1517-1556 (Carlos I), 1707-1716 (Nueva Planta Decrees), 1841 (Navarra Ley Paccionada), 1876 (Full integration of Basq Provinces), 18178 (Concierto económico), 1931 (Estado integral), 1978 (Estado de las autonomías).
The United Kingdom:
1535-1542 (Integration of Wales), 1603, 1707, 1800-1922 (Irish integration in the UK), 1997 and 2014, September 18.
Swiss Confederation:
1291, 1648 , 1848.
Holy Alliance:
1815-1848
Zollverein:
1818, 1834.
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Advantages and disadvantages of unified and decentralized states?
Please consider the following aspects:
1. Think of the “España de las Autonomías”. Consider the positive aspects of this extreme decentralized system and the inconveniences. For instance looking at how Spain faced the Covid pandemic. Do you find fair that the citizens of the Basks provinces and from Navarre pay less taxes that the rest of Spaniards? Do you think a common education and language should be guaranteed everywhere in the State?
2. Compare with the most centralized state in the world: France. Do you think education, taxing, Social Security, Courts and Law should be the same for every one? Responding to the idea that all citizens should be equal before the law?
3. Consider what is the ethnic background of Ukrainian present State that has led to Putin's invasion. You can inspire yourself in the following map of the languages spoken in Ukraine.
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