European History

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Recommended: European history from 1300 to 1500

The story of Europe is a story that is worth telling for the simple fact that without the background of Europe, people will not understand the complexities in the creation of the Europe of yesterday and creation of the Europe today. This rich history cannot be ignored because of the close ties to the creation of the nations and the supranational institutions that have become the European Union and its trade partners. Without the background on the history of Europe the creation of this larger organization or supranational organization would be nearly impossible to understand the complexities of the current political, social and economic qualities within the EU. The history of a country, state or organization also helps us to understand the some aspects of the future of the EU.
There are several key components of the European history that have led to the creation of the individual nations within the EU and the larger supranational Institution we call the European Union. As Curtis and Linser (2004) “The European Union is the most important development in European history since World War Two” (Curtis & Linser, 2004, p.4). And I tend to agree that this story line is the most important since it was the starting’s to one of the largest supranational organizations that shaped modern Europe and continues to shape it today. To start the European Union could not have been created without the nations that are part of this supranational organization. Many of the nations that make up the EU have been either long-term super powers, France, United Kingdom or Germany, but also areas plagued with conflict. The conflict is however the more important of the two. The conflict between Germany and the rest of Europe in WW2 was the sparks that created...

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...e that the citizens of the nations within the EU have trouble understanding themselves. However when the history it is broken apart, we can begin to understand where the EU origins are, and have some insight into the future of the organization, and the challenges that they face as the worlds largest Supranational Organization

Works Cited

Curtis, B., & Linser, W. (2004). NATO and EU Enlargement: Challenges for the New Europe . University of Washington. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from: http://jsis.washington.edu/cwes/file/nato_and_eu_curriculum.pdf

Lynch, N (2013): Europeanization Beyond the Nation. moodle.uvic.ca. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://moodle.uvic.ca/file.php/26513/Lectures/W9_-_O29.pdf

Enlarging Europe. (n.d.). BBC News. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/europe/04/enlarging_europe/html/eu_expansion.stm

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