Birth of the European Union

A major stage of defining the most essential factors that led to the birth the nowadays European Union is to analyze every step that was carefully planned, therefore shaping this construction as a modern powerful alliance. “From the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1950s, European integration has been one of the most central phenomena in the contemporary history of (western) Europe” (cited from Wolfram Kaiser and Antonio Varsori, 2010). Hence, this construction firstly began in 1952 known as the ECSC with six members, mainly as an economic alliance between France and Germany, that would cooperate in the production of coal and steel and it would further develop into a political shape that had to toughen Franco-German solidarity, by removing the memories of the freshly ended war and to find a new way to integrate Europe as a social, economic and political community that would vastly change, improve and influence the present world.

Looking back at Europe’s vast, diverse and ever-lasting history, a high amount of consideration should also be taken into acknowledging some significant historical events that were also part of shaping the European Union. One of such events includes The Great Exhibition of Crystal Palace, the first world fair that took place in 1851 and completely changed the views and relations between different countries, cultures and communities, not only in Europe, but more rather in whole world. This social event has illustrated the massive evolution that took place in Europe and Britain over a few decades and how the European citizens and cultures prospered, gaining peace and liberation throughout the years, therefore presenting the political v...

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...d lost by Germany, which achieved its goals mostly through military strength; the world wars represented a devastating blow to the whole Europe that affected all the different factors, bringing a regress, rather than a progress, over the continent for a few decades. Even after the wars ended, it took Europe a few decades to return to only a glimpse of the prosperity it once had, as social revolutions occurred in mass, the political power was often untrustworthy and unreliable and the economy ruined because of the inflation. Though, just like the Phoenix linked with the myth of Europa illustrated its rebirth, Europe could reconstruct its integrity, therefore becoming a stronger and more united force amongst other continents.

Following the events, after the end of The Second World War, little was the time of peace, as another type war emerges in Europe, the Cold War.