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The beginnings, Ancient Britain • The British Isles were peopled by so-called « Iberians », who had replaced Neanderthals as early as the late Paleolithic (about 50,000 years ago). These people, who already looked like today Europeans, gradually adopted Celtic culture from 800 BC onwards. Then the British Isles were controlled by the Roman Empire AD 43-410. • Afterwards, waves of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian invaders practically until the year 1000 forced the Celts to go west. Some of them (who spoke Brythonic languages) fled to Armorica between the 5th and the 7th centuries A.D. and Armorica became Brittany.
Medieval Britain • The arrival of the Normans in 1066 entailed great changes for the social structure of the British Isles but also great changes for the English language, which incorporated a growing number of words of Romance origin. • England’s fate became intertwined with that of Continental European monarchies, especially the French monarchy. Indeed, very soon, the Anglo-Norman aristocracy became entangled in quarrels on the Continent through the practice of intermarriage.
The Hundred Years’ War and the Renaissance • The Hundred Years’ Wartook place from 1337 to 1453 between two royal houses for the French throne, the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet (/plæn’tædʒɨnɨt/), also known as the House of Anjou. • The end of the Hundred Years’ War meant that England somehow stopped thinking of itself as a Continental European actor and started focusing on its maritime power. • The Anglican Reformation under Henry VIII and England’s alliance with other Protestant powers meant that he rejected Charles V and his imperial vision.
Long-lasting isolationism • England (and, from 1707 onwards, the United Kingdom) considered Europe mainly as a source of problems. It traditionally favoured alliances with weaker countries agains emerging superpowers. In particular it formed the Triple Entente with France and Russia in 1907 against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. • The UK relied heavily on its colonies and did not believe in the ideal of European integration which developed on the Continent during the 20th century.
After the Second World War • In 1945, Sir Winston Churchill did not want Germany to be humiliated the way it had been after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 because he knew it could cause a rebirth of Nazi ideals. • In September 1946 in Zurich he mentioned ‘the United States of Europe’ but he did not think that Britain’s interest was to be part of them. • The US needed the West German Republic (created in 1949) for its own security and also to promote American capitalism in Europe with the Marshall Plan in 1947-1951.
European unification was seen as essential • The Americans needed a united Western Europe for strategic and economic reasons. To begin with, they created the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 1949. • Moreover, some European politicians strongly believed that without any kind of Franco-German reconciliation, there would be a new war between the two countries. They thought that a united (preferably federal) Europe would prevent that.
The military aspect was a partial failure • The Americans and Europhiles launched the European Defence Community (EDC) in 1952. The USA did not want to ensure the security of Western Europe alone, it needed the French and the West Germans to create a European federal army with governmental structures to make it efficient. • However, the EDC project was derailed essentially by the Communists and the Gaullists in France in 1954 because they opposed two things: the fact that France would be deprived of a large part of its military sovereignty and the fact that – in their view – the whole scheme served the interests of the Americans.
New defence perspectives for Europe • To make sure that West Germany would be re-armed, the Bundeswehr (« federal army ») was created in 1955 under the direct influence of NATO. It was one of the most progressive armies in the world, in which soldiers could discuss the relevance of some orders, in order to avoid the horrors of the past. • So the French Communists and Gaullists ended up with something almost worse than the EDC since the new army totally escaped their control and also had an open commitment to European integration.
The civilian aspect was more successful • Six governments created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951. By mixing coal and steel resources, Western European countries were supposed to rebuild themselves and protect their industries in France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Italy. • The project mixed economic survival with the use of a modern, fashionable subject. The British were not interested in joining the ECSC because their industry was strong enough (especially considering that they had a large market in their former colonial Empire) and also because they already suspected that there was a project of political integration behind this.
A big ideological gap • The British knew that Continental European politicians in Eastern France, Belgium, Luxemburg, West Germany and Northern Italy were mostly Christian-Democrats, that is to say Catholics, who traditionally had a complex approach to national identity, sharing their loyalty between an empire (such as the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the Renaissance) and the Pope in Rome. • By contrast, Britain's conception of Europe was more Protestant: stable, sovereign nations competing with one another and forming strategic alliances rather than achieving political unification.
The great European project • Because of the failure of the EDC project, many Europhiles had realised that it was probably more effective to act fairly secretely, for example by promoting only economic integration while actually working for political integration. • So, after having created a common market for coal and steel, Europhiles decided to take it up to the next level with trade and services. This was decided on at the Messina Conference in 1955 and then inscribed in the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The European Economic Community (EEC) was created that year, in 1957.
