The UK and Europe
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’ War took 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 19471951.
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.