Europe : between unity and disunity (from 1945 to 1957)

This is about being interested in the construction and division of Europe as an entity in its own right. In this context, the Cold War is only the context in which Europe unifies or divides and should not be studied in detail. The in-depth study of the Cold War is the subject of another section which will be assessed in the essay section.

1.    Europe’s weakness reinforces European plans.

1.1 A weakened and occupied Europe which seeks lasting peace.

1.2. The many European movements: from Churchill’s call in 1946 to the Hague Congress in 1948; who are the founding fathers? Federalism or a unitary system?

2.   Europe and the high stakes of the Cold War, 1946-1948

2.1.  Atlanticism and Western Europeans; the decisive action of the USA (Marshall Plan, OEEC) in the context of the Cold War.

2.2.  The coming to power of Stalinist Communist parties in the East.

2.3. A Europe divided yet again; the Iron Curtain in Europe, the Prague Coup, NATO;  the Berlin Blockade and the Berlin Blockade -> division of Germany.

3.   The emergence of several Europes.

3.1    The formation of satellite states in Eastern Europe 1948-1956

-    Alignment on soviet economic lines

-    Setting up regimes (the Slansky Trial, etc)

-    The Yugoslav schism

-    The death of Stalin and the first Thaw. (The Berlin Rising of 1953 and in Budapest in 1956, the return of Gomulka in Poland)

3.2    Europe united in the West, an uneasy alliance.

-       The Birth of the Council of Europe in 1949.

-       The first success: The Schuman Plan and the ECSC

-       The failure of the EDC or the limits of a united Europe.

-       The birth of the EEC, the Treaty of Rome

3.3   A Third Europe, Atlanticism, but outside the EEC.