The End Of Western Europe

Submitted By Pils-BuryDoughboy
Words: 490
Pages: 2

At the end of WWII, Europe was damaged beyond repair. The war greatly impacted Western Europe’s eventual assimilation into the EU. After the division of communism and democracy had caused an iron curtain in Eastern Europe, Western Europe was determined to form an alliance to help recover economically. Western Europe agreed to eliminate import taxes and set to a common tax on imports from the rest of the world. Post-war recovery issues, military problems and the desire of each country to protect their own national interests shaped Europe. By creating economic communities and sharing the benefits of coal and steel production, another conflict in Europe was extremely unlikely. First, the ancient rivalries had to be ended in order to create progress. The Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift were two examples of how allied nations worked together. Sandy, the leader of the British European Movement, reported to Winston Churchill that the idea of French-German partnership was frowned upon in France. (Document 2) He stated that France was strongly opposed to work together with Germany. France clearly feared that Germany would take control over Europe. It was necessary to eliminate the feeling of superiority that most European nations felt in order to move forward. For example, Schulman believed the best approach in creating a strong economic market in Europe required a complete unity of all European nations with the elimination of any hatred between the nations (Document 5) Inviting Germany into the process of creating a new Europe would create a positive externality. McMillan, who was Britain's finance minister, believed that England will benefit more from utilizing a trade route with its Commonwealth system, as opposed to joining the European Economic Community. (Document 7) As the country’s finance minister, he was more in favor of the country’s economic well-being rather Europe’s as a whole. Some nations prioritized