Introduction

After the end of the Second World War, the countries of western Europe decided to create a supranational organisation, whose aim was to bring about economic integration and to ensure peace and stability in the continent. Thus, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 and the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957 were the first steps towards the common market and the formation of an authentic European union. We all know the architects of this union: Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul Henri Spaak, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi, to mention just a few names. What is less known is the origin of europeanism, namely the doctrine that Europeans share common values, have the same culture and have an interest in uniting.

Europeanism is essentially an ideology of the XX^th century¹. Admittedly, the will to shape a united Europe is very old. Some thinkers even argue that the first projects of "European union" were formulated long before the emergence of modern nations, during the Middle Ages². But it must be recognised that it was only during the XX^th century, and especially after the Great War, that we saw the appearance of a true European militancy. If the "fathers of Europe" were, of course, inspired by old philosophical trends, the European integration is undeniably the fruit of the debates and the reflections of the years 1918-1950, as attested by the importance of the French-German question during these troubled times. The need for peace and the obsession of decline were stronger than ever and, in this context, a certain intellectual elite considered that europeanism was the remedy to the ills that afflicted the continent. 

In our blog, we will answer these two major questions: what are the objectives of europeanism? How has this ideology evolved from 1918 to what it has become in the early 1950's? To answer them, our presentation will be chronological: first, we will examine the different trends of europeanism during the interwar period; then, we will talk about the conceptions of Europe during the Second World War; finally, we will focus our attention on the consequences of World War II and the start of the European integration.

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1. 1918-1939: The emergence of a new political doctrine

1. Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, a precusor
2. The first golden age of europeanism
3. The crisis of the European idea in the 1930's

2. 1939-1945: The European idea during the Second World War

1. Nazism and the New Europe project
2. The europeanists in the resistance
3. The Allies and Europe

3. 1945-1951: Towards a European community

1. The beginning of the Cold War
2. The second golden age of europeanism
3. The Schuman Declaration and the birth of the ECSC 

1Bernard Bruneteau, Histoire de l'idée européenne au premier XX^e siècle à travers les textes, Paris, Armand Colin, 2006.

2In 1306, the French jurist Pierre Dubois (1250-1320) proposed in a book entitled De recuperatione Terrae Sanctae the establishment of a European political organisation in order to reconquer the Holy Land. This idea was then adopted in the XV^th century by George of Poděbrady (1420-1471), king of Bohemia and leader of the Hussites. See in particular Denis de Rougemont, Vingt-huit siècles d'Europe. La conscience européenne à travers les textes, Paris, Payot, 1961 and Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, L'idée d'Europe dans l'histoire, Paris, Denoël, 1965.