"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent." Winston Churchill.
The
end of the Second World War was a major event in the history of
Europe. It constitute a real turning point for each country that have
been affected by the conflict, as well as for the future of the
European idea. But to grasp the complexity of the European questions
in the years 1940-1950, it would be a mistake to disregard the diversity of the national
contexts in the immediate post war period, contexts on which it is
necessary to go back1.
In
1945, the United Kingdom figured among the world leaders, alongside
the USA and the USSR. The British, very proud of their great
resistance against the Nazi imperialism, considered themselves as
superior than the other European nations. Furthermore, their
gratefulness to the soldiers from the dominions and the USA incited
them to chose the "wide open seas" rather than the old continent.
Winston Churchill and his successor as Prime Minister, the labourite
Clement Atlee, was in this state of mind: their priority for Great
Britain was to reinforce the Anglo-American links, and not to create
the European community.
France
was also in the winners camp, in spite of its military defeat in June
1940. Deeply marked by the German occupation and the policy of
collaboration, the country maintained its position only thanks to the
action and the will of the general de Gaulle, without whom Free
France would not have gained international recognition. Thus, although the
representatives of the Provisional Government were not invited in
Yalta and in Potsdam Conferences, France remained a great power by
obtaining a permanent seat within the United Nations Security
Council.
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| The United Nations (UN) was created the 26 June 1945 to replace the League of Nations, which displayed its inefficiency during the 1930's. It disposes of a Security Council supposed to ensure the stability of the world order. Fifteen members make up the council, with five permanent members: the USA, the USSR, Great Britain France and China. |
Like
France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg were occupied by the
Nazis. Their governments, which had to exile themselves in London,
returned in their capitals in 1944, determined to strengthen the
economic cooperation between the European nations.
Of
course, the situation of Germany was radically different. After its
ignominious defeat and its capitulation, signed the 8 May 1945, the
country was politically destroyed. Without state and without
government, it was divided into four occupation zones, administered
by the winners. The poverty, the humiliation and the destructions
were so dreadful that we all have in mind the image of «Germany,
year zero», with reference to Rossellini's film. Everything had to
be rebuild, and first the political unity of the nation, based on
democracy, Human Rights and the acceptance of a common destiny
with the other European nations.
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| The Allied-occupied Germany in the years 1945-1947. |
For
Italy, the end of the war was a troubled period, which stretch from
July 1943, that is the eviction of Mussolini by the Grand Council of
Fascism, to February 1947, date of the signature of the peace treaty
with the Allied powers. Between these two dates, Italy was still at the
heart of the conflict, with the Allies assault in the South, the
fights against the German in the Centre and the setting up of a new
fascist state in the North. In virtue of the Armistice of Cassibile,
signed on September 1943, the country was under the control of the
British and the American. It regained its full sovereignty only in
1947, after the establishment of a democratic and liberal Republic
aligned with the USA. In this context, europeanism was rapidly seen
as a way to take back its place in the concert of nations.
In the other countries of the continent, the European idea had no real influence: Spain and Portugal were two dictatorships politically isolated; Denmark, Norway and Sweden preferred to keep to themselves; and Greece was beset by civil war. As for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, they progressively passed under the influence of USSR. Besides, Staline annexed the three Baltic states, independent from 1919 to 1940, and gained other territories at the expense of Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania. Even the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany was bolshevised. In his famous «Sinews of peace» adress of 5 March 1946, Wiston Churchill perfectly summed up the situation:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow2.
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| The "Iron Curtain" Europe according to Churchill. |
About the context of the "Iron Curtain" speech:
As explained in the video hereabove, a new geopolitical situation arouse with the constitution of two opposed blocs: the West, led by the USA and the East, dominated by the USSR. The tensions between the two superpowers rouse when, in March 1947, the President of the United States Harry Truman formulate his "containment doctrine" against the Soviet expansion: "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation […]. Our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid" he said3. The Soviet Union replied in September by maintaining in the "Zhdanov doctrine", inspired by the Central Commitee secretary Andrei Zhdanov, the division of the world between "imperialists" and "socialists", false and authentic democrats. Little by little, the specter of a new conflict was looming: the Cold War. From then on, Washington decided to support the union of Western Europe, first to enable its economic reconstruction, and then to ensure its military security faced with the Soviet threat.
1See
Gilbert Noël (dir.), Penser
et construire l'Europe (1919-1992),
Jouy-en-Josas, Atlantes, 2008, p. 105-111.
2To
listen the whole speech of Winston Churchill:
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