The European idea at the beginning of the 20th century

• Louise Weiss and the pacifist movement
• Creation of the Pan-Europa movement
• The League of Nations, a platform for Europe
• The Treaty of Locarno, the first step towards Franco-German rapprochement
• The New Order, for a humane Europe
• The European movement in the Resistance
• Winston Churchill writes a memorandum on the United States of Europe

• Home
• The origins of the European idea
• The beginnings of European integration
• From the Six to the Nine
• Overcoming the crises
• The relaunch of the European idea
• The birth of 'political union'

The treaties signed after the First World War redrew the map of Europe, sealing the fate of three empires (the German, the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman) and bringing new states into being (including Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia). The frustrations born out of this realignment made reconciliation among the peoples of Europe a difficult matter. Nevertheless, a political rapprochement emerged in the 1920s, symbolised by the Aristide Briand's policy toward the Germany of Gustav Stresemann, which resulted in the Franco-German Pact of Locarno. But the economic crisis of the 1930s exacerbated nationalistic feelings and the spirit of revenge. From 1933 onwards, Nazi Germany unleashed repeated coups de force, heralding a new war. The horrors of this second global conflict were at the root of the plans for European unification put into effect after 1945.

1918