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HISTORY

Introduction

When we want to define or enhance the EU, we should look back on the past. That’s why we think it’s important for our generation to know about the history of Europe.

Dawes Plan

After WWI Germany, as loser of the war, had to pay the restoration of the destructions it had caused. In addition to this, Germany had to invest a lot of money in the restoration of their own country. Therefore, America lent money to Germany. This is called the Dawes Plan (1924) . Another agreement that was made after WWI, were the Locarno Treaties (1925). These treaties brought peace in Europe by implementing arbitration and including Germany in the League of nations. This resulted in the roaring '20s, a period of prosperity.

Wall Street Crash

On October 29th, the stocks in the New York stock market plummeted, and the roaring 20’s were over. As a result of the Wall Street crash, people started selling their stocks, so they wouldn’t lose any money. Because of this, the stock ratings got even lower, so even more people sold their stocks, and then the stocks were worth even less.

Crazy 30’s / the Great Depression

This disaster resulted in proliferating unemployment rates in America (24,9%). However, this economic crisis had not only struck America, but also the rest of the world. Due to the Dawes plan, the collapse of the American economy lead to America not being able to continue loaning money to other countries. Therefore, other countries were affected by the wall street crash, such as Germany.

Germany’s economy occurred in a disastrous state once again and after losing the First World War Germany was economically depressed and wanted a political, economic and social revenge. A political character called Hitler tried to take advantage of this situation, and he took the power in 1933, thanks to these ideas of revenge which he broadcasted to the German's population. The same thing happened in Italy with Benito Mussolini.

How did the EU start?

In 1945 world war II had just ended, people were having a really hard time trying to start up their lives again and the economy of many countries was failing. The different countries in Europe needed each other on economic front. In order to stimulate the economy of Europe, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, set up the European Coal and Steel Community in 1950.

The European Economic Community (EEC) was founded in 1957 in order to promote the cooperation between the countries of Europe. This was also intended to prevent these countries from going to war with each other again.

In 1973 there were added more countries in the EEG and in 1979 it created its first Parliament. The single market was completed in 1993 with the four freedoms of free movement of goods, services, people and money. This was the beginning of the EU.

But a problem was the fluctuating exchange rate, as a solution for this the EU came up with the euro in 1992, a currency which will be used in 1999 in eleven countries.

Europe from 2000 till now

With the dawn of a new Millenium, new political ideas and challenges were introduced, such as populism.

The Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde has defined populism as a political approach according to which there are two opposite groups: the ‘'people’' and the ‘'elite’'. The people are good and hardworking, instead the elite are corrupt and evil. It is strongly believed that citizens have been misled by the elite

Since 2000 populism has become more and more important, especially in the last 20 years. People have started to vote for the populist parties and today in most of the European countries there are a lot of antidemocratic ideas. To understand the rise of populism, we need to study the election of Donald Trump or to Brexit.

Conclusion

With the information from this article it became clear that Europe has been through a lot, good things and bad things. This means that the EU must stick together, because much progress can be made if the countries work together.