.. through mutual customs agreements ... including
France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Poland, and perhaps Italy,
Sweden, and Norway".
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century (following the 1815
Congress of Vienna) containing a post-Napoleonic France. The Concert of
Europe was specifically designed to reflect the interests of the Big
Powers, establish the limits to their expansion in Europe, and create a
continental "balance of deterrence". For a few decades it proved to be
a success.
The rise of a unified, industrially mighty and narcissistic Germany led
to two ineffably ruinous world wars. In an effort to prevent a repeat
of Hitler, the Big Powers of the West, led by the USA, the United
Kingdom and France, attempted to contain Germany from both east and
west. The western plank consisted of an "ever closer" European Union
and a divided Germany.
The collapse of the eastern flank of anti-German containment - the USSR
- led to the re-emergence of a united Germany. As the traumatic
memories of the two world conflagrations receded, Germany resorted to
applying its political weight - now commensurate with its economic and
demographic might - to securing EU hegemony. Germany is also a natural
and historical leader of central Europe - the future lebensraum of both
the EU and NATO and the target of their expansionary predilections,
euphemistically termed "enlargement".
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97