Assess the Claim That Political Factors Were the Main Reasons Why British Attitude to Europe Changed During the Period from 1945-1963

From the mid 1920s onward there was talk of forming a formal European Union but rising nationalism and a world wide depression stopped any concrete advancement. The League of Nations had failed, economies had collapsed and radical right wing solutions seemed the only viable alternative after governments collapsed one after another. England remained in isolation, Germany was rearming and France was still in shock after horrible loses in WWI. After the inevitable WWII all was in ruin and the lesson finally struck home, No more! Peace and prosperity through unity and common understanding finally allowed the formation off the EEU. Europe could not survive as a polyglot of waring tribes. They need a counter balance to world domination by two superpowers

Great Britain grew to become the most powerful manufacturing nation, and the strongest economically, in all of Europe. As Britain’s finances grew and increased, citizens were able to move up the social ladder in society, improving their financial and educational status. To begin with, technological innovations, rising

At the start of the 19th century much had changed in Europe, and it was all centered around Britain. Britain had become the world’s largest profiter in the world’s economy and the fastest and most equipped industrialized nation. Britain's growing economy and influence allowed for it to be the most competitive and threatening country in the world and this helped to benefit its economy in more ways than one. Britain was able to prevent other empires and nations from adopting new technology and industrializing into powerful nations by enforcing unequal treaties, using coercive tactics supplied by its naval power, supplying loans to countries, and investing in mines and railroads to extract raw materials. These tactics proved to be successful in helping to increase Britain's influence in the world economy.

In the middle of the 18th century, there were many major European colonial powers; Spain, Portugal, the Dutch Republic, France and of course, Great Britain . A century later, by about the middle of the 19th century, the British Empire was unrivalled, stretching all around the world and having become a great trading and conquering empire. During this period, the “industrial revolution” was credited to have occurred; in this essay we will explore what the meaning of “industrial revolution” is or how it can be interpreted and how the events could have possibly accelerated Britain’s output, trade and commerce and ultimately led to the Britain’s

British industrial development, instead of being retarded by the protection given to the planters under the Navigation Acts, was actually stimulated by free trade. As a result of the protection provided for slaveholders the British market was greatly limited in size.

“Whatever happens, Britain will surely require vast new numbers of bureaucrats, people to work on the new arrangements and people to enforce them. It will almost certainly turn out that Britain saved money by being part of Europe, because economies of scale made regulation much cheaper. It will almost certainly turn out that Britain was more powerful — with more sovereignty — when it was part of a large organization with international clout. Many of the other parties to those 759 deals will seek to take advantage of an isolated country with far fewer allies. British consumers, workers and entrepreneurs will pay the

To begin, one must be aware that the economic system of Britain at the time, mercantilism, was a subject of debate among various British

It had transformed from a world leading power in the 19th century to the “sick man of Europe.” [细节]Prices doubled, unemployment rate more than doubled, productivity declined under Labour’s previous control (Berlinski 67). It was also a weakly socialist nation that many major industries and utilities were belong to the nation (Berlinski 5). Thatcher, a known anti-socialist, hated it. She conveyed a thesis that Britain’s decline was not an inevitable fate, but a punishment for socialist (Berlinski 13). Thatcher give a speech to Conservative Party conference and said that “Free enterprise has proved itself more efficient, and better able to produce a good standard of living than either socialism or communism.” (Berlinski

The end of WW2 resulted in the creation of an intergovernmental organization The United Nation, promoting Peace and Human Rights. In 1946, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced ‘we must build a kind of United States of Europe’. Those actions undoubtedly sparked a new sense of enthusiasm across Europe and demonstrates Britain 's influence on the community. In 1948 Britain,France,Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg creating a unified defence alliance after signing the Brussels Treaty and the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An unclear soviet strategy boosted the desire to strengthen military alliances and led towards the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1949 The Council of Europe, was founded in 1949 to provide advice and promote legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. Influenced by the UDHR the CoE drafted the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950 and advised on the creation of the European Court of Human Rights. The Treaty of Rome in 1957 established the European Economic

Founding the Welsh Office (1964) and conducting a Local Government Reform 1968/69, to improve flexibility and efficiency in territorial governance.

The treaty of Rome stated the establishment of the EEC as an economic union, which provided free flow of investments, trade of goods, common agricultural policy and common EEC customs. But it included some social aspects as providing common transportation

Due to success of the ECSC, the six member countries decided to extend their unity and as a result, two new treaties were signed in 1957. The first treaty was signed in Rome and it established the European Economic Community (EEC) aiming to form a custom economy within the countries (Wild, 2017). The second treaty was European Atomic Energy Community and it was aimed for developing nuclear energy as a corporation.

As time goes on we are hit not with one war but two, collapsing the economy causing a recession, inflation and strikes in 1973. At these desperate times looking across the English Channel, we see the striving illusion of a booming economy with six westernized countries, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. They called them selves the European Union. In a moment of great despair we thought we were joining a growing market when in fact we were confiding ourselves to a dwelling customs union. Joining

It might at first seem that Tony Blair gave unconditional support to European integration including political integration. Yet he was not content with the current pace of the European integration, which benefits the EU’s founding members rather than Britain. He stated in the same speech that the reason of the EU Constitution’s rejection in France and the Netherlands was the mismatch between the political and economic sides of European

During the early establishment of the EU (1955-75) member states were ‘anxious to reduce the differences existing between the various regions and the backwardness of the less favoured regions’. Hence