The future of Europe is written into its past of many different cultures, languages, identities and above all ,economic, social, fiscal, political and monetary systems, traditions and cultures.
A thousand years ago, Europe as we know it today did not exist. Thirty-five to fifty million people living between the Ural and the British Isles, between Scandinavia and Greece, had no reason to think of themselves as a single culture or people.
The Roman Empire had left half of the continent with roads, trade networks and a collective memory, but the other half did not share this experience. The standard Roman currency was gone, and Charlemagne’s monetary and political efforts did not last long (his cultural efforts did, however).
Around 1000, Muslim rulers controlled a large share of the former Roman Empire’s space, including Spain. Nothing like a centralised national state existed anywhere in Europe.
Only the Latin Church managed to bring some cross-border uniformity in law, language, organisation and network, unlike the Byzantine Empire, which ruled large territories in south-eastern Europe.
At the turn of the year 1300, the Papacy, the Byzantine emperor and the Holy Roman emperor claimed many territories, but hundreds of principalities, ecclesiastical territories, city-states and other sovereign political entities operated as (de facto) free and independent authorities.
The French king initiated the unifying process, and the English kingdom experienced the Barons’ Revolt, which led to the Magna Carta in 1215 and the first concepts of a constitutional monarchy. In German Switzerland, the beginning of a confederation of cities emerged that would become the country’s destiny.
By 1490, the map of Europe had dramatically changed. The Arab empire was replaced by the Ottoman empire, the Byzantine empire had fallen, and large dynastic monarchies were beginning to emerge.
The Holy Roman Empire, Poland and Lithuania, Muscovy, France, Spain, England, Portugal and Scandinavian kingdoms and empires emerged. The other side of the spectrum still showed many smaller and larger independent political entities.
New currencies, trade, technical developments, international movement of goods, persons and finances created the conditions for an economic boom. Students studied throughout Europe; European scholars were in close contact with one another, and scientific research and groundbreaking discoveries were conducted by ‘nationals’ in a European setting.
From 1500 to 1918, the number of states diminished, but their total area increased. Afterwards, states grew in number but decreased in area.
This development is still going on. Small and medium-sized nation-states in Europe and other continents are the most successful in terms of economic, democratic, good governance, transparency, social and happiness perspectives. Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland are among the top ten of the United Nations annual ranking.
Small or medium-sized is apparently beautiful, economically efficient and democratically wise. There seems to be a good life outside the megalomaniac, politically motivated, and extremely single-currency and political union experiments.
The principle of each political entity, regardless of its size and number of citizens, is a solid business environment, accountability, good governance, rule of law, sovereignty and democracy.
The merits of the European Union as an internal market go without saying, but things have gone wrong since monetary, political and foreign policy ambitions by a few came into play.
A Great European is not necessarily a European federalist, nor is a European federalist always a Great European. A Great European can also have a Swiss, Norwegian or British passport.
(Source: Ch. Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States. (Maiden 1992)