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Concept
Ideas of European unity before 1948
Summary
This article aims to cover ideas of European unity before 1948.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz#Lawyer and moralist
"Europe" as a cultural sphere is first used during the Carolingian dynasty to encompass the Latin Church (as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy). The first mention of the concepts of "Europe" and "European" dates back to the 8th century, in the context of the clash between the Franks and the Umayyads, when during a particular battle, in which the Christians were victorious, an anonymous Hispano-Roman Catholic from Iberia labeled the victors as "Europeans" in opposition to the invading Arab Muslims.
Military unions of "Christian European powers" in the medieval and early modern period were directed against the threat of Islamic expansion, namely during the Crusades and Reconquista. A possible early attempt at European unity can be traced back to the of the Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, George of Podebrady, a Hussite king of Bohemia, proposed in 1464 a union of Christian nations against the Turks.
In 1693, William Penn looked at the devastation of war in Europe and wrote of a "European dyet, or parliament", to prevent further war, without further defining how such an institution would fit into the political reality of Europe at the time.
In 1713, Abbot Charles de Saint-Pierre proposed the creation of a European league of 18 sovereign states, with common treasury, no borders and an economic union.
After the American Revolutionary War the vision of a United States of Europe, similar to the United States of America, was shared by a few prominent Europeans, notably the Marquis de Lafayette and Tadeusz Kościuszko.
Some suggestion of a European union can be inferred from Immanuel Kant's 1795 proposal for an "eternal peace congress".
The concept of "Europe" referring to Western Europe or Germanic Europe arises in the 19th century, contrasting with the Russian Empire, as is evidenced in Russian philosopher Danilevsky's Russia and Europe.
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