The border of expansion

Europe and America

pp. 135-155

in: Heikki Mikkeli, Jo Campling, Europe as an idea and an identity, Berlin, Springer, 1998

Abstract

Krzysztof Pomian once suggested that the integration of Europe is a cyclic process marked by periods of rapprochement and détente (Pomian, 1990). According to him, Europe is now seeking unity for the third time. The first was when Christendom became united under a common faith in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. This stage in the history of Europe was cut short by the Reformation and the division of the Church. The second was the convergence of literary and high culture in the eighteenth century, this time severed by the turmoil of the French Revolution. Since the Second World War Europe has possibly been travelling a third road to integration, and the first that may lead to political unity.