What Caused the Peace of Europe?
After century upon century of periodic warfare, the continent of Europe has, for the last 60 years or so, enjoyed a period of unprecedented peace. Why is that? To hear many Europeans tell it, the recent spate of peace in Europe is due to the advanced moral sentiments of its peoples. After enduring centuries of bloodshed, in the 1940s Europeans finally grew up, and learned to settle their disagreements peacefully (unlike the warmongering Americans).
This explanation is only plausible to the extent one ignores just how fragile and limited the peace of Europe since WWII has actually been. One can say that Europe has known 60 years of uninterrupted peace only if one ignores the Cold War that left half the continent under Soviet domination with the other half under constant threat of total annihilation, as well as repeated wars in the Balkans, the IRA in the United Kingdom, ETA in Spain, Greece’s civil war and conflict with Turkey, French wars in Algeria and Indochina, the Suez crisis, British military engagements ranging from Malaysia to the Falklands, not to mention participation by numerous European countries in the Korean war, Afghanistan, and one or both of the Iraq conflicts, to give but a partial list. If what European peace does exist is the result of some moral advancement and conflict resolution skills developed by the Europeans, then it is unclear why the above mentioned conflicts occurred.
The most one can say for European peace is that since WWII no western European power has gone to war against another western European power. But this is hardly a unique achievement. After all, the U.S. hasn’t gone to war with any of these countries since WWII either. And if it be objected that is not the same as the U.S. shares no border with any of these countries, then it should be noted that the last time the United States went to war with Mexico was 1848, and the last time it went to war with Canada was 1812. If peace with one’s immediate neighbors is evidence of moral advancement, then perhaps it is the U.S. that has something to teach Europe, rather than visa versa.
Still, by the standards of European history, the last 60 years have been relatively peaceful, at least on the continent itself. If moral advancement is not the cause of this peace, then what is?
No doubt there are many causes here. The increased wealth of Europeans may make them less willing to make the sacrifices necessary for war (though it has apparently not eliminated their willingness to fight wars abroad, nor has the U.S.’s wealth prevented it from getting involved in military conflicts). Democracy may have reduced political leaders’ ability to go to war for personal aggrandizement (though fascist Spain has managed to avoid war for longer than its democratic neighbors, and a war of sorts exists even as we speak between a democratic Israel and a democratically elected Hamas. Trade between countries is no doubt also an important factor, as evidence indicates increased trade and commerce between nations tends to lead to peace.
If I had to name the most underrated cause of European peace, however, I would probably name the U.S. military. Since WWII, the U.S. has maintained a military presence in most western European countries, and many European nations have effectively outsourced a large part of their security and defense to the U.S. military. Now obviously, to the extent one is relying on the U.S. for one’s military needs, going to war with another country that relies on the U.S. for its military needs is not going to be an option. And if one looks to the East, one sees that Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have all also known long stretches of peace, despite being threatened by their militarily more powerful neighbors. If not for U.S. military intervention, it is all but certain that South Korea would long since have been absorbed into North Korea, Taiwan long since absorbed into China, and it is at best unclear what conflicts a necessarily re-militarized Japan would have gotten itself into and at what human cost.
Any European would laugh at your last paragraph. The enduring and lasting peace in Europe comes from the long and difficult process of European integration, begun withe the Coal and Steel Union, and prgressing througth monetary union and increasing political integration. This was the dream of an exceptional group of statesmen, largely Christian Democratic statemen (Adenauer, Schuman, de Gespari) who promoted a suprnational ingrated union that still respected subdidiarity. Sure, nationalism did not die, but it was no longer a cause for war. The accomplishments of Europe belong to Europeans themselves, not to the “benevolent” presence of imperial troops.
Any European would laugh at your last paragraph.
I’m sure they would.
Your last paragraph is excellent. It’s called the Pax Americana for a reason, and that reason is the protective umbrella the U.S. has given its allies. An unfortunate repercussion of this is that it has allowed them to pursue their own pet projects that M.M. is so fond of.
The reduction of common reasons for war – nationalism, religion, caprice of monarchs. Where that did not happen, war happened – the Balkans with its nationalism and 3 religions. Not to mention democracy over monarchy and suspicion of anything militaristic after the horrors of World War II. In World War I, most were still excited to go. That changed quickly.
The least popular institutions in Europe are a) the military and b) the Catholic church. Being part of either results in being viewed as potentially dangerous. The Catholic ‘remnant’ in Austria is threefold – parts of the ‘bourgeoisie’, what’s left of the former aristocracy, and very rural areas. There is little history of workers and the Catholic church, mainly because the Catholic fascist government had the military fire at the workers’ government housing back in 1934. Vienna has long been known as “Red” Vienna – “Das Rote Wien”. Socialists ended exploitative work, built government housing (which is nothing like ‘the projects’, mind you) and staved off both church and Communism.
American military power was certainly a great protection against Communism. Unfortunately, some of the former Communist states are radicalized in a different manner today. Poland, for example, has strong antisemitic tendencies (again/still), and is probably the most conservative country in the EU – complete with re-education camps for gays. Poland is very ‘old fashioned’, as it combines religion and nationalism. Similar in Russia’s case, where the Russian Orthodox church gladly hopped into bed with Putin. East Germany, from which an unbelievable number of women have ‘fled’, is home to a vast neo-Nazi movement.
The Marshall Plan was an amazing gift for Europe. Everyone loved the Americans, everyone fled from the Russians in 1945. The USA did not exact revenge but helped rebuild Europe and Japan, without colonizing them, an extraordinary fact. One cannot speak highly enough of what American soldiers did for Europe.
Some time ago, my wife and I said how insane it is that our respective grandfathers could well have killed each other.
Let me illustrate the Western European attitude towards the military, by using song lyrics I translated.
I thought I’d better write you ahead of time
And tell you No in advance.
You don’t have to spread out long lists
To see that I have two sons.
I love them both I gotta tell you,
More than my sight, more than my life
And they, they shall not bear arms,
No, my sons I shall not give
I have taught them respect for life,
for every creature as the highest value,
I have taught them mercy and forgiveness,
And, wherever possible, loving.
No you shall not spoil them with hatred,
No goals, no honor, no duty
Are worth to kill and die for,
No, my sons I shall not give
Most certainly not for you has their mother
Brought them into this world in pain.
Not for you and not as cannon fodder.
Not for you did I spend many a feverish night
Desperate, standing at the little bed
And cooled a small hot face,
Until we found rest in exhaustion,
No, my sons I shall not give
They will not march in rows and battalions
Not hang in there, not fight to the death,
Freeze to death in a godforsaken field,
While you sit down in cushy chairs.
To protect children from all dangers
Is my damn duty as a father,
And that also means to protect them from you,
No, my sons I shall not give
I will teach them disobedience,
resistance and perseverance,
To stand up against every order
And not crawl before authority.
I will teach them to walk on their on path,
To only owe justification
to themselves but not to any leader or court
No, my sons I shall not give
I would rather flee with them
Than that you turn them into slaves,
Rather move to a foreign land,
In poverty, likes thieves in the night.
We only have this one, brief life,
I swear and say it straight to your face,
They will not sacrifice it for your madness,
No, my sons I shall not give.
Here a video, made by an amateur on youtube that accompanies the song
There are backwater things to disagree about but nothing vital to go to war over since the push for resources to fuel domination has been going on elsewhere: the US, the USSR, China.
In what is England a rival of Germany today? Or Germany of France? Nothing important enough to fight over.
indeed, what DS said
I love your song, Gerald.
I wish more American fathers would sing it.
I am all for having fought the Nazis. But on the whim that a country may attack us…no thanks. This is why I wouldn’t join the military, you never know what ideas the president might get. I also would not want my children to join, for the same reasons. Mind you, I do have a gun for home defense – but not 500 :) Unless we’re talking about actually being attacked, they should fight their own damn wars. This second song, lyrics by Hannes Wader, poorly translated by me also hits hard (it’s a variation on the song The Green Fields of France)
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeFJWOrjc4s
Out in the Champagne in midsummer’s green
There where poppies bloom in between crosses.
There the grass whispers and sway lightly
in the wind that gently brushes across the cemetery.
On your cross, dead solder, I cannot
find your name, only numbers,
someone painted ’1916′
and you were not even nineteen years old.
Yes, they aready lied to you
In just the manner they’re lying to us now,
And you gave them everything:
Your strength, your youth, your life.
Did you, dead soldier, once love a girl ?
Certainly not, because only there where peace exists
Can tenderness and trust thrive
You were a soldier in order to die not to be young.
Maybe you thought, I will die soon,
Will take my pleasure, as it comes, by force.
You were determined, but then
were ashamed of yourself and never did follow through.
Yes, they lied to you then
In just the manner they’re lying to us now,
And you gave them everything:
Your strength, your youth, your life.
Soldier, did you go to death faithfully and gladly?
Or did you despair, turn embittered and rough,
never knowing your true enemy until the end ?
I hope you were hit by a clean shot,
Or were you shredded by a shell,
Did you cry for your mother until the very end
And continue running on stumps
And your grave, does it contain more
than a leg, a hand.
Yes, they lied to you then
In just the manner they’re lying to us now,
And you gave them everything:
Your strength, your youth, your life.
Only a cross remained as the trace
of your life, but hear my vow,
To fight for peace and be on alert:
If humankind once more falls for lies,
it could be that soon no one will be alive,
no one to bury millions of dead.
But already there are more and more people
ready to avert that war.
Yes, they lied to you then
In just the manner they’re lying to us now,
And you gave them everything:
Your strength, your youth, your life.
The 30 year Civil War that began in August 1914 claimed the lives of 100 million European. That does not include the mass carnage of the Stalinists both before and after that period.
Peace? Europe was reduced to a desert.
So, tell me, Blackadderiv, why do you constantly carp at us Europeans?
Is it resentment, that we actually make capitalism work, and have a higher standard of living than you, WITH a “social safety net,” to boot?
Is it because we have cheap, affordable, clean mass public transit, and you don’t?
Is it because our schools–especially our secondary schools–turn out children who actually ARE educated and know something about the world they’re living in?
Is it because our polytechnics produce skilled craftsmen who can speak more than one language and who are proud and assertive of their rights as labourers?
Is it because our people save more money and don’t accumulate massive amounts of consumer debt?
Or is it really just because, after the carnage of the twentieth century mentioned above, we learnt that war is never profitable, that the “winners” of wars are often the “losers” in the long run, and that war is to be avoided by statesmanlike rulers at all costs, short of the loss of national independence?
Frankly, I think you Americans are just jealous–terribly, terribly bitter people who know that you’re losing geo-political and financial dominance of the world, and hate to see the old world regaining prosperity.
Better get used to it, though, because with our stronger Euro, we’re coming to buy up your capital assets: Annheiser Busch today, General Motors and Westinghouse tomorrow!
So, tell me, Blackadderiv, why do you constantly carp at us Europeans?
Pot. Kettle. Black.
The Catholic Church teaches:
1) “Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies.[1018] Rather it is founded on a correct understanding of the human person [1019] and requires the establishment of an order based on justice and charity.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 494)
2) “true peace is made possible only through forgiveness and reconciliation.” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 517)
Blackadderiv, a military force is not an instrument of either forgiveness or reconciliation. Moreover, a military force is the most irrational and least Christ-like method of pursuing justice. War, and the instruments of war, represent humanity’s failure to achieve peace where peace must be achieved – in our daily relationships with one another, in our eternal relationship with God.
The world will war until it no longer believes in war. It is our call, as Catholics, to give the hope of Christ to our world, to offer our world a new way to redeem our broken world. The answer is love.
Nate,
A good point, but by that definition, one could not really say that Europe is any more at peace now than in the past. The definition of “peace” that is at issue here is pretty clearly the secular one.
When it comes to true peace in the Catholic sense, it seems to me that Giovanni Guareschi’s comments about why the Italy of the 70s was so much worse than the Italy of the late 40s apply even more now than then.
I remember serving in Europe at the end of the cold war. Loved my time there. Lots of anti-americanism for varied reasons. Some justified, most not. Many publiclywanted the military out of their countries. But when you spoke privately to people they realized they couldn’t defend themselves and needed our presence. The exceptions were generally those who wanted the Soviet presence.
It is quite interesting that, as religious observance tends towards zero, Western Europeans have become very anti-war. (and vice versa). Also, the countries with stronger religious observance (in the East) like Poland are far more reactionary and nationalist, and religion and nationalism are strongly intertwined – the same holds true for Russia.
Darwin, I don’t think that a permanent peace will ever be established until Judgment Day. Yet we pass through various stages and graduations of peace, taking steps toward and away from the ideal.
I once lived with a man who had one response to any talk of America’s wars overseas: “man, there’s a war going on here, in the streets!” I think the same could probably be said for Europe.
Economic interdepence is the best ‘guarantee’ of peace. Three cheers for global corporations :-P
Gerald – check out the Pope’s thoughts on that subject:
“I have pondered on this – I have been pondering on it for a long time – and I see ever more clearly that in our age morality is, as it were, split in two.
Modern society not merely lacks morals but has “discovered” and demands another dimension of morality, which in the Church’s proclamation in recent decades and even earlier perhaps has not been sufficiently presented. This dimension includes the great topics of peace, non-violence, justice for all, concern for the poor and respect for creation. They have become an ethical whole which, precisely as a political force, has great power and for many constitutes the substitution or succession of religion. ”
Link
It is quite interesting that, as religious observance tends towards zero, Western Europeans have become very anti-war. (and vice versa). Also, the countries with stronger religious observance (in the East) like Poland are far more reactionary and nationalist, and religion and nationalism are strongly intertwined – the same holds true for Russia.
My impression is that Russia is not terribly religious. Also, if you compare religious observance with involvement in military conflicts among Western European countries over the last 60 years, I don’t think you’ll find much of a correlation. Italy, for example, is far more religious than Great Britain, yet has been involved in far fewer conflicts.
Digby, your thoughts are very emotional and IMO don’t represent enough of an investment in objective analysis, and when a lurker reads them I am sure they won’t think it’s the Americans who are bitter! Of course I am sure there are yahoos in America who would cheer European downfall (the same people who renamed “Freedom Fries” I suppose) just as there are Europeans with a strange obsession with outpacing the United States.
However, if you had a more complex understanding of our economic system, you would know why most Americans prefer a prosperous Europe. It all comes down to having markets for our goods. Poor people can’t buy, rich people will. Europeans have long been enthusiastic consumers of American products and culture and it’s good for us to have them in a position to buy more.
The post-war vision of a multi-polar world (mostly a French vision, I think) has so far not put forth too many blossoms, witness the humiliation of France at the UN back in ’03 when they were absolutely impotent to stop the American invasion of Iraq. Don’t get me wrong, I wish they had! It would be healthier for the United States if we did not carry the only giant club in the world scene, but unfortunately this is unlikely to change any time soon.
On topic, the idea that the newest generation is more “enlightened” or more humane than preceeding generations is the single most enduring fallacy ever dreamed up by human beings. It comes up again and again and is disproved again and again. Woodrow Wilson was infected with this terrible malady as well. If Europe (or any people) was in a position to “learn” from the 20th century wars, one would hope it had also been in a position to learn from the horrors of the so-called “Second Hundred Years war” which in many ways was just as viscious if not more so.
The current European peace has multiple complex causes, but the reality is that all states go to war when their interests are threatned. “Post war” European powers have been more than willing to fight, see the Falklands and Algeria. European interests are no longer threatened inside Europe and so their guns are aimed elsewhere.
With recognition of the IRA and the ETA, the Balkans disaster, and European involvement in extra-European conflicts, he questions the exact “peacefulness” of Europe. Continental Europe, however, is undeniably less war-like than a century ago. Germany isn’t marching into Europe, etc. Given this notion that there is “peace” in Europe, there come several conclusions:
1) Blackadderiv posits the role of American military presence.
2) Fascinatingly, Gerald Naus noted that this seems to have corresponded with dramatic declines in religious observance.
3) I will point out the observation that wealth and “ease of life” have increased-something noted for a dramatic decline in Northern Ireland’s internal civil war. I automatically in my head think “its all about the benjamins,” anyway.
Fascinating.
Perhaps all three turn out to be a post-war phenomenon. That is, they all spring from currents of nearly half a century bent on continental and global domination. Are all three features of something else? The thought of an American military presence “causing peace” is a bit odd-it can cause a country to be able to avoid defense expenditures, and as such divert its resources to other more productive areas of expenditure, such as social infrastructure, transport infrastructure, technology development, etc.
The economic boom adds to the relegation of religion to the sidelines (a sociological phenomenon shorthanded-ly noted as “why worship God when one becomes God?”) as well as a series of events in which the desolation of post-war Europe, the traumatic events, and actions required for mere survival have deadened the soul. All while staring at another potential set of disasters in the form of, at first, Soviet invasions, or nuclear disaster. This impacted individuals and society tremendously.
As a consequence, did Europe truly become peaceful? Or is it just a capitalist consumer giant, working as wealth does-like the capitalist giant United Arab Emirates-would one declare this group as “peaceful?” Or is this just how wealth behaves-relegating God to a corner, choosing not to fight other powerful or wealthy folks (how often do generals get captured or killed in a war)?
Are they at peace, or are they like the former Arab tribes-just not fighting with a cheap security force policing its walls, bound together for the development of wealth as a line to power as opposed to territorial acquisition?
To hear many Europeans tell it, the recent spate of peace in Europe is due to the advanced moral sentiments of its peoples. After enduring centuries of bloodshed, in the 1940s Europeans finally grew up, and learned to settle their disagreements peacefully (unlike the warmongering Americans).
I’ve never heard a European make that claim; you’re caricaturing.
I think a lot of it has to do with Europeans having lived in holes on the ground surrounded by the smoldering ashes of their cities, nostrils filled with the stench of decaying flesh; the bodies of their neighbors stacked like cordwood and burned en mass, due to there being too many to bury; young children watching their parents burn to death in incendiary raids – and on and on and on. That probably goes a good distance in explaining why the Europeans take a rather different view of the utility of war than the rather glib nationalism that is relatively common in America
So Gerald religion started world war 1 and 2!? Funny I thought Austria did with the good archduke and Austria’s most famous son Adolf Hitler
also Western Europe spent 40+ years after WWII on the edge of war, the only thing that kept the western European nations free (plus Greece) was Soviet fear of American military intervention…. Europe didn’t obtain peace until the 90s if you dont count Ireland and the Balkans and Spain….
get it straight – Hitler=German, Beethoven=Austrian.
Religious people, in the general sense, not the solitary saintly man somewhere, are, due to their right/wrong, black/white approach to life more likely to embrace war on the one hand, and on the other, religion, like nationality, ethnicity and ideology is a ‘great’ reason to start wars. A sceptical mindset is far less likely to cause one to clamor for war.
*skeptical, even. On the average, conservatives are too quick to rush to war while liberals are often naive about real dangers.
Any reason to view others as less facilitates war – religion, ethnicity, nationality, ideology. To think that god is on one’s side and the others are infidels is and always has been a very strong motivation.
I may be biased, but I nonetheless credit the postmodernist incredulity towards meta-narratives and the power structures that enforce them as at least giving a helping hand to building peace and solidarity.
get it straight – Hitler=German, Beethoven=Austrian
Gerald you’re joking!
Hitler born in Linz. Left Austria at the age of 24 (1913) to avoid the mandatory draft!!
Beethoven born in Bonn, Germany.