History of the European Union

This course offers an introductory survey of the history of the European Union. While the EU itself is only a few decades old, the idea of and desire for European unity date back centuries. We will explore the deeper genealogies of the European idea as well as specific events of the 20th century that led to the creation of the modern EU. We will close by considering more recent events that have shaped the EU since its formal inception in 1993, from EU expansion into East-Central and Southeastern Europe to European states’ involvement in and reaction to the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan to Brexit and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Themes include enlightenment, empire, revolution, nationalism, ideas of federation and confederation, constitutionalism, democracy, Nazism and fascism, state socialism, globalization, migration, military intervention, climate change, and digital technology.