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Winston Churchill, a former army officer, war reporter and British Prime Minister
(1940-45 and 1951-55), was one of the first to call for the creation of a
‘United States of Europe’. Following the Second World War, he was convinced
that only a united Europe could guarantee peace. His aim was to eliminate the
European ills of nationalism and war-mongering once and for all.
He formulated his conclusions drawn from the lessons of history in his famous
‘Speech to the academic youth’ held at the University of Zurich in 1946: “There is
a remedy which ... would in a few years make all Europe ... free and ... happy.
It is to re-create the European family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it
with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom.
We must build a kind of United States of Europe.”
Thus the driving force behind the anti-Hitler coalition became an active campaigner for Europe’s cause.
Winston Churchill also made a name for himself as a painter and writer: in 1953 he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature.
Winston Churchill: calling for a United
States of Europe
Winston Churchill 1874 - 1965
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Early life
Winston Churchill was born on 30 November 1874 into the
aristocratic Spencer-Churchill family of the noble Dukes
of Marlborough, but his mother was born in America. After
enjoying a privileged childhood, Churchill began his education
in 1888 at Harrow, a top London boys’ school. He did not prove
to be an outstanding student and school was not therefore
something he enjoyed.
On finishing school in 1893, it took him three attempts to pass
the entry exam for Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy.
But after graduation he began a military career that, over the
next five years, saw him fight battles on three continents, win
four medals and an Order of Merit, write five books and win a
seat in Parliament, all before his 26th birthday.
Political career
While serving in the British army, Churchill was also a newspaper
correspondent. Whilst reporting on the Boer War in South Africa,
he made headlines when he escaped from a prisoner of war
camp there, returning to England in 1900 to embark on a political
career. He was elected to Parliament and served in different
Cabinets as Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty
(Minister responsible for the navy). In 1915 he was forced
to resign after the failure of a particular military campaign.
He decided to join the army again and led the men of the
6th Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers in the trenches of France.
When in 1917 a new government was formed he became
Minister of Munitions. In the years leading up to 1929, Churchill
held all of the most important ministerial posts except that of
Foreign Minister.
The Founding Fathers
of the EU
Churchill gives the ‘V’ for victory sign during a speech at the European
Congress in The Hague in 1948.
In 1929, he became estranged from his party, the Conservatives.
This is the start of a period in Churchill’s life known as the
‘Wilderness Years’. He continued writing and became a very
productive and well published author of articles and books.
Churchill was among the very first few people to recognise
the growing threat of Hitler long before the outset of the
Second World War and the first to voice his concerns.
Second World War
In 1939, Churchill’s predictions became reality as the Second
World War broke out. In 1940, he became Prime Minister and
led Great Britain through the difficult war years, offering hope
and determination to the British people with his inspirational
speeches. His staunch refusal to consider defeat or to bargain
with the Nazis inspired British resistance, especially at the start
of the war when Britain stood alone in its active opposition to
Hitler. Nevertheless, he lost the elections after the end of the war.
He did not, however, lose his ability to interpret correctly how
future events would play out, as proven by his famous speech in
Fulton, Missouri about the threat from the Soviet Communists, in
which he coined the well-known expression about the ‘Iron Curtain’.
A ‘United States of Europe’
In 1946 Churchill delivered another famous speech, at the University
of Zurich, in which he advocated a ‘United States of Europe’, urging
Europeans to turn their backs on the horrors of the past and look
to the future. He declared that Europe could not afford to drag
forward the hatred and revenge which sprung from the injuries of
the past, and that the first step to recreate the ‘European family’
of justice, mercy and freedom was “to build a kind of United
States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of
toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make
life worth living”.
Council of Europe
With this plea for a United States of Europe, Churchill was
one of the first to advocate European integration to prevent
the atrocities of two world wars from ever happening again,
calling for the creation of a Council of Europe as a first step.
In 1948, in The Hague, 800 delegates from all European
countries met, with Churchill as honorary president, at a grand
Congress of Europe.
This led to the creation of the Council of Europe on 5 May 1949,
the first meeting of which was attended by Churchill himself.
His call to action can be seen as propelling further integration as
later agreed upon during the Messina Conference in 1955, which
led to the Treaty of Rome two years later. It was also Churchill who
would first moot the idea of a ‘European army’ designed to protect
the continent and provide European diplomacy with some muscle.
Furthermore, the European Court of Human Rights was created
in 1959 — a decade after Churchill first championed the idea.
Providing the inspiration to the people of Europe as the
binding factor in the allied fight against Nazism and fascism,
Winston Churchill consequently became a driving force behind
European integration and an active fighter for its cause.
The Founding Fathers
of the EU
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