Name _______________________
EUROPEAN UNION
Sequence ______
The European Union was established on November 1, 1993. It was an organization that originated with the
European Coal and Steel Community(ECSC) of 1951, which became the European Community(EC) in 1967.
The original members of the EC were: Belgium, France, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, West
Germany(now part of the united Germany). Later these nations were joined by Denmark, Ireland, United
Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain. In 1991, the governments of the 12 member states signed the Maastricht
Treaty, which was then ratified by the national legislatures of all the member countries. The Maastricht
Treaty transformed the EC into the European Union or EU.
In 1995 Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU. In May 2004, 10 more countries were added which
increased its population by 20% and its land area by 23%. The 2004 expansion of the EU, the largest in
its history, is particularly historic because eight of the new members were former communist countries
(Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), part of the former Soviet
bloc. During the cold war, these Eastern European countries had little contact with the rest of Europe. To
gain entry in the EU, the countries had to undergo years of rigorous economic, legal, and democratic
reform. Most of these newer members were much poorer so by banding together in a union, these
countries benefited. The Mediterranean island nations of Cyprus and Malta also joined the EU during the
expansion. Two more countries in eastern Europe, Romania and Bulgaria, joined the EU in 2007. Croatia
joined the EU in July, 2013.
The EU has a number of objectives. Its principal goal is to promote and expand cooperation among
member states in economics / trade, social issues, foreign policy, security, defense, and judicial matters.
European citizenship was granted to citizens of each member state and border controls were relaxed.
Another major goal of the EU has been to implement Economic and Monetary Union(EMU), which
introduced a single currency, the euro, for EU members. In January 2002 the euro replaced the national
currencies of 12 EU member nations. Fourteen EU members do not currently participate in the single
currency. The European Union headquarters(Council) is located in Brussels, Belgium and as of 2013 there
were twenty eight countries in the EU.
Did the countries of the
Soviet bloc
OR
Western Europe
gain the most by being in the EU?
How many countries TODAY make up the EU? ______
All member countries of the EU use the currency, the Euro.
True
False
Directions: EU MAP - Use map on page 265 to complete activity. Use coloring pencils. (Don’t label countries)
1.
Color each country green that was a member of the original Common Market in 1952: Belgium, France,
West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands
2.
Color each country purple that joined from 1973 to 1995: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom,
Ireland, East Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Greece
3.
Color the countries that became European Union members in 2004 orange: Estonia, Latvia, Poland,
Lithuania, Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus
4.
Color the countries admitted in 2006 - 2013 in yellow: Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia
5.
Draw an euro (
) symbol on the countries that have adopted the euro: Belgium, France, Germany,
Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Slovenia, Malta,
Slovakia, Estonia
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington on 4 April 1949, created an alliance of ten
European and two North American independent nations committed to each other's defense. Four
more European nations joined the Alliance between 1952 and 1982, bringing the number of
members to 16(Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States). The admission of
Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland on March 12, 1999 brought the number of members to 19.
Membership went on expanding with the accession of seven more Northern European and
Eastern European countries to NATO(Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania).
Croatia and Albania joined in 2009 increasing membership to 28. (Ukraine and Georgia were also
told that they will eventually become members.) NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium.
The North Atlantic Treaty, itself a very simple document, conforms to the spirit of the Charter of
the United Nations and derives its legitimacy from the Charter. In the Treaty, member countries
commit themselves to maintaining and developing their defense capabilities, individually and
collectively.
One article of the Treaty provides the framework for consulting between the member countries,
whenever one of them feels that its security is at risk. It is this article which underlines the
fundamental importance of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole.
Another article, refers to the right to collective self-defense as laid down by the UN Charter. It
states that an armed attack on one or more members of NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
will be deemed an attack against them all.
The September 11 attacks caused NATO to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time
in its history. The Article says that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack
on all. The invocation was confirmed on 4 October 2001 when NATO determined that the attacks
were indeed eligible under the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty.
How many countries currently make up NATO? _________
What does NATO stand for? ________________________________________________
Part of the EU and NATO are located in what city
and country? ____________, _____________
What event is shown in the picture?
_____________________________
NOTES
World War I or "The War to End All Wars" - 1914 to 1918
Causes:
1. Militarism - Britain and Germany were competing to have the most powerful military, seeing war as a valid
means of foreign policy(influence government by the generals)
2. Competition for colonies - Countries believed they were superior and it was alright to conquer and rule
3. Alliances - Europe sought protection by forming alliances
4. Nationalism - People were very eager to let the rest of the world know how strong and important their
country was - many people thought their country was better than others
5. Desire for independence - many people in Europe lived in countries that were part of empires
Spark that caused the war - Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne who was
murdered by Serbian nationalists
Allied Powers - France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and later Italy and the United States
Central Powers - Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire
Fighting on and under the sea and for the first time from the air - 9 million plus soldiers died
Four empires fell (Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian). Germany lost its overseas empire
Results of World War I was a factor in the development of World War II, twenty one years later.
World War ll - 1939 to 1945
Causes:
1. The causes of World War ll - the anger felt in Germany caused by the Treaty of Versailles
the inability of the League of Nations to deal with major international issues.
2. With such apparent weakness, Hitler must have known that he could push the boundaries and see what he
could get away with. (Germany: re-armament, re-occupied the Rhineland, invaded Poland)
Axis powers - Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria
Allies - US, Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia
Holocaust total death numbers from 9-12 million - Jews of Europe were the most numerous of the victims of
the Holocaust. Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust
American, British, and Canadian troops invaded France on June 6, 1944 known as D-Day. The invasion and
Battle of the Bulge turned the tide of the war in favor of the Allies. Germany's defeat became a foregone
conclusion when Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945
Pacific Theater, the U.S. and Japan waged a struggle / U.S. President Harry Truman authorized the dropping
of atom bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which occurred on August 6 and 9, 1945. Japan
surrendered on September 2, 1945.
Results of World War II - around 61 million people (25 million military / 37 million civilian)
Most fatalities -Soviet Union (25 million) and China (11 million)
A result of the war, US emerged as the world's leading military and economic power. Geopolitical boundaries
changed radically, with the Soviet Union controlling most of Eastern Europe - led to the Cold War
Cold War: Eastern Bloc(Soviet Bloc) - Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania,
and Albania. Cold War ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed.