Question

More of History question

What was the significance of the Cold War for European Integration? What about the Economic Crisis of the 1970s?

Answer 1

The political realities of the Cold War gave a huge impetus to the development of a European integration project focused on the principles of free market economics and liberal democracy. It should be remembered, however, that the push towards economic integration in Europe started in earnest during the Nazi occupation of Western Europe. The Nazi war effort meant that the continent's manufacturing markets supported the German Army's production needs.

The end of the Cold War has indicated the start of the European integration phase. The relative decline of the United States, severely hit by the economic depression and the political instability caused by the Vietnam War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, produced major changes in the structure of the international political system in the 1970s. In addition, the Nixon administration's abolition of the gold standard and the oil crisis the quadrupled the price of crude oil in 1973 provided a further impetus to European integration

The European integration process became important after the end of the Cold War, when the EEC started trying to integrate the Eastern bloc into its political and economic systems. European unification was at the same time a valuable tool for suppressing the potentially resurgent power of reunified Germany. The end of the Cold War encouraged globalization, marked by a increasing internationalization of production and consumption systems. In the new international economic climate, the need to remain competitive compelled the European Union, formed in 1992, to launch another wave of enlargement and to develop a common regional currency to facilitate trade

During the 1970s, economic depression was the result of economic development in the 1950s and 1960s. The economic downturn also resulted from women and teenagers joining the workforce who were less skilled and earned lower pay than men. Especially in the 1970s, inflation took off causing even more troubles. There was so much capital and insufficient goods, which created a disruptive imbalance. The lack of progress caused the U.S. to lose ground in major sectors to other countries.