19th Century European Identity

Today, Europe is facing an identity crisis, which is why the idea of a new European culture course was particularly interesting, as everyone feels they come from a specific country in Europe, but don’t feel European anyways.

Furthermore, if this course can be developed, the future policy makers of Europe can solve that identity crisis.

1.1

In the 19th century, Europe faced many ordeals, such as two world wars, a crisis that followed these wars, and a division within itself because of the Cold War. These ordeals have involved the damage of Europe’s unity and its external. When Germany was reunited and the Cold War was at its end, Europe’s integration became one of the main goals of the actors of Europe, which has been achieved by creating the Single Market and the European Union. Then, Europe’s identity issues became one of its priority problems to solve. No politicians were willing to make Europe a federal state, because their focus was essentially economic, and thought that by working on an economic integration, cultural integration and unification would appear. However, these spill over effects never really became an existing reality. Although, the idea of this European identity was seen as the principle that would make the European project legit. It would become the solution to nationalism and Euroscepticism, which was seen as the solution to the identity issue, induced by the omnipresence of passive European citizens. Today, the effects of the all the crises that burden Europe pose considerable challenges on European unity and solidarity by giving rise to nationalist movements and resistance

Consequently, the creation of this new European culture course can only thwart this European identity crisis by strengthening the solidarity between every European, no matter his/her country of