now back at the beginning of AP Euro Europe was basically United by Jesus Roman Catholic Church basically held Europe together socially and politically but then the Protestant Reformation occurred and since then Europe just fought each other AD nausea but in this video we're going to see how in the 20th century after 500 years of fighting Europe finally came together again with the establishment of the European Union so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked let's get to now it's no surprise that after two giant world wars European States would be looking for a way not to get embroiled in another giant war in other words what we've been doing hasn't worked so let's figure out something else that might lead to Peaceful cooperation among European States now eventually this push will lead to the establishment of the European Union but first let's consider the steps it took to get there and as with so many other things the steps to cooperation were at first economics when the United States decided to pump 13 billion dollars into the rebuilding of Europe under the auspices of the Marshall Plan that money came with a stipulation namely that that money be spent cooperatively so for example France couldn't take Marshall planned funds and build up a big military and go blow up German no these funds were granted to European States who agreed to give each other a warm and speaking of warm hugs if you're feeling cold and alone with this National AP exam coming up then you might want to find your way to the Embrace of my AP Euro review pack which is everything you need to absolutely Crush that exam Link in the description anyway the first real step toward further economic cooperation was the establishment of the organization for European economic cooperation which was the body that organized the disbursement and spending of the Marshall Plan funds it worked out pretty well the next significant step into the economic unification of Europe came from the formation of the European coal and Steel Community which was formed in 1951. it was an agreement between six states to integrate their stealing coal operations and those six days included France West Germany Italy Belgium the Netherlands and Luxembourg the economic Union was quickly profitable for all of them involved and the idea was that if member nations were tied together economically it would therefore be Unthinkable for them to go to war with one another so as these independent nations work together to become a kind of singular economic block they began reaping fabulous profits as a result of their cooperation because this works so well the six-member nation signed a treaty in 1957 to expand the relationship to include Goods Beyond coal and steel and the result was the common market which was similarly successful over the course of the 20th century more European nations joined this cooperative and the integration of various State economies into a single European economy was slowly occurring this agreement meant that trade restrictions between European states were almost nil and in light of this cooperation the economic agreement later expanded into allowing citizens of all of those states to travel freely between them without the need of a pass and that brings us to 1993 when the maastrich treaty was signed which officially created the European Union it was originally signed by 12 countries and there were more to come but this wasn't just an economic integration of Europe it also had political ramifications as well because the economic blending of Common Market Nations had gone so well the European Union added some political blending as well and once the EU was a reality they established seven bodies that would make policy for EU member nations including a parliament an executive body a group of ministers who considered issues like defense and foreign policy additionally an international currency called the Euro was introduced to member Nation no longer would the French use the Franc or the Italians use the Lira now everyone was is using the Euro and this further knit together the member Nation but not everything is puppies and rainbows when it comes to membership in the European Union and every problem they face basically comes down to a tension that exists along a single axis and the question is how do we balance questions of national sovereignty versus responsibilities to the union on the one hand National sovereignty is the idea that each state is its own state with its own interests and they don't want to give up their distinction to this Union on the other hand each state is a member of a union which is arguably stronger economically and politically than they would be alone or at least you know that's how the argument goes or perhaps the most recent invisible manifestation of this tension came with Great Britain's exit from the European Union in 2016 known as brexit there were a lot of factors that drove this decision but one of the major driving factors was the eu's very favorable policies towards immigration many Brits were growing tired of the growing immigrant population that'd be fair Great Britain was always an uncomfortable member of the EU and talks about leaving had begun occurring almost as soon as they joined regardless brexit is a good example of the tension between member states desire to maintain their independence and identity and the benefits of a unified political economic system so because of the immigration issue and a whole host of other factors that are too complicated to get into here the United Kingdom officially left the EU in 2020. Okay click here to keep reviewing for unit 9 of AP Europe and click here to grab my AP Euro review pack which is everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam inmate I'll catch you on the flip flop I'm Laura