The United States d\' Europe

the United States d' Europe is an expression used for the first time by the romantic author Victor Hugo the August 21st 1849 at the time of the international Congrès of peace of Paris. It is also the title of a review devoted to the peace created in 1867.

The text of Victor Hugo

One day will come where the weapons will fall you with the hands, to you too! One day will come where the war will appear also absurd and will be also impossible between Paris and London, between Pétersbourg and Berlin, between Vienna and Turin, that it would be impossible and that it appears absurd today between Rouen and Amiens, between Boston and Philadelphia. One day will come where you France, you Russia, you Italy, you England, you Germany, you all, nations of the continent, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, you will melt yourselves narrowly in a higher unit, and you will constitute European fraternity, absolutely like Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, all our provinces, were melted in France. One day will come where there will not be any more other battle fields but the markets opening with the trade and the spirits opening with the ideas. - One day will come where the balls and the bombs will be replaced by the votes, by the vote for all of the people, the worthy arbitration of a great sovereign senate which will be in Europe what the Parliament is in England, which the diet is in Germany, which the legislative Parliament is in France! (Applause.) One day will come where one will show a gun in the museums like one shows an instrument of torture today there, while being astonished that could be! (Laughter and cheers.) One day will come where one will see these two immense groups, the the United States of America, the United States of Europe (Applause), placed opposite one the other, tightening the hand over the seas, exchanging their products, their trade, their industry, their arts, their geniuses, clearing the sphere, colonizing the deserts, improving creation under the glance of the Creator, and combining together, to draw from it the wellbeing from all, these two infinite forces, the fraternity of the men and the power of God!

Victor Hugo was a visionary, the United States of Europe, this European fraternity to which it held so much, European Community became the then the European Union after a long way during the second part of the 20th century. This union currently gathers 27 countries since January 1st 2007.

The review

the United States d' Europe is also the title of the review created by the permanent international League of peace after the Conférence of peace of Geneva in 1867. This review will appear until the beginning of the Second world war in 1939.

See too

History of the European Union
European Federalism
Political European Union
of Europe
Side-Europe

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