I am getting very interested in the dance in Europe.
It seems to me that the EU is showing some strain at the seams. I always thought that piecing together a patchwork quilt was an iffy thing. Whenever my Nona and her gang of old Italian harridans made a patchwork quilt, it ended up falling apart faster that the quilts made out of whole cloth. This appears to be the case in Europe.
Old prejudices die hard. The Germans and French have been fighting since the the days of East and West Franconia. Lothloringia died fast. There is a great five minute flick of the history of European borders that will give you an idea.
The Jackasses in Europe still get big wood thinking that they can re-constitute the Carolingian Empire. But for some odd reason they seem to forget that Charlemagne was crowned in 800 and the treaty of Verdun happened in 843.
The Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957. Looks like the "use by date" is getting close.
1 comment:
For a long time Germany was so broken up I would say it is more true that the French were fighting in Germany versus with Germany. They often had substantial German allies.
Even Napoleon when he was fighting the Prussians, had the Saxons on his side.
The German-French antogonism seems to mainly derive from Bismark and the war he started to unite Germany. It was followed up by the unbelievably foolish actions of the Kaiser.
It is not really the EU core that is in trouble. It is the currency. The British are not part of the common currency for instance. If their currency collapsed they would still be part of the EU.
But what do they do with the newer (fringe?)entrants if they default on their bonds? That is a real sticky question.
And of course now Belgium, previously thought a safe country, is having problems. They are about at core to the EU as you can get.
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