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User:Brigade Piron/European Defence Community

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The European Defence Community (EDC) was a proposed military alliance between Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany between 1951 and 1954.

Conceived as a European pilar for the recently formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the EDC was intended to create a "European Army" which would permit West German rearmament without allowing a resurgent West Germany militarily to threaten its European neighbors.

The EDC was never implemented as France's National Assembly refused to ratify the founding Treaty of Paris in 1954. It is considered an important milestone in the history of European integration.

Background

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Cold War

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European integration

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NATO and German rearmament

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West German rearmament

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American and British response

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Proposal and functioning

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Organisation of the European Defence Community

Ratification discussion

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West Germany

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Italy

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Low Countries

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French ratification crisis

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Aftermath

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Defence and the Western European Union

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Bundeswehr forces equipped with newly arrived M41 Walker Bulldog tanks on maneuvers in Schleswig-Holstein in October 1957

European Economic Community

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Bibliography

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  • Ruane, Kevin (2000). The rise and fall of the European Defence Community: Anglo-American relations and the crisis of European defence, 1950-55. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press. ISBN 978-0-312-23482-9.
  • Palm, Trineke (2020). "Multilateralism as small power strategy The Netherlands, the Benelux and the European defence community (1950–1952)". In Crump, Laurien; Erlandsson, Susanna (eds.). Margins for manoeuvre in Cold War Europe: the influence of smaller powers. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 32–48. ISBN 9780429425592.
  • Gavin, V. (2008). "Power through Europe? The case of the European Defence Community in France (1950-1954)". French History. 23 (1): 69–87. doi:10.1093/fh/crn065.
  • Pastor-Castro, Rogelia (2006). "The Quai d'Orsay and the European Defence Community Crisis of 1954". History. 91 (303): 386–400. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2006.00371.x.
  • Türker Arı, M. (2004). "The European Defence Community in the U.S. Foreign Policy Context". Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs. 9 (1): 83-98.
  • Weigal, David (1991). "British perceptions of the European Defence Community". In Stirk, Peter M.R.; Willis, David (eds.). Shaping postwar Europe: European unity and disunity, 1945-1957. London: Pinter. pp. 90–99. ISBN 0-86187-161-8.
  • Varsori, Antonio (1991). "Italy and the European Defence Community: 1950-54". In Stirk, Peter M.R.; Willis, David (eds.). Shaping postwar Europe: European unity and disunity, 1945-1957. London: Pinter. pp. 100–111. ISBN 0-86187-161-8.