ABSTRACT
The Second World War generated profound disillusionment with Europe’s unpleasant habit of producing a major conflict every generation. It is not surprising that the anti-Nazi resistance movements should have led the field in denouncing the destructive forces of nationalism, and in advocating political and economic integration. Their Manifesto, drawn up at Ventotene in 1940 by Ernesto Rossi and Altiero Spinelli, defined the main objective for the future as ‘the definitive abolition of the division of Europe into national sovereign states’.1 This was followed by the formation of the European Federalist Movement (1943) and by a series of conferences which gave practical expression to the belief of the French writer Camus that ‘the European resistance will remake Europe’.1 This ‘grass roots’ federalism, in turn, influenced post-war politicians and economists who were equally anxious to learn from the experience of Nazi tyranny-men like Adenauer, de Gasperi, Spaak, Monnet and Schuman. The idealism and enthusiasm of the Resistance leaders therefore influenced the new governments, so that, for the first time ever, European integration became, in several states, official policy.
