Covering more than a thousand years of history, this time lapse shows the shifting boundaries, nations, and states of Europe. There is a slower version that shows the year with annotations for particular events.
The opening lines of the Charter for the Fundamental Rights of the European Union(PDF) make much more sense now:
The peoples of Europe, in creating an ever closer union among them, are resolved to share a peaceful
future based on common values.
Additionally, the opening few lines of the Schuman Declaration of 1950 also become crystal clear:
It proposes that Franco-German production of coal and steel as a whole be placed under a common High Authority, within the framework of an organization open to the participation of the other countries of Europe. The pooling of coal and steel production should immediately provide for the setting up of common foundations for economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe, and will change the destinies of those regions which have long been devoted to the manufacture of munitions of war, of which they have been the most constant victims.
The solidarity in production thus established will make it plain that any war between France and Germany becomes not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.
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