The Changing Face of Europe

Description:

In the summer of 1945, many of Europe’s greatest cities lay in ruins. A wide swath of destruction ranged from Norway’s arctic regions to the remotest southern towns of Italy and Greece, from blitzkrieg-blasted London to invasion-ravaged Normady and Brittany, across Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland all the way to the Russian border and beyond. Europe’s economy was also devastated, brought to its knees by seven years of total war. Her political alliances had been destroyed. The two biggest nations and economies faced one another across the Rhine, one vanquished, one victorious, both completely exhausted, as were almost all the other European states. Out of the ashes of this catastrophe came the first difficult steps in the immediate postwar years. The goals were to rebuild Europe’s cities and towns, restore her national economies, and reform the political alliances which would aim to end forever the bitter national animosities which had given rise to many wars over the previous centuries. From this determination came theNew Europe, a monumental challenge for its creators. In the ensuing sixty years, it has grown to become the most powerful economic and political force which the continent has ever known. This exhibit tells the story of that remarkable transformation, and of the concurrent rise of anew European population and culture growing out of the freshly-minted political institutions and the continent’s new prosperity.

Attribution:

James Spohrer

Date:

2007