Abstract
Americans wanted a prosperous Germany, the French a weakened Germany. The French humiliated the Germans because of fear. Monnet proposed Europe. Through the Schuman Declaration, Monnet and Schuman believed that it would solve the post WWII German problem. Indeed for both political actors, the belief of unifying war industry resources such as coal and steel, amongst adjacent western European states under a supranational body was considered to be appropriate and most of all feasible: "World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it" (Schuman in Fontaine 2000: 36). But behind the official discourse of making "war politically unthinkable and economically impossible" (Gillingham 1991: 228) emerged another political motive with concrete projects of a multi-level governed Europe, which would take place in the long run.
