History of the European idea - 3

Charles Irénée Castel, Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743) was a fascinating man. His plan for uniting Europe was voluminous. His Memoirs for Rendering Perpetual Peace in Europe was published in Cologne in 1712. A year later he turned out two volumes entitled the Project for Rendering Perpetual Peace in Europe in which he incorporated most of his replies and reactions to the criticism of his Cologne Memoirs.

This second work was published in Utrecht. An English translation of the first volume appeared a year later. In 1717 Saint-Pierre added a third volume to his original two-volume work. In 1729 he published an abridged version known as the Abrégé and a revised edition of it in 1738.

In his work, Saint-Pierre dwelt on the economic benefits of peace and the need to construct a European union that would preserve international peace and the domestic status quo in each country. Once the union has been formed, its budget was to be put together from the contributions made by the individual member sovereigns in proportion to their wealth.

He proposed the establishment of a European Senate of Peace to arbitrate and rule over the union and a European army to replace national armies and which was to be used both to suppress internal challenges to this new order and to defend the borders of Europe.

With the Muslim states on Europe's borders, including the Ottoman Empire, Saint-Pierre proposed commercial and military treaties possibly also making them associates of the European Union. In the third volume he changes his mind and he proposes the expulsion of the Turks from Europe. The Abrégé changes direction again on this point by suggesting the need of strengthening Europe's defence against the Turks.

Russia, the other problem child of Europe, was, according to Saint-Pierre's plan, to be included in the union. The philosopher Leibniz read Saint-Pierre's plan when he was in old age and Jean Jacques Rousseau commented on it - actually making it even more popular by his comments.

Rousseau, a pessimist and a realist who had little love for 'utopian' plans for European unification such as the one proposed by the Abbé, was critical of the plan. He believed that it was not human nature which led to conflict but the international system based on anarchy - which states will not change willingly.