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CLEP Western Civilization II study materials
CLEP Western Civilization II study resources

CLEP Western Civilization II: Europe and the World Since 1945: Cold War, Integration, and Contemporary Issues

CLEP Western Civilization II · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Europe and the World Since 1945: Cold War, Integration, and Contemporary Issues

This domain covers European integration, the end of Cold War divisions, and contemporary issues: institutions, enlargement, monetary union, migration, and security.

Building European integration

  • The European Coal and Steel Community (Treaty of Paris, 1951) pooled French and West German coal and steel with Italy and the Benelux states. The Treaties of Rome (1957) created the European Economic Community and Euratom.
  • Integration deepened through the Single European Act (1986), which pursued a single market, and the Maastricht Treaty (1992), which created the European Union and set a path to monetary union. The Lisbon Treaty (2009) reformed institutions.
  • Enlargement widened the project: Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined in 1973; Greece in 1981; Spain and Portugal in 1986; Austria, Sweden, and Finland in 1995; and several Central and Eastern European states in 2004 and 2007. The euro was introduced in 1999 and entered circulation in 2002.

Contemporary tensions

  • Decolonization and labor migration reshaped European societies. Welfare states expanded after 1945 but faced pressure during the oil shocks of the 1970s.
  • The 2008 financial crisis and the euro crisis exposed tensions in a monetary union without fiscal union. Migration, populism, and terrorism became central political issues.
  • Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016 and withdrew in 2020. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 revived security and energy debates.

Worked example

Question: Why is the euro a source of tension in European integration? Reasoning: monetary union without fiscal union means member states cannot devalue their currencies to adjust to economic shocks. Divergent productivity and debt levels create pressure, while the European Central Bank sets one interest rate for all. During the 2010–2012 crisis, bailouts came with conditionality, exposing the unevenness of integration. The euro shows that economic integration can outrun political integration.

Traps that cost marks

  • The EU is not identical to the EEC; the Maastricht Treaty renamed and expanded the structure.
  • Enlargement and deepening are different processes and did not always advance together.
  • Brexit did not end European integration; it changed one member's relationship to it.