Day 20: Bruges

Today we went to Bruges! We went to the archives and, uh...

So, funny story: I was working on these journals the night before, and I never noticed when my roommate with the key walked upstairs. By the time I decided to look at a clock, it was 1am. I frantically checked my room only to discover I was locked out. I knocked on the door, but to no avail. I kept checking every hour, and I was finally let into my room at 5:30am. As a result, I was very tired. My friends back home thought it was hilarious.

I have the greatest of friends.

Even though I've pulled all nighters practically every day in high school and college, I somehow couldn't manage to make it through the parts of the day where we were sitting in one place for an extended period of time. "But Anna, that's practically any day in class!" Well, you're right. When we went to the archives, we were able to sit in the director's office and view documents that date back to the Middle Ages. Guess what happened.

What I do remember is that the archives building used to be a sort of courthouse and that different parts of the building were constructed at different time periods (I think the main part was from the 16th century, while additional wings were from the 17th century). The archives also has to work hard with restoring documents, as quite a few have been damaged either by time of through accidents during the wars.

Bruges itself is a beautiful city. It was very wealthy and had many liberties as a city of the Middle Ages, so Bruges was able to have many beautiful buildings. An example of this is the belfry tower where the documents used to be kept, which is the highest one in the area. Another building in Bruges is the Huis Ter Beurze, which can be considered the first stock exchange in existence.

Wikipedia: home of epic pictures of buildings.

Bruges had a distinct position in society, and there was a fear of merchants taking away that power. There was an increasing eagerness to establish a policy of its own within the city. When the conflict between France and England led to enforcement of boycotting the English market, a major uprising began with an intent to persecute and kill all representatives of the French king on July 11, 1302. This happened at night, so how did the citizens of Bruges tell who was a representative of France? The leaders of the uprising prepared a Dutch phrase to test the citizens: only those who spoke Dutch natively would be able to say it correctly. This phrase was, "schild en vriend," which means, "shield and friend". The professor had a few of us try and say it and needless to say, I failed. Using this phrase was a very effective way to determine who was and wasn't of French origin. The two guild leaders who conducted the uprising are immortalized today with a statue.

This uprising caused major anger in Paris, and the French king prepared an army of knights to attack Flanders. This caused some concern since at the time, nothing could stop an army of knights. They had heavy armor, and they were on horses to boot. The people of Flanders decided to take advantage of knowledge that they had and the French didn't: the geography of the region. They led the army of knights into an area that they knew would get very muddy with a rain. When the army charged, the horses sank in the mud and got stuck. This made it very easy for the citizens to come in and attack the now vulnerable French army. This struggle, called the Battle of the Golden Spurs, was the first time in European history that an irregular army defeated an army of knights.

Jan van Eyck also spent some time here due to the affluence of the area. It is said that van Eyck was chosen by the Duke of Burgundy to paint the Princess of Portugal. The Duke was apparently so pleased that he gave van Eyck enough compensation for him to visit Jerusalem, where he supposedly got a lot of inspiration from.

There was a very interesting hotel we stopped by. The hotel was apparently situated on top of where an old castle used to be and when they started digging for the foundation, they found some remnants of this castle. We were fortunate enough to be able to visit these castle ruins. It was pretty cool!

Bruges became wealthy due to tourism, and so they invested heavily into modern art. Sometimes it worked out well, and other times, well...it didn't.

The archives building was a very short stop for us. Even so, there was significance to it: this place was a model for the city hall in both Brussels and Leuven, both built by the same architect.

Our final stop on our city tour was the Basilica (look up name). Religion was very important back in the day, and there was constant competition among churches. The churches were either built very tall or had something spectacular in the church, such as a painting or a sculpture. A popular thing to have was a relic, which is a certain object with a high symbolic meaning. This usually comes in the form of a body part of a saint (which totally isn't creepy at all). Bruges claims to have the blood of Jesus Christ in this basilica, brought to them by crusaders. This chapel was built specifically to house this blood, and a Holy Blood Procession takes place every few years.

What a major stroke of luck that the object was open for veneration today! I'm not all that religious, and I'm definitely not Catholic in the slightest, but it was still amazing to see the vial with the supposed blood inside it.

Bruges was very fun! I'd like to come see it again sometime.

Day 19: Ypres

Today we took a train over to the city of Ypres. This city was completely demolished by war destruction during the first World War, so pretty much all the city was completely reconstructed to look like it did back in the day. We received a very fascinating lecture on World War I as well as a city tour by Wounter Sinaeve.

Belgium had a rather unfortunate position during World War I. While they were a neutral country at the time, the Germans invaded France by going through Belgium. Why? The border directly between France and Germany was heavily guarded by French soldiers, so the only way to hit France was to go through Belgium. The Belgian army was taken completely by surprise, but they decided to fight back. They opened the dikes and completely flooded the area. This strategy worked: the Germans were stuck in the mud. Unfortunately, this also led to a standstill in the area since the French were not able to push the Germans back. An invasion that was supposed to take a few days lasted several years.

Ypres is a town of peace and...cats? Yes, there used to be a lot of cats in this town! Ypres was a town dedicated to the production and selling of luxury textiles. The basement of the current WWI museum used to be the depot for these textiles before being shipped off. There would be a lot of mice and rats in the basement, so Ypres released cats into the basement to take care of the rodents. When the textiles were shipped, they had another problem: there were way too many cats and kittens. The citizens of Ypres did what any rationally thinking group of people would do: they took the cats to the belfry and hurled them off the tower. They have cat parades every few years, and they also throw cats off the belfry during this festival! Not real ones, thankfully.

Cats everywhere are not amused.

With the portrayal of the Germans as "barbarians" and "evil", many young men were quick to enlist for service in the war that "would be over by Christmas". Even though you had to be 16-17 to sign up, there were many instances of 14-15 year olds who signed up and died in combat. Why would this be the case?

• The salary of a soldier was much higher than the one you could gain from a factory or other job.
• A new uniform that would look sharp and attract attention from girls must have been very exciting to hear about.
• Many young kids took this as an opportunity to travel to a country they had never seen before.

I should probably warn you that the following discussion on World War I uniforms and tactics is heavily laden with references to Team Fortress 2. If you're unfamiliar with the game or are just sick of my references, you should probably leave now.

First of all, the problems with the uniforms? They're not TF2 related, but I can totally relate with marching band uniforms. World War I started in the summer, and woolen uniforms get uncomfortably hot and sweaty underneath when it's warm out. While they are a blessing when it's cold, God forbid it start raining. The cloth used in uniforms would absorb a lot of the water, making the uniforms extremely heavy. There was also the problem that the WWI uniforms weren't exactly what you would consider camouflage, but I don't think Cal Band really has this problem.

JUST TRY AND TELL US APART.

Anyway, the war had come to a standstill. People began to wonder, how can we keep this war on the move again? As Wounter showed us, a rifle wasn't very practical to stay on the move--the relatively small amount of damage done as well as the long reload time just wasn't worth the risk. Engineers began to develop new forms of hand grenades to increase the amount of damage done from a distance. The first of the new models was a German stick grenade. The grenade would be lit at the wooden end and then thrown within the next five seconds to the opposite lines. It looked something like this.

Uh oh. What does this remind me of...

"A sober person would throw it." Indeed! Just so you know, the Demoman is one of my favorite characters to play. :)

The British developed the grenade model we're more familiar with: the Mills bomb. The design was actually very innovative: the lines of the grid were very thin so that upon explosion, the squares would fly out, acting as bullets and increasing the damage radius.

The Soldier has these grenades, but that shouldn't really be surprising.

Grenades were developed to include shrapnel and cause increased damage. A soldier fighting in WWI could now damage and/or take the lives of a few hundred in the trenches as opposed to a few targets.

Gas also became a new weapon. The Hague Convention of 1899 had been signed by the European countries, stating that "The Contracting Powers agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases." This didn't stop Germany from developing chemical warfare, though. After all, the Convention stated that the use of projectiles containing gas--there was nothing in it preventing the use of chemical gas entirely. OH GERMANY, YOU SO SNEAKY.

A man by the name of Fritz Haber developed chloride gas in 1915. It was very effective, as the gas was heavy enough to stay close to the ground but could still move freely in the direction of the wind. The chloride gas was highly effective: not only would it wipe out every living thing in no man's land, but hundreds of soldiers would suffocate from a seemingly harmless wind. You can imagine that this was probably very frightening.

There is NO WAY that you can stop that.

Of course, the opposition would begin to use this new weapon, as well as try to make it more deadly. There was also the question of how to prevent yourself from suffocating during a gas attack because honestly, how are you going to stop a cloud of gas? The suggestions given at the time were to:

1. Throw yourself on the ground, which was dumb considering the chloride gas just sinks anyway.
2. Hold your breath, but most human beings can't do that for a good half hour.
3. Hold a handkerchief to their nose and breathe through it, which would work for a short time, but wasn't entirely infallible.

Gas masks were thus developed. This was the moment that I realized I was going to have to use all the TF2 references.

We then got to walk through the interactive museum "In Flanders Fields". Our guide told us that the goal of this was to show that in the end, no one really "won" World War I. I think they did a pretty good job. I personally had to get through the museum really quickly: it encapsulated the pain felt by so many very well, and I honestly thought I was going to cry for some parts of it (like the Christmas Truce parts).

CURSE YOU EUROPEAN FILMS.

We then got to witness a tradition in Ypres: the Last Post, a bugle call performed at the Menin Gate every night since 1928. The only exception to this was the four year German occupation during World War II, when the tradition was banned. When the Polish liberated the city, the tradition resumed despite the fighting, kind of as a statement that the end of the war was coming.

One crazy train ride later, we made it back to Oostende. Today was a very eventful day.

Day 18: Medieval Gent

Today we took a tram to the medieval city of Gent, where human activity coincides with the existing geography. Gent was a major port and an important industrial city for its time.

There are instances of multiple groups of people coming into this region to live. While there is evidence that there have been people here since prehistory, the first reports of people living in Gent are from Roman antiquity in attempts to expand the Roman Empire. The second settlement of people are from the 6th century, when clergymen from southern Italy traveled north to go to Ireland. Remember St. Patrick? Anyway, these monks then traveled throughout the rest of Europe to spread Christianity. The clergymen were apparently so charmed by Gent that not one, but two abbeys were created—two abbeys that were in constant competition with each other. Finally, a third settlement of businessmen found their way into Gent in the 19th century. These businessmen haven’t left Gent since.

First of all, it should be kept in mind that more people lived in this city in the Middle Ages than they do today. In the 14th century, Gent had a population of 64,000, and it was still expanding. Gent was also the biggest industrial city of its time (its competitor being Bruges). Given the implications both of these factors have, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Gent needed a sound and well-organized infrastructure to function. There were many of these “structures” that were pointed out to us throughout the tour.

Religion played a very important role in Gent's history. After all, some of the first settlers here were monks from the original abbeys in this area. There were many churches, as everyone had to attend service. It was amazing...they were practically right next to each other! Each church was representative for different parishes, and they were HUGE. There were also the mendicants, who served as social reformers and believed that religion should be close to real people. The mendicants were the go-between for the rich and the poor.

In terms of social structure, there were 54 institutions for the purpose of social help. These include hospitals, housing for the elderly and the widowed, and shelter for wanderers, among other things. The only surviving social institution is the House of the Alijn, a house for the elderly since 1350. It was constructed as the result of a war between two families: the Rijn and Alijn. Like most things here, there is a myth and reality to the place.

The myth is that a man from the Rijn and a man from the Alijn fell in love with the same girl. The man from the Rijn killed the man from Alijn and ran away with the girl to avoid execution. Or something like that. The reality is that there were many more reasons besides that reason, which may or may not have actually been a reason. Wut. For a repatriation of sorts, the family members of Rijn had to build that house instead of finding the missing man from Rijn. It was a win-win, I guess: The Rijn family didn't have to see one of their own become executed, and the city got a snazzy new building!

Establishing political structure is always a challenge, isn't it? Things depended heavily on the budget of the city and how to make people pay taxes. These decisions were made in the town hall and the belfry. In this sense, the regional counts had more power than the king did himself. The Count of Flanders was very important due to the economic prestige of the place and was made ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Still, there were many tensions among the townsfolk, and many statements were made of political importance via statues on houses and monuments.

The economic heart of the city is the harbor. Here, you can see many of the buildings that have been around for a while and what they were used for. The professor told us how you can tell the difference between authentic buildings and those that have been reconstructed: the authentic buildings have limestone still intact, while the newer buildings have brick. Simple enough, I suppose.

In the central square, there is a statue of a hero pointing to the direction of England. Gent needed England a long time ago as the city was controlled by France. There is a story of a man who tried to escape and open a port to England. But as they say, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Or was it just that all heroes die in the end? I don't know, pop culture. You tell me.

OH YOU.

There is also a building dedicated to the Socialist movement. Karl Marx actually came from Germany to Belgium to start the movement and finish his Communist Manifesto. The current mayor of Gent is actually socialist, and it's apparently a running trend in that office.

Gent was very beautiful. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been raining ridiculous amounts, though. And maybe even then, if I had an umbrella.

Day 17: Zwin Nature Reserve

Today we took a tram to Knokke and visited the Zwin nature reserve. Many kinds of birds different from those more inland can be seen here.

We then went trekking through a lot of mud. We eventually reached the Dutch-Belgium border! That was pretty cool!

Um, I'm afraid I don't know what else to say. This is probably the shortest journal entry ever. :/

YES RIGHT PICTURES.

That's how close you can get to some of the birds roaming around.

We hiked. Through this. :O

Aside from the fact that I had mussels today (which were delicious!), I can't really think of anything more to say. Sorry. D:

Day 16: Hello, Oostende!

Today we bid farewell to Brussels (and that awful hostel) and took a train to Oostende, a city located on the Belgium coast.

In the Middle Ages, the sea went as far as Bruge, with the remaining space consisting of islands and such. It was around the late Middle Ages when the inhabitants decided to reclaim the land up to this city for agricultural purposes. For a long time, this area was very poor, as the city of wealth at the time was Bruge. Farmers and fishermen mostly populated this city.

This would change in the 19th century, when people became increasingly concerned with health issues. Sea bathing was seen as an activity that would boost health, so many wealthy people would move to Oostende. Even the king of Belgium at the time (Leopold II) decided to build a palace here! Oostende suddenly became very fashionable, and many small palaces began to appear. Interestingly enough, not many local houses were built at the beachfront, as this was considered boring by many of the locals. The wealthy thus built their palaces by the coast. These small palaces were later demolished and replaced with apartments when this area became more accessible, but some of these “small palaces” still exist today.

This city became a place of many luxury activities, such as an annual carnival and a casino that still exists today. England was also very close by, and the population rose dramatically over the span of a few years. Oostende became filled with gossipy people of sorts.

So basically, it was every reality TV show ever.

There was an early expressionist painter by the name of James Ensor who was born and raised in a souvenir shop here. Ensor noticed the “flip side” of a society of wealthy people like this and decided to integrate that with his own artistic works. He often painted his subjects donning masks, preparing to go to the outside world of artificiality. To me, it’s not very far from the truth.

Our tour ended with the Mercator boat, a ship that had made many voyages and was associated with a local hero. Father Damien was a Flemish missionary sent to Hawaii to spread religion. However, when he came upon the island of Molokai and saw the leper colony there, he abandoned his orders and decided to stay on the island to take care of them. Of course, leprosy is a contagious disease, so he later became sick and died. He was declared a saint after death, and his dead body was brought back on the Mercator ship.

It looks like a great city! I'm very excited to explore what's around here!

Day 15: European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions

Today we walked over to the European Parliament. That's kind of weird to say, actually. "Oh, I just walked over to European Parliament today. No big deal." The European Parliament said they would send out their PowerPoint lecture, but they didn't. Oops. I did take some notes, though.

Parliament was first established in the 1950s. It is the only parliament in the world directly elected on the international level. There are European-wide political parties, but no group has the majority. There are currently 20 parliamentary committees, and the committee and political group meetings are considered the most important. In 2004, there was the integration of eastern Europe in the EU. There are five candidate countries who want to join, but that doesn't mean they necessarily will. There are regulations within the political and economic sectors, and the country must be able to quickly follow EU rules.

The first elections were held in 1979, but numbers have been going down since. Why don't people vote? Part of it is that they're not used to the degree of distance or the numbers involved. National governments also tend to take the credit for good things that happen, while blaming the EU for the bad things. There is also the fact that the media tends to only be interested when scandals and other bad things happen within the Parliament. They did say that students here don't get all that much information on the European Union in schools. I definitely think that something of this caliber should be included in the educational system. Have they ever considered that some people are apathetic and/or don't feel that they're educated enough on political policy, so they just don't vote? I mean, that's kind of the reason why I have yet to vote (as horrible a citizen I feel like for saying that). :/

We then got to visit the Committee of the Regions, one of the institution that helps deal with issues of the EU on the federal level. This is managed by the Treaty of the EU (aka the Lisbon Treaty). The system implemented here is not based on checks and balances like the US: there is more overlap between powers. There are seven institutions, but the main ones our representative talked about are listed below:

• The European Commission: This is an executive branch assuring the realization of EU policies. They also have legislative initiative, and they prepare the first legislative proposal each year.
• European Parliament: Seriously? Scroll up a bit and read.
• Council of EU: This is a meeting of the ministers of specific areas. I think I may have discussed this in my EU post earlier.

The Committee of Regions can make suggestions to these three parts, as they are the people representing the subnational level of all governments. It is a part time job, with six plenary sessions. There is a five year term, but if you lose your primary position in the town, you'll lose your position in the Committee of the Regions as well. The Committee of the Regions deals with the daily problems of the people of states and regions. There is lobbying for interest of regions, and the general idea is to push the institution on the European and national government level to consider the subnational level in their policies. A subsidiary is a basis of solutions on the level of the people, and this is what they try to attain.

There are 344 members divided into delegations and by political parties/affiliations. It is a heterogenous political environment, with different member states having a different number of members based on region population. The goal is a platform of cooperation for the different regions on many levels, such as cross border cooperation.

I think I learned a lot today. It makes me think that there is probably a lot of intricacy in the US government system as well, and that kind of makes me feel a bit less informed than before. Which kind of sucks.

How are we already more than halfway through this program?!

Day 14: The European Union (also, Belgian Independence Day!)

Today we learned about the European Union, which turned out to be so interesting that I ended up with about ten pages of notes. I’m going to try and abridge this as much as I can, but considering how I’ve been with my past journal entries, that probably isn’t going to happen. So, are you ready to learn ALL ABOUT THE EU? No? Well, TOO BAD.

The European Union currently has 27 states (the names of which you can look up on your own time). Some compare the EU to the United States of America. However, this isn’t really an appropriate comparison since the EU is a confederacy, meaning that the states retain autonomous power. I personally don’t see how the comparison was ever made in the first place, but I guess it makes sense when you consider America’s ethnocentric mentality.

There are several factions within the European Union.

• European Commission (Brussels): This is considered the “government” of the EU. Each state has one commissioner who is appointed by the state. These commissioners are also ministers of specific topics of discussion. When a commissioner is elected, he or she must work for the benefit of all member states—that is, they cannot make policies that favor their member state. The president of the European Commission is chosen by the head of states of all member states. The vice president position also serves as the head of international affairs to remedy the lack of voice in this field. The current president is Jose Barroso (Portugal), and the current vice president is Catherine Ashton (Britain).
• European Parliament (Strasburg, Brussels): The public directly elects the members of European Parliament. You can probably see that there is more than one building for the Parliament. Both places are used, and the members of parliament have to travel a lot. The reason for the use of two buildings will be explained later.
• Council of European Union (Brussels): All ministers of the states meet here when a specific change in European policy needs to be discussed.
• European Council: Yes, this is different from the previous point. This is a rotating meeting of all head of states of all member states. Unlike the other factions, the European Council does not have a fixed meeting place: every six months, the presidency and meeting place of the council changes countries. There is still a fixed president, the current one being Herman van Rompuy (Belgium).
• European Court of Justice (Luxembourg): The Court of Justice regulates complaints regarding laws implemented by the European Union. They also resolve conflicts between member states. Every member state has one judge who, upon admission into the court, must acknowledge that all decisions made by the court are final.
• European Central Bank (Frankfurt): The Central Bank is responsible for all things regarding monetary policy within the Eurozone, or the countries in which the euro has been taken up as the national currency. The Eurozone currently consists of 17 European Union members. The Central Bank is politically independent, so they do not need to negotiate policy with the EU members. The current president is Jean-Claude Trichet (France).
• Committee of the Regions (Brussels): Some states weren’t finding themselves represented in existing groups. For example, there are regions with some degree of autonomy that isn’t fully recognized (eg. Catalonia in Spain, Scotland in Great Britain, and Flanders in Belgium). Thus the Committee of the Regions was created. While they do not have much real power, they act as an advisory board to the European Union (and as a pressure group as well).
• European Economic and Social Relations (Brussels): This is another example of an advisory group. This is to give the members of trade unions a voice in the European Union.

Even though it hasn’t been around for very long, the European Union has a pretty extensive history. The idea of creating a unity of European states actually dates back to the 9th century, when Charlemagne wanted to take control of the European area to regard as separate from the Roman Empire. This plan failed and the whole of Europe was divided into many regions. These regions would frequently fight each other for control of the whole area, with the two leading rivals being France and Germany. When the United States of America gained independence, Europe hoped for a similar future. However, this vision was mostly shared among intellectuals such as Lafayette and Kant, and did not necessarily reflect the opinions of the people.

This changed with the aftermath of World War I. There was so much destruction within Europe that people wanted Europe to be united in order to prevent further violence. The result of this was the Pan-Europe Movement. As you can see, the current European Union flag takes some inspiration from this flag--only the cross has been removed.

Sadly, the Pan-Europe Movement would end in 1930 with the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. The beliefs of the Nazi party clashed heavily with those of the Pan-Europe Movement. Incidentally, the Nazis did have an interest in European unity, but they had a much different image of unity: a united European state under rule by Germany, with the other states as satellites. The Nazi policy was obviously opposed by the European resistance, acting to liberate themselves from this potential fate. Jean Monnet, a member of the French resistance, was one of the first to forward the idea of a united Europe with equality for all states.

World War II eventually comes to an end, leaving Europe destroyed beyond belief and an end to the dominance of European power. Winston Churchill gave a speech afterward, arguing that the ideas of Monnet should be acted upon because two new countries were coming to power: the United States and Soviet Russia. If this continued, these two powers could easily dominate all of global policy. If Europe was unable to unify themselves, they would all fall.

Like most things, this is easier said than done. For starters, there were many differences among the nations in terms of language, culture, traditions, and so on. There was also a long history of rivalries, as well as a recent grudge against Germany. Would it really be legitimate to forget all of Germany's crimes regarding the Nazi party and the Holocaust? Many thought that this was unfair, and that Germany should be punished by being denied a voice in the new unity. Germany was later allowed a voice due to the overall weak power of the member states after the war. There was an increasing fear that once the US troops went back home, Soviet Russia would invade and take over all of Europe, with Europe being unable to resist. An agreement was made between the United States and western Europe, and a headquarters was placed in Brussels. You probably know this pact as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

Today is flag day, apparently.

NATO was an agreement stating that if any country within NATO was attacked, the rest of the countries would come to their aid (kind of like the Defensive Pact in Sid Meier's Civilization IV, if you've ever played that). This way, western Europe was sure to be safe from a potential attack from Russia. However, feelings of unease arose. Many European people thought that because of NATO, the influence of the United States would grow too large, resulting in the "Americanization" of western Europe. Yes, a fear that future generations would be listening to American music and eating American foods and dancing American dances. Right, because that hasn't happened already (if I'm to trust my weekend visits to clubs around here, anyway). [/sarcasm]

France was especially worried about becoming a "cultural colony" of the United States. France was one of the most powerful countries in the world for a very long time: France had many colonies, and French was considered the language of culture. With many of these colonies lost due to the war and decolonization, the fear of losing this power was very strong. The only way to avoid this Americanization was to create a strong sense of European unity. As a result, French politicians would reach out to Germany for the first time. German politicians were very eager to cooperate, seeing European integration as an opportunity to clean up their international image. Thus, the European Union began.

You know what this blog needs? MOAR FLAGS.

This European unity was a lot easier to initiate due to Germany's economic boom after WWII and a willingness to invest. The model for this European unity would come from a 1946 agreement between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. In order to strengthen their voice, these three small countries would come together to form the Benelux (in case you can't figure it out: be = Belgium, ne = Netherlands, lux = Luxembourg). The Benelux was a free trade organization in which the countries no longer had border checks or taxes on trade. France and Germany looked at the success of the Benelux and decided to use it as a model for what would become the EU.

There was one issue, though: the bordering territories between France and Germany had always been a source of past conflicts, especially recently due to the discovery of coal mines in these territories. In 1950, two French politicians would come up with a solution so amazingly simple that I swear to God, it could appear in the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show as one of Twilight Sparkle's messages to Princess Celestia. Look, don't ask me why I follow that show, okay? Just go with it. Anyway, one of these politicians was Monnet. The other politician was Schuman, a bilingual man from one of these border regions. The suggestion was this: France and Germany would set up a policy regarding the coal and would simply share it. Yes, that's right. Share it...you know, like they probably could have done before? "But Anna, global politics is a lot more complicated than that!" What do I care? This is why I don't pay attention to these things: the solutions are sometimes so obvious that they literally make me facedesk (and yes, that's exactly what it sounds like). Anyway, the European Coal and Steel Community was created as a joint policy regarding this specific product, with Strasburg becoming the meeting place. The Benelux and Italy would later join this community, and the commission seat would be located in Brussels (sort of as a thank you for the Benelux model).

The members of this community became increasingly more ambitious with their goals and agreements, and the Treaty of Rome was created among these countries in 1957. This would give rise to the European Economic Community, which included agreements on other products and policies. They agreed that in the long term, political as well as economic unity was desired, and other nations should be allowed to join if they wish. This was realized in 1973 when the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark joined. The addition of more people meant the system had to be more democratic. Parliament was created, and the first elections took place in 1979.

One of the first issues to be voted on was moving parliament. After all, it didn't make a whole lot of sense for the important factions to be scattered around Europe. It was suggested that parliament be moved to Brussels so everything would be in one place. This is a suggestion that made sense and would have been very convenient for those working for the EU. Of course, there is always that one dissenter...

Problem, EU?

France was the only country who voted against the move to Belgium. The result of this was two parliament locations: one in Strasburg (France) and the other in Brussels (Belgium). Because of this, European Union members have to constantly move, making this job a very stressful and costly one. Wow, France.

More nations have been joining, but the European Union does not have all of the nations. The nations that made up former Yugoslavia have expressed interest in joining, but were not accepted due to the war going on there. Switzerland and Norway actively denied membership to the EU due to their wealth. These countries felt they would spend more than they would gain. Switzerland also had a different government system, and the citizens feared there would be pressure to change if they joined the EU.

In 1980, the president of the EU (Jacques Delors) decided that Europe needs to create a proper European identity. This was when the name was changed from European Community to European Union. They also got the proper symbols of unity, such as a flag and an anthem (Ode to Joy, for those of you who are curious). The Maastricht Treaty was also put into effect, making the euro the official currency.

Well, if the euro is the official currency, then why does Great Britain still use the pound? The main reason is that they were skeptical. They decided that if the euro proves to be stable, they'll fully transition over to it.

In 1995, the Schengen Agreement was made, stating that all members will have open borders with each other.

Europe becomes increasingly self-confident and ambitious, and the population is beginning to feel that they will become a major power again next to the United States and China. However, they were suddenly hit with a series of crises in recent years. In 2004, the EU suggested a constitution be created. This had to be accepted by all states, and France and the Netherlands decided to organize referendums. Everyone assumed these referendums would pass. Guess what? They didn't. A large percentage of the European population was not in favor of these ambitious policies. But why?

It turns out that many people felt that Europe was expanding too fast and accepted too many new members too readily. Countries with drastic culture differences or economic instability, such as Romania and Bulgaria, could readily access countries were stable economies. Suddenly, the work force population felt an increased competition for jobs, an effect that wasn't felt by those in wealthier political positions. There was a major fear of losing jobs or work benefits. I guess you could compare this to the relations between the United States and Mexico.

People also felt that Europe was getting too powerful, and that new laws would reduce the power of the individual states. This was due to the fact that most of the decisions of Europe were made in Brussels. Finally, there was a fear of losing the definition of European identity. This is especially true of the decision to add Turkey, a country with 70 million people. If Turkey were to join the EU, they would immediately be the second largest country in the union. Such cultural differences (specifically the religion of Islam) would question the traditional European identity.

Another crisis the EU has recently been faced with is the economic crisis within the Eurozone, beginning with Greece. When the Euro was established as the common currency, many people were very excited. Those with very successful economies were somewhat skeptical, though. Germany and the Netherlands proposed they impose a sort of criteria: to become a member of the Eurozone, the country had to present economic data that proved they had a sound economy. This was difficult for some countries, such as those in southern Europe who had a tendency to spend much more money than they had.

Greece in particular spends way too much money due to the constant promise of more jobs. This leads to the creation of jobs paid for by the state. Greece promised to change their economic policy and sure enough, they presented data that showed their economy was on the rise. Greece was thus let into the Eurozone, making it easier for them to gain international loans. They immediately began to spend much more money through major activities, such as establishing the Olympic games. Politicians began to have their doubts about the data and decided to double check. What did they find? Greece had lied about their economy and produced false data. There are no policies on kicking out members of the Eurozone, so many countries had to send Greece billions of euros to bail out their economy. What's more, it seems that other countries had been producing fake data as well (Portugal, Italy, Spain).

Why did the EU take this data at face value? The EU is a confederacy, so they still have to respect state laws and guidelines. Greece would not allow a foreign person to come in and check up on their data. Well, that certainly makes much more sense now! There is also the fact that Greece is such a small country that many people figured it wouldn't be such a big deal if their economy dipped a bit. HA HA.

Will the EU let Greece just go bankrupt? Probably not. The loans taken out aren't paid back, and many of these loans came from Germany and the Netherlands. It would be a lot more beneficial to these economies if they just bailed out Greece, as it is better than losing the loans.

Wow. I don't think I really did much abridging at ALL. Oh well.

We next visited the Magritte museum. Rene Magritte was a famous surrealist painter, and I bet you've seen at least some of his paintings.

Also, today was Belgian Independence Day! I guess this was to make up for the fact that we had to miss our own country's independence day. Needless to say, it was amazing! I still don't know why Star Wars was playing through the fireworks show, though.

Well, I think that's enough for today.