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The professor of the Section Víctor Gavín has just published the article “The time of Madariaga and the idea of Europe: savior of Madariaga in the congress of Europe in The Hague (1948)”, in the number 67 of the magazine Historia Contemporánea, dedicated to “Europeanism, exiles and transatlantic networks (1940-1962)”. The article focuses on the […]
The professor of the Section Víctor Gavín has just published the article “The time of Madariaga and the idea of Europe: savior of Madariaga in the congress of Europe in The Hague (1948)”, in the number 67 of the magazine Historia Contemporánea, dedicated to “Europeanism, exiles and transatlantic networks (1940-1962)”.
The article focuses on the idea of Europe of the liberal and republican diplomat Salvador de Madariaga. The research highlights how, for the European leader in exile, without the prior creation of a European consciousness, understood as the ability to think about Europe’s problems without taking into account the borders that divide the different states that make it up, any political or economic integration project would be incomplete. According to Madariaga, de facto solidarity, that is, that derived from the inevitable political and economic interrelationships between states, had to be completed with the subjective solidarity that unites people beyond material interests, thus turning their problems in common, and only solvable with plans also common. In this sense, the research analyzes Madariaga’s thinking on the concept of European consciousness, which should be taken on by an elite in charge of giving a ‘European soul’ to the institutions that were created. This idea was defended by Salvador de Madariaga at the European Congress in The Hague (1948) and had its practical embodiment at the College of Europe in Bruges (1949) founded on his own initiative and to which he was linked as to chairman of its Board of Directors until 1972.
The reference of the article is:
Gavin, Victor (2021). “The Time of Madariaga and the Idea of Europe: Salvador de Madariaga at the Congress of Europe in The Hague (1948)”, Contemporary History, 67, 705-733. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1387/hc.22245
You can consult the full text at this link
