The Euro Crisis: Is Europe At Breaking Point?

The excellent Michael Burleigh offers a sobering historical analysis of the Euro crisis in the Telegraph. His verdict is severe: in his view, the crisis has "all but destroyed the common purpose at the heart of the European Union.

According to Burleigh, the friend of one senior Polish politician predicts war (yes, war) within 10 years as national stereotypes re-emerge, electorates turn to authoritarian parties and resentments grow among both the winners (Germany) and the losers (most of the others).

War does seem a little way off yet, but Europe has form on this kind of thing. 60 or so years of relative peace (if we leave out the small matter of the former Yugoslavia) is good going by European standards.

Burliegh's grim predictions find their perfect balance over at the Guardian, where the ever-mischievous Simon Jenkins declares himself exhilarated by the whole shambles. A slightly more constructive approach to saving the Euro can be found in this week's edition of The Economist.

The Euro was the product of the European Monetary Union; in 1997 Martin Dedman wrote about the background to the EMU in these pages. For a history of the currencies that the Euro replaced, you could do worse than read this essay from the History Today archive on Europe's national currencies, while the little-known medieval origins of the Euro are explored by Simon Coupland in this 2002 piece.