"Early moves towards European integration were a product of the immediate post-war period. The European ruling class needed to stabilise its rule following the popular uprisings and radicalisations at the time of liberation, particularly in France and Italy. The answer was Marshall Aid which reflected the economic hegemony of the post-Yalta USA and the supremacy of the dollar as an international currency.
In 1951the European Coal and Steel Community was established. It had six member states: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Holland and Luxembourg. It was both a reorganisation of Western Europe against the East, and an attempt to enmesh a weakened West Germany into a European framework, which would hopefully avoid further European wars. A European Court of Justice was set up in 1953.
France strongly backed the Coal and Steel Community, but was opposed to NATO since it wanted to build a Europe independent of the USA. De Gaulle therefore refused to join NATO and France developed its own independent military capability, including nuclear weapons."
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