How 6 Countries Became the European Union: Every Year Mapped

How did six countries become a union of 27? This is the full history of the European Union, mapped year by year: from a continent in ruins in 1945 and the Iron Curtain, through the Schuman Declaration and the founding six in 1951, every enlargement, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Maastricht Treaty and the euro, to Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the EU today. No narration. Just the map, the years, and the moments that shaped Europe: the Treaty of Rome, Greenland leaving, Schengen, German reunification, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 2004 "big bang" enlargement, the euro crisis, the Nobel Peace Prize, Croatia becoming the 28th member, and the UK becoming the first country to leave. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 From six countries to 27 0:24 1945: Europe in ruins and the Iron Curtain 0:46 The Schuman Declaration and the founding six 1:11 The Treaty of Rome and the common market 1:30 Norway says no and the first enlargement 1:51 The first European elections and Greece joins 2:10 Greenland leaves 2:21 Schengen, Spain and Portugal 2:41 Erasmus and the fall of the Berlin Wall 3:01 German reunification and the end of the Soviet Union 3:24 The single market and Maastricht: the EU is born 3:45 Austria, Finland and Sweden join 4:10 The euro 4:26 2004: the biggest enlargement 4:38 Bulgaria, Romania and the Lisbon Treaty 4:59 The euro crisis and the Nobel Peace Prize 5:20 Croatia joins: 28 countries 5:28 Brexit 5:46 COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine 6:14 The EU today ABOUT THIS MAP • Blue = members of the European Communities / European Union, coloured from the date each country joined. The founding six are shown from the Treaty of Paris (1951). • Red = the Soviet Union and the communist states aligned with it (1945–1991). Yugoslavia broke with Stalin in 1948 and is not shaded; Albania is shaded until its split with Moscow in 1961. • Blue stripes = the nine official candidate countries today (shown only in the final scene). Kosovo is a potential candidate and is not striped. • Yellow outlines = countries using the euro. • The map uses today's country outlines for orientation, so historical states are drawn on modern borders (for example, the USSR and Czechoslovakia). East Germany and West Berlin are traced separately until 1990. • Some details are simplified: Cyprus is coloured only where the government controls it (EU law is suspended in the north), the EU's outermost regions such as the Canary Islands and the Azores are off-frame, and French Algeria (1958–62) is not shown. • Borders follow internationally recognised boundaries; Crimea is shown as part of Ukraine. SOURCES & DATA History, dates and figures: • European Union, "History of the EU": https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/history-eu_en • European Parliament, Fact Sheets on the European Union: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en • EU treaties, accession treaties and the 1984 Greenland Treaty: EUR-Lex, https://eur-lex.europa.eu • CVCE.eu, University of Luxembourg, research archive on European integration: https://www.cvce.eu • European Central Bank, euro area membership: https://www.ecb.europa.eu • European Commission, enlargement policy and candidate countries: https://commission.europa.eu • Eurostat, EU population (≈ 450 million): https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat • The Nobel Peace Prize 2012: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2012/summary/ • UK Electoral Commission, 2016 EU referendum results: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk • Statistics Norway (SSB), 1972 and 1994 EU membership referendums: https://www.ssb.no • Council of the EU, NextGenerationEU recovery plan (European Council conclusions, 21 July 2020) • Winston Churchill, "The Sinews of Peace" (Iron Curtain speech), 5 March 1946 Map data: • Country borders, rivers and lakes: Natural Earth (public domain), https://www.naturalearthdata.com • Elevation: Terrain Tiles on AWS Open Data (Mapzen), incl. SRTM, GMTED2010 and ETOPO1 • Font: Montserrat by Julieta Ulanovsky (SIL Open Font License) MUSIC Flutist - Leaving Envato For more astronomy, space exploration, and science content, check out our parent channel, ‪@Cosmoknowledge‬.