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.It apparently did not occur to the writer to link  unity withgoals other than  greatness and power , for example prosperity and free-dom for Europeans.La Wallonie Libre (no.161, probably June 1944) pub-lished an article on  France as an element of European reconstruction :The reconstruction of a free and united Europe would have seemedan impossible task if there had not been found among the ruins aBefore Self-Reflexivity 191corner-stone massive enough to serve as a foundation for the edi-fice of the future.[.] This first, too brief, summary of French recov-ery shows that Europe can rely once again on the nation devoted tohumanity and reason which for a thousand years has generously expendedits efforts in advancing civilization (Lipgens 1985, 1: 238; emphasisadded).La Wallonie Libre is thus compliant with France s consciousness of itsglobal mission civilisatrice.FranceWith regard to the future Europe of the Six, the French case holds spe-cial interest.According to Lipgens,  in 1942 a socialist-republican resist-ance group was formed in Toulouse with support from the large colonyof Italian anti-Fascist and Spanish republican exiles (Lipgens 1985, 1:289).The movement published an underground journal entitled Libéreret Fédérer.In the first number, which was tellingly dated 14 July 1942,the group claimed:  A revolution which, like that of 1789, will stir thepeople to its uttermost depths and bring forth new élites, a new mys-tique, a fresh vitality: which will again place France in the vanguard ofcivilization, freedom and justice (Lipgens 1985, 1: 291).This view wasrooted in the traditional, if not classical, French conviction that Francewas obliged to accomplish a mission civilisatrice.Similarly, Combat, the leading organization of the resistance in the Southern Zone , with HenriFrenay, Georges Bidault and Pierre-Henri Teitgen among its members,echoed the same sentiments in July September 1942 when it stated: The revolution that we bear within us is the dawn of a new civiliza-tion (Lipgens 1985, 1: 291, 293).In April 1943, Paul Bastid, a formerminister and a radical socialist, who was to join the Conseil National de laRésistance, seemed to distance himself from traditional colonial rhetoricwhen he wrote:Europe, the nurse of civilization, the wider homeland of allFrenchmen, this privileged corner of the earth which the superiorraces of mankind must unite to organize and defend  all these slo-gans have an alluring sound.They make us think of the United Statesof Europe [.] or the European federation [.].Some would extend thebounds of our tiny continent across the Mediterranean and turn itinto Eurafrica.(Lipgens 1985, 1: 301)192 Wolfgang SchmaleBut he then went on to discuss alternative future solutions in thecause of world peace, and concluded:  Europe is still the nerve-centreof the globe, and the world situation depends on security in Europe(Lipgens 1985, 1: 303).Daniel Villey, a professor of political economy at Poitiers Universityand member of the French Resistance, was invited in July 1943 bythe Comité Général d Études, an arm of the Conseil National de laRésistance, to contribute to the debate on the coming peace.Villey, too,seemed to be distancing himself from colonial views, but in reality,as the following quotation demonstrates, he was unable to imagine aworld without colonies.On the one hand, he argued:  It is unthinkablethat nations should remain sovereign in economic and customs mat-ters. On the other hand, he advocated, in the interests of the  main-tenance of the national existence and political independence of smallcountries, the present distribution of colonial empires despite its economicirrationality, [and] frontiers that respect the nationality principle , but headded that  all these are only tolerable if the importance of economicfrontiers is systematically reduced. He further argued:  The economicexploitation of colonies should be put on an international basis, andinternational trade should be regulated not by the nations concernedbut by a single body, in the sole interest of the world as a whole andthe exploitation of its resources (Lipgens 1985, 1: 308) [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]