But the feelings were not limited to the east: Growing regional inequalities within countries drove a wedge between left-behind populations and the international elites many citizens held responsible for their plight. The “captive nations” of eastern and central Europe reemerged as independent actors, and long-submerged nationalist feelings resurfaced. But public opposition swelled in many member-states.
The European Union, its boosters convinced that their enlightened post-national project represented the future of politics for mankind, sought to move from economic integration to political integration. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the postwar era began giving way to new forces. As decades passed and new generations emerged, memories of the Great Depression and World War Two lost their hold on the Western imagination.
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