The foundation of
OECD in 1948 started to integrate the colonial realm of Europe. The
Hague Congress (1948) laid the foundation of the
Council of Europe 1949. Similar as the
Schuman Declaration, which named the development of Africa as a central European task, it involved as well dealings with the European colonies. However, the colonial ambitions, especially of France and its illborn
French Union failed to work well with reality. France eventually failed in regaining its colonies in Asia. The lost
Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the start of the
Algerian War within 1954 failed to help with the French ambitions. The failure of the strongest remaining European colonial powers, Britain and France, in the
Suez Crisis 1956 was a major shock. In addition,
Belgian Congo gained independence 1960. Attempts in the early 1950s to construct a “Belgo-Congolese community” along
Antoine van Bilsen's proposal or based on local Catholics' idea of a
Conscience Africaine, both including a gradual emancipation of the Congo, failed completely.
Fringe theories In
interwar era Britain, fascist politician
Oswald Mosley suggested a
Third Position approach to Eurafrica. He founded the
Union Movement, calling for the integration of
Europe into a single entity on base of the slogan "
Europe a Nation". As part of this he saw a need for a merger of Europe with Africa as a source of minerals, agricultural produce and new lands for European settlement. Mosley's conception of Eurafrica included upholding
apartheid in
South Africa, but also cooperation with Africans in central and northern Africa. Similarly,
Eurabia, a
political neologism coined by writer
Bat Ye'Or in the early 2000s
claims a conspiracy of Europe, led by France and Arab powers to Islamise and Arabise Europe, thereby weakening its existing culture and undermining an alleged previous alignment with the U.S. and Israel.
Role of French Eurafrique in the 1950s and 60s Postwar France continued in trying to use the process of European Unification as base of its colonial influences and managed to streamline early European development policy according to its colonial goals. Until the 1960s, the French governments failed to grasp
decolonization and provide a working strategy on it. Algeria was technically no French colony as it consisted of three French Departments with about a million inhabitants of European descent, the later
pieds-noirs. The French tried to keep Algeria in their Eurafrican space and suggested in 1958 large infrastructure investments ('Constantine Plan') to maintain Algeria economically within their realm. France was well aware that the Algerian Departments were not viable under the conditions of the Common Market and gained some exemption clauses in the Treaty of Rome. European integration put France under pressure, as it had guaranteed various commitments to Algeria in the
Evian Accords but had to reduce protectionism and trade barriers according at the same time.
After decolonization Eurafrica subsequently played an important role in forging the European union and associated treaties, as at the
Yaoundé Conventions in 1958 and later. The
Treaty of Rome from 1957 was an important milestone, as France (and Belgium) were now willing to enter a stronger European market based on the condition of association of and the provision of European funds for the remaining colonial realm. Germany, the Netherlands and Luxemburg were rather sceptical. Western Germany however traded an improvement of its own political standing - after tough negotiations between Adenauer and de Gaulle - with the French colonial attempts and agreed to provide substantially to the
European Development Fund. == Role in trade agreements and global reach ==