On October 13th, Leiden University historian Anne-Isabelle Richard delivered a seminar exploring the transnational and transimperial dimensions of the European project and its intellectual roots in the inter-war period, challenging the conventional narrative that European integration emerged only after the Second World War. Anne-Isabelle Richard argued that European cooperation must instead be understood as a response to deeper existential uncertainties about Europe's place in the world — fears that long predated 1945 and came out of the First World War.

While nationalist movements often arise from such uncertainties, the seminar emphasized that European integration was itself another form of response. The speaker highlighted that discussions about a united Europe began during the inter-war period, not as a purely internal European reaction, but as part of a global reflection on Europe's declining influence amid the rise of new powers, such as the United States, the Soviet Union and Japan, and the growing instability of colonial empires. The lecture challenged the image of the EU as a sui generis creation born from the ashes of war and guided by a few visionary men. Instead, it presented the European idea as emerging from a broader global consciousness about Europe's waning dominance. Thinkers and activists of the 1920s and 1930s debated how Europe could maintain its role within an evolving international order that was increasingly multipolar. The speaker identified four frameworks that shaped these early reflections on Europe: geopolitics, economics, civilization, and race.

European cooperation was perceived as a means to adapt to a changing world order rather than an exceptional European invention. Debates around Britain's participation in the European project revealed the centrality of imperial concerns: whether the UK should integrate with Europe or align with its dominions. Moreover, colonial unrest and the communist threat were both invoked to justify the need for European unity. Inspiration and competition also came from abroad—particularly from Pan-Americanism and the Monroe Doctrine, which Europeans viewed both as models and as challenges to global order.

Economic interdependence was seen as the foundation for political unity. During the inter-war period, debates emerged about whether economic cooperation could transcend nationalism. Yet these relationships were complicated by the specificities of imperial economic relations. The notion of "two Europes" — agricultural and industrial — was complemented by a "third Europe": the US, Dominions, Latin America, whose increased prominence in the world economy required greater integration of the first two.

The European project also drew legitimacy from a civilizational discourse. Europe was depicted as both declining and superior, a contradiction that served to justify integration as a means of preserving universal European culture. Within a colonial framework, this "civilization" was defined in opposition to the supposedly "uncivilized," reinforcing a unified European identity.

Finally, paternalistic and biological racial ideologies underpinned many visions of Europe's mission in the world. France, for instance, was described as the "tutor of indigenous peoples," while thinkers like Gaston Riou propagated biological racism under slogans such as S'unir ou mourir ("Unite or die"). In conclusion, the seminar invited a global reconsideration of what it means to be European. The European project, rather than being purely a postwar ideal, can be seen as a historical answer to the challenges posed by geopolitical change, the onset of decolonization, and Europe's declining centrality in world affairs.

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hosted by Professor Mark Gilbert


Anne-Isabelle Richard is historian at Leiden University. Her interests are at the intersection of European, African, global and international history. She is currently finishing a manuscript tentatively entitled Imperial History of European Cooperation. Her work has been published in, amongst others, the Journal of Global History, the European Review of History, The Cambridge History of the European Union and The Cambridge History of Rights. An edited collection, The Dutch Empire between Ideas and Practice, 1600-2000 was published in the Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series of Palgrave Macmillan in 2019. She is the co-editor in chief of Itinerario. Journal of imperial and global interactions (CUP).