European Civil War
Arguments against the notion point towards the strong distinctions in religions and political systems that existed between European nations at the beginning of the period which undermine the idea that Europe formed a united "civil society".
In comparison with traditional historical analysis of 20th-century European conflicts, the utility of the "civil war" concept has not been demonstrated.
K. M. Panikkar's original range from 1914 to 1945 is among the chronological ranges proposed, but it does not explain some of these problems, such as the ideological content of both the nationalist and communist movements, the decline or elimination of related monarchies and the rise of national and transnational social democratic organizations (political parties and trade-union movements) in the period.
The period of events between 1936 and 1945, beginning with the conflict in Spain and ending with the European portion of World War II, are commonly cited.
[citation needed] However, for the self-mutilation perspective there is a tendency to stretch the beginning to as early as the start of the Franco-Prussian War on 19 July 1870 and the end to as late as the reunification of Germany of 1990.
[citation needed] The London School of Economics course "European Civil War: 1890 to 1990" argues that 1945 was the end date and that the second half of the 20th century was the result of the conflagration's aftermath.
At the end of the conflict, elites in the different countries of Europe began work to create a community of nations that has since grown into the European Union.
The central proponents of the European Civil War were originally based at the history department of the London School of Economics.
[full citation needed] An early reference to this concept occurs during the 1970s television series The World at War, when historian Stephen Ambrose comments that 1945 witnessed an invasion of an exhausted Europe by Russian and American armies, "thus ensuring that no European nation actually wins the European Civil War".
