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The history of the European Union in three minutes.

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The first thing to unify Europe was tectonic shift.

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Then, when humans finally evolved, much of Europe was unified by

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the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Frankish Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire,

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which was like the Roman Empire, but a bit more pious.

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In fact, the patchwork of separate European states we know today is a relatively recent invention.

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The United Kingdom only became a United Kingdom in 1707.

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Modern Belgium and Italy came along later,

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and places like Slovakia and Croatia only popped up again in the 1990s,

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along with Latvia, Estonia and the Spice Girls.

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But the main step towards reunifying Europe

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came after the devastating impact of the two world wars,

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which led to all sorts of new international agreements, borders and structures.

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After World War II, Winston Churchill called for the creation of a United States of Europe

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to save it from infinite misery and final doom.

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The first big step towards this was the Schuman Declaration,

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a declaration declared by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman.

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And what he declared was that because coal and steel were so vital for war,

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those industries in France and Germany should be linked together

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to make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible.

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But he said it in French.

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This led to the European coal and steel community,

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also joined by Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

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And then the same six countries signed the Treaty of Rome,

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establishing the European Economic Community, or EEC,

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though later it dropped an E and became the EC.

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The community established a common market

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for the free movement of goods, capital, services and people

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and was so successful that others wanted in.

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The UK tried to join in 1963 and in 1967,

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but both times were blocked by France and General de Gaulle,

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who just said non.

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The UK were finally allowed to join in 1973,

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along with Denmark and Ireland.

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And in 1981, Greece was the word.

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As the community grew, it evolved.

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Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany

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signed the Schengen Agreement in 1985,

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which began the process of removing border controls

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and making the free movement of people that bit freer.

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They also got branding, picking a flag, a motto and an anthem.

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And in 1986, Spain and Portugal joined,

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followed by the freshly reunified Germany in 1990,

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once the wall had come down and David Hasselhoff had left.

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Then, in 1992, the big one, the Maastricht Treaty,

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creating the European Union and also the Euro,

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even if choosing a name took a bit longer,

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and despite the UK and Denmark holding tight to their own currencies.

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In the meantime, countries were joining faster than you can say

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fall of the Soviet bloc.

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The EU itself even won the Nobel Peace Prize, though probably fought over who got to keep it.

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So, by the time the financial crisis arrived in 2008, the EU was locked together in a single currency with a massively increased membership.

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The start of the toughest years yet for the EU, with calls for even more reform.

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But thanks to EU rules on mobile roaming tariffs, at least those calls are cheaper to make.

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And there's certainly not a shortage of countries wanting to join, even while others may be looking for the exit.

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If you enjoyed this clip, feel free to follow the links on screen

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for more interesting articles and free courses from The Open University.