The Second World War was one of the main contributions to kick start European unity. Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman are two of the most influential founding members of the present day European Union. The unification of Europe all began with Monnet's vision to strengthen the French economy after the turmoil of World War II and to weaken the German economy and avoid a risk to Western Europe, but this unfortunately was at the expense of Germany. For, Germany this meant that it's once rich sovereign nation was now an occupied country with the USSR marching from the easy and the American's from the west, hence why the German's surrender. This war had left Germany's Land, and especially urban area highly damaged. France saw a way to strengthen their economy and keep Germany secure and avoid more conflict leading to war that had been waging through Europe for the last 6 years. Jean Monnet was a French economist during the war and saw the damage it had done to his native country. He wanted to make France as powerful as it was before the war. Germany's economy was always the "Powerhouse of Europe  and needed to be reconstructed, in order for Europe to become financially and politically stable once again. Monnet came up with an idea to excel the French economy which became known as the Monnet Plan. The main objective was to take control of the remaining German coal and steel producing areas. Monnet assembled the idea whereas Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister proposed the unification of coal and steel resources, he believed that a peaceful unified Europe was achievable, but both France and Germany would have to reconcile and work together to achieve this. Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan1. (cini, 2007, pg 15) The formation of a unified Europe began with the Monnet plan and Schuman declaration. Schuman wanted to form an organised state based on a supranational community, this was where negotiated power is delegated to an authority by governments of member states.2 Monnet wanted to strengthen the French economy more than ever and needed the natural resources coal and steel to do so, which were plentiful in West Germany. This was one of the pivotal actions in the formation of the ECSC. It was not just an economic choice, but a political objective that was to strengthen Franco-German solidarity, banish the spectrum of war and open the way to European integration.3 Germany was a coal and steel rich area, and France wanted to extract them in order for their economy to flourish but also to decrease the threat of German rearmament and fear of more conflict. The Saar region in Germany was a coal rich area, and in 1947 the French detached it from the remainder of Germany and turned it into the Saar Protectorate. It was under French economic control. Over the next 10 years it was under this control with the resources being extracted and the money going towards the French economy. In 1957 the area was returned to German administration, but France still kept the right to extract the coal from the region up until 1987. This I am sure had so dire consequences for the German economy. The idea was to erase German industry. But Stimson led the opposition, arguing that the ruin of industrial Germany would be the ruin of Europe too.4(Duchene,1994,pg 183) Simultaneously The Ruhr area in Germany was in the same predicament with France wanting it detached from Germany to take advantage of the masses of steel that were available. In 1949, The International Authority for the Ruhr was imposed on West Germany, controlling the production of steel. The actions of this authority also had consequences, and that was that the econo