The Palace of Versailles—Again at the Center of World Events

Few news sources are reporting the growing rift between France and Germany on the one side and the United States, Britain and their allies on the other in a potential Middle East war. World News and Prophecy looks beyond the obvious, with the help of Bible prophecy to bring you unique perspective and clear understanding. You need to comprehend the forces shaping our world.

by Melvin Rhodes

After three wars between Germany and France in seven decades, both countries were determined to avoid any further conflict between them. This commitment laid the foundation for the European Union, soon to be a 25-member economic union of European countries. It will surpass the United States as the world's biggest single economic power in May of next year, when 10 new countries join the EU.

Shortly after the 1957 signing of the Treaty of Rome that created what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC)—a treaty that bound the two former belligerents with Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, the original six members—the two leaders of France and Germany met in January 1963 to sign a treaty of friendship. Significantly, the two leaders were giants in the history of their respective nations—Konrad Adenauer, the first chancellor of the postwar Federal Republic of (West) Germany, and France's President Charles de Gaulle, the founder of the Fifth Republic, who ended the instability and infighting that had plagued his country in the postwar years.

Exactly four decades later, on Jan. 22, 2003, the two nations made another giant leap forward as the driving force of the new Europe.

Meeting in the Palace of Versailles, symbolic for both nations, the parliaments of the two nations sat in joint session, an occasion unprecedented in the history of nations. Plans call for future joint cabinet meetings, thereby further cementing the close ties between the two countries.

Prior to the joint parliamentary session, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Jacques Chirac met together and set the pace for the future destiny of Europe by refusing to endorse a U.S./U.K. led attack on Iraq. Anti-Americanism has been one of the driving forces behind the thrust for European union—a feeling that there is an urgent need for another superpower to stop American "unilateralism" in military adventures like the one against Saddam Hussein.

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0302/versailles.htm

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