Europa Unida

Discurso proferido por Victor Hugo na conferência de paz de Paris de 1849, na sequência da chamada "Primavera dos Povos" de 1848, um dos mais lamentáveis e sangrentos espectáculos de nacionalismo da história europeia. No fundo, o que estava em causa era a emancipação de diferentes nações que viviam sob o jugo dos grandes impérios europeus - mas as coisas descontrolaram-se um bocadinho, e o movimento degenerou numa guerra de minorias, de massacres de civis de outras etnias e nações pelos exércitos revolucionários, seguida por intervenções militares a larga escala que geraram graves tensões entre as Grandes Potências europeias.
Na conferência de paz, Victor Hugo declara, num momento em que a Europa se vira desmembrada por querelas entre nações e entre Estados:

(lamento não ter encontrado tradução em português)


A DAY WILL COME when your arms will fall even from your hands! A day will come when war will seem as absurd and impossible between Paris and London, between Petersburg and Berlin, between Vienna and Turin, as it would be impossible and would seem absurd today between Rouen and Amiens, between Boston and Philadelphia. A day will come when you France, you Russia, you Italy, you England, you Germany, you all, nations of the continent, without losing your distinct qualities and your glorious individuality, will be merged closely within a superior unit and you will form the European brotherhood, just as Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, Lorraine, Alsace, all our provinces are merged together in France. A day will come when the only fields of battle will be markets opening up to trade and minds opening up to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and the bombs will be replaced by votes, by the universal suffrage of the peoples, by the venerable arbitration of a great sovereign senate which will be to Europe what this parliament is to England, what this diet is to Germany, what this legislative assembly is to France. A day will come when we will display cannon in museums just as we display instruments of torture today, and are amazed that such things could ever have been possible.