With the dissolution of the Soviet Empire, a number of other changes have come about in the sphere of Europe, and one major changed that must be faced by Western Europe today and that is also fraught with uncertainties is the advent of a reunited Germany. Germany was a question mark in the development of the European Community even before this because the German economy appears to be so superior to those of the other countries in the EC, ranking with Japan and standing as a nebulous economic threat to the rest of Europe and to the United States in the estimation of some analysts. The reunited Germany has a number of characteristics. The area of the existing Federal Republic of Germany has been expanded by 44 percent, while its population has grown by only 26 percent. There has been a gain in economic potential of about 10 percent, showing that the per capita GNP of East Germany is less than half that of West Germany. However, the reunification is boosting the German economy in terms of growth. What all this means is that as a result of the reunification, the balance of power within the EC will shift. Germany will become the major economic power in Europe to an extent even greater than it already is. This is not the first time that Germany has been a key element in the development of Europe, and more often than not Germany has been seen as a threat, spurring neighbors to build their own economic and military structures as a protection against possible German aggression. At the same time, these countries have also derived much from Germany, including the beginnings of nationalism and other social and political movements.
Seton-Watson (1977) cites three general characteristics of national unification: 1) a sort of Messianism transcending the normal pattern of nationalistic rhetoric and arrogance; 2) the laying of claim to territories where others lived, showing little nobility in sparing the treatment of the inhabitants; and...