Afternoon Exams!! Hurry, hurry!! Chronology of Grade 9 History I .

。On 11 December 1991, the Maastricht Summit of the European Community adopted the Treaty on European Union, also known as the Maastricht Treaty, with the aim of establishing the European Economic and Monetary Union and the European Political Union. The objectives of the European Union are "to promote the balanced economic and social development of its member States through the establishment of a space without internal borders, the strengthening of coordinated economic and social development, and the establishment of an economic and monetary union with the eventual introduction of a single currency", and to promote the individuality of the Union in the international arena through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy.

On 1 November 1993, the Treaty entered into force and the European Union was established. This marked the transition of the EC from an economic entity to an economic and political entity.

In 1995, Austria, Sweden and Finland joined, expanding the membership of the EU to its current 15. As of 1999, the total population of the European Union was 376.4 billion, with a total area of 333.7 million square kilometres, the official languages being the 11 official languages spoken in 15 member States, and a GDP of about $8,844.1 billion in 1998.

Since the establishment of the European Union, the economy has developed rapidly, with economic growth between 1995 and 2000 reaching 3 and per capita GDP rising from $190,000 in 1997 to $2.06 million in 1999. The EU's economy grew from about $6.7 trillion in 1993 to nearly $10 trillion in 2002.

On 18 November 2002, the Foreign Ministers of the 15 European Union met in Brussels and decided to invite 10 Central and Eastern European countries – Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – to join the EU. Accession negotiations for the 10 countries began in March 1998 and ended in October 2002. On April 16, 2003, at the EU summit held in Athens, the capital of Greece, the above-mentioned 10 countries formally signed the EU accession agreement.

On 1 May 2004, the 10 signatories of the accession agreement will officially become members of the European Union. This is the fifth enlargement in the history of the European Union, and the largest enlargement. In the past, the EU was open to Western countries, but most of the 10 countries that joined the EU this time are Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea countries.

The number of EU member states will increase from the current 15 to 25, the total area will expand by nearly 740,000 square kilometers, the population will increase from about 380 million to about 450 million, the overall GDP will increase by about 5, the total economic output will be on a par with the United States, and the overall strength of the EU will be enhanced.

In July 2003, the plenary session of the Preparatory Committee for the Constitution of the European Union agreed on the European Union's flag, anthem, inscription and celebration days. According to the draft constitution, the flag of the European Union will remain in the current blue background and 12 yellow stars, the anthem will be "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the inscription will be "unity in diversity", and May 9 will be "European Day".

1: Politics: The United Kingdom has just established a constitutional monarchy.

Economy: Britain completes the first industrial revolution.

After World War II, the capitalist countries were seriously weakened by the Great War, while the United States was far away from the battlefield, and its economic and military strength was far superior to that of other countries, ranking first in the world, and becoming the hegemon of the capitalist world. His direct ambition for hegemony is expanding day by day, but he has no choice but to face up to the growing power of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, and the contradictions between the two camps have intensified. In order to contain communism, the United States proposed a Cold War policy.

The Cold War was the use of non-war means to contain communism and stabilize capitalism.

In March 1947, Truman of the United States delivered a speech to Congress, declaring that the United States had a mission to lead the free world in order to prevent the infiltration of communism. It demanded that Congress allocate funds to aid Greece and Turkey, which were seriously threatened by communism. Truman's program and policy of curbing communist interference in the internal affairs of other countries and tightening control over other countries came to be known as the "Truman Doctrine."

Its essence was the declaration of the United States to expand its power in the world, its promulgation, the rupture of the wartime alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.

The United States is trying to defeat the Soviet Union, establish a unipolar world dominated by the United States, and protect its global interests.

The two camps were in serious opposition to each other in economic, philosophical, cultural, social and political positions, and the growth of socialist power after the Second World War caused a panic in capitalism.