Types of regional integration in historical perspective

Abstract

The 68th annual meeting of the Socio-Economic History Society took place on May 29th and 30th 1999, at Kyoto University. WATANABE Hisashi organized the symposium, with YAMAMOTO Yuzo and SUGIHARA Kaoru as moderators. Four reports on modern and recent European history were presented, to which HASHIMOTO Juro and HAMASHITA Takeshi provided comments from the viewpoint of Asian historical studies. Watanabe's report discussed the characteristics and types of region defined as 'historical space with individuality', and analyzed various forms and aspects of integration by those regions. The following four reports were presented in response to the questions he raised : 'Origins of the integrated Europe : the dual system in the Habsburg monarchy' by SATO Masanori, 'The post-war reconstruction of Belgium and the integration of the European economy' by KOJIMA Takeshi, 'Economic regional integration and the process of system integration in Switzerland' by KUROSAWA Takafumi, 'Business activities of German electrical enterprises in Europe and regional integration during the inter war period' by IMAKUBO Sachio. The discussion mostly centered on the following three points : (1) regional integration in general and the positioning of nation and region, (2) issues regarding the interpretation of individual cases, and (3) comparisons with Asian history.