PARIS -- The latest EU crisis could be one of the worst the European Union has known, and nobody can say if, when and how it will be overcome.
"The war of wars, the fight of fights, is between France and England . . . all the rest are episodes." These words were written in 1833 by Jules Michelet, a man often considered the greatest French historian of all time. He was fundamentally a romantic, in love with France, which he described as a "person." All other nations were, according to him, "animals."
The fact is that from the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) to Napoleon's second abdication, in 1815, France and England have waged an incredible number of wars. France, like most of the continental powers, wanted to dominate Europe, which during these centuries was -- due to the discovery of America and the conquest of sub-Saharan Africa -- the very center of human history.