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Europe was deeply divided for most of the 20th century. World War One and World War Two caused vast destruction and loss of life, as well as mass movements of refugees. Nationalist feeling was strong before and during World War One and British people saw Germans and Austrians as the enemy.

On one hand, the rise of fascism leading up to World War Two fed anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner feeling which was sometimes strong among sections of the British population. After World War Two, the Cold War divided western and eastern Europe until the late 1980s. On the other hand, Britain was a place of refuge for people seeking safety from totalitarian regimes including Nazi Germany, Stalinist Eastern Europe and Latin American dictatorships, or from civil wars such as those in Spain in the 1930s, Cyprus in the 1970s and former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

By the early 21st century the European Union had expanded to 28 countries and the ‘free movement of workers’ meant that Europeans could travel easily across borders as economic migrants. Citizens of countries signed up to the 1985 Schengen Agreement did not even need passports. Europe seemed to be moving towards closer political and economic union.

When, in 2016, the UK population voted to leave the European Union, Europe began to seem more divided again. Economic crisis in the Eurozone, divisions over what to do about the flow of migrants into Europe, and the rise of right-wing nationalist parties in many countries, all made European unity seem much more uncertain than it had at the beginning of the 21st century.