After the carnage of two world wars, and the polarization of the globe between the emergent superpowers, Europe's leaders had a noble dream of founding a new union that would contain its members destructive tendencies, but also act as a beacon of free trade, human rights and cooperation. As this organization attracted new countries, including Britain in the 1970s, the European Economic Community eventually became the European Union, and a seemingly inevitable march toward a federal super-state began, culminating in the creation of the totemic, but economically suspect single currency: the euro.