The Schuman Plan failed to provide an adequate framework for supranational government, did little to harmonize economic conditions, and by no means set in motion an inexorable process of unification, but it ended the competitive bids for heavy industry domination that had wrecked every previous large-scale attempt to reorganize the Continent since 1918, led to Westintegration and Franco-German partnership, and resulted in the creation of a new political entity, Europe. The coal–steel settlement is like a spherical wooden puzzle held together by interlocked parts. When taken apart and laid out piece by piece on a table, reassembly seems impossible; yet after patient, frustrating, mostly blind manipulation the thing will eventually, unexpectedly, and inexplicably snap into place, forming a tight round object almost as hard to pull asunder as it once had been to put together. The parts of this puzzle, through perplexing in shape, can be seen and thus depicted, and the assembly procedure can be partially reconstructed from tactile memory. The precise way in which the various pieces fit into one another, however, and the interconnections that give the puzzle inner strength can only be visualized. The solution will always remain partly a mystery.

The Americans represent one piece in the puzzle. The French were not strong enough to unify Europe by their own lights, the Germans tried twice to do so and failed, and the British had little interest in the subject.