The eurozone's debt crisis is not the first to have been seized upon by supporters of greater political, economic and fiscal union.
In the 1780s and 90s, in the earliest years of the US, the country was saddled with huge debts from the revolutionary war against Great Britain. Around one third, $25m, was owed by individual states. The young country, often a collection of squabbling states, found it hard to borrow.
The US's first secretary of the treasury, an advocate of strong national government by the name of Alexander Hamilton, had a proposal: the federal government would add states' debts to its own and refinance the new national debt with cheaper money borrowed against a new set of taxes and tariffs.
The plan was ultimately a success – European credit flowed in – but meant less independence for individual states. It was opposed by those such as Virginia that were clearing war debts and did not see why they should be taxed to bail out those that were not.
After a six-month battle in Congress Hamilton struck a deal with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, leading Virginians. The US would absorb the entire war debt and in return for southern votes the new national capital (the future Washington, DC) would be located on Virginia's northern border. Next, Hamilton set up the US's first national bank and became leader of the Federalists, the first US political party and a supporter of his centralising views. It was opposed by Jefferson and Madison, believers in strong states' rights, who argued the new national bank was unconstitutional.
Hamilton's politics did not always win him friends. In 1804 years of tension with Aaron Burr, by now vice-president under Jefferson, came to a head and Hamilton was challenged to a duel. Burr shot to kill. Hamilton died of his injuries the following day.