Was the European Union the result of politico-economical circumstances after WWII or a kind of an emotional will of the European nation states and their populations to come to more integration after the atrocities of WWII or both?

I first thought that the Benelux, started in 1944 as a plan by the governments in exile in London and implemented in 1950 was the predecessor of the Europe of the Six: France Germany, Italy and the Benelux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benelux

Reading about the subject this evening I came to the conclusion that the Benelux (the former "Low Countries") were more guided by the constituting governments for economic cooperation for the benefit of all than to a former emotional bond of their common history within the historical Low Countries (The Burgundian Netherlands)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundian_Netherlands
although when it started it was nevertheless welcomed by their constituting populations.

I said just the Benelux the predecessor of the Europe of the Six, the economical cooperation of Coal and Steel, the ECSC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community, but now I see that the two were not related to each other.
A project stimulated by Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Conrad Adenauer (and not by de Gaulle in my opinion (I am France)) and here I see not only economic relationship but also an emotional undertone based on former World Wars' history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Monnet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Adenauer

And then the first enlargement in 1973 for the UK I guess with Heath.
There I guess it was specific for economic reasons as I guess there was not such an affinity for the "continental" EU as I found out during a working visit to the UK in 1976. And I think it is quite obvious, although many Englishmen were aware after the 1956 Suez disaster that they had lost their leading role in the world to the US, perhaps many saw it already coming after WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_enlargement_of_the_European_Communities
I realize now that also Ireland entered at the same time for also only economic reasons as they were not that English minded, the same as the English weren't that European minded?

And to be honest during the 1976 money crisis the UK hadn't that much help from the EU? Both the US and the German Bundesbank were reluctant to support such an economy as the UK's of that time.
Or was the supporting system of the EU not yet started in 1976?
And I see it not possible that a former big power as the UK could be treated as later a Greece in turmoil?
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18mvm15.9?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

I think emotionally a big part of Great Britain is still seeing itself as no part of the European continent and is still attached to their former great history? Is that proven by the recent history or is it just economics or both?