Maps, Central Europe and History

Maps, Central Europe and History

I Lead-in.

a)    Take 2 minutes to think about your associations with the word ‘map’. Write down the list of words that come to your mind when you hear about maps. Compare your list with the lists created by other students. What similarities do you have? What are the biggest differences between your associations?

b)    Think about the answer to the questions: 1) Who creates maps? 2) How often do maps change? 3) Why can maps change (think of at least 2 reasons)?

c)    Think of the most recent example of the changes in maps (e.g. new cities were founded in a country; a country got a new name, etc.). Why did that change take place?

d)    When did the map of your country change? What were the reasons for that change?

II Pronunciation focus. Look at the phonetic symbols [k] and [tʃ]. How do you pronounce them? Put the words in the list the correct column based on the way you pronounce the underlined letters. Listen or watch and check.

mechanic; chess; Czechs; cultures; Chancellor; Kaiser; successors; Archduke; picture; touched; Czechs

[k]	[tʃ]
mechanic	chess

III Vocabulary focus. Match the words with their definitions.

wonder; glorious; treaty; baroque; mosque; assassinate; reduce; vanish; broaden; hideous

1.    a written agreement between counties signed by their leaders

2.    to make something wider

3.    to kill an important or famous person

4.    to make something smaller in size

5.    to disappear suddenly

6.    relating to the decorated style in buildings popular in Europe in the 17th-early 18th centuries

7.    deserving admiration

8.    a building for Islamic religious activities and worship

9.    extremely ugly or very bad

10.to express a wish to know about something

IV Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

Empires; broadens; War; borders; successors; picture; Treaty; reduced; travel; assassinated; wished; vanished; broader; Czechs; Prague; Serbia; hideous; smoke; dominant; Poles; existence; ruled; resistance; country; meant; Turkish; carved; checkers; weakened; architecture; bridges

Traveling, they say, 1)_____ the mind. When we 2)_____ to Europe we wonder: “How did mosques and Ottoman built 3)_____ like this get into southeast Europe – like here in Bosnia?” And while we certainly think that 4)_____ is beautiful, many Czechs will tell you that all this glorious baroque 5)_____ was built by the Austrians, not the 6)_____. And when you visit Warsaw, 7)_____ will tell you that 8)_____ buildings like this are Soviet, not theirs. So this short trip through central Europe’s maps is 9)_____ to explain just a little about how 10)_____ moved, and how cultures moved with them.

This is how Central Europe looked at the 11)_____ of Vienna in 1850. There were three big 12)_____: the Austrian Empire, ruled by the Habsburgs; the Ottoman or 13)_____ Empire, ruled by its sultans; and the Russian Empire, 14)_____ by the Romanovs. Germany? There wasn’t a country called Germany yet. Prussia was the 15)_____ state there. Poland? From the 1790s until 1918 there was no 16)_____ called Poland. It had been 17)_____ up by the Russians, the Prussians, and the Austrians. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Ottoman Empire had been greatly 18)_____ and these four countries came into 19)_____: Romania, Bulgaria, 20)_____, Montenegro. And since 1867 the 21)_____ Austrian Empire had become the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Beginning in 1871 Germany was united under Chancellor von Bismarck and ruled by Kaiser Wilhelm I and his 22)_____. Here is the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand arriving in Sarajevo in June 1914. A few minutes after this 23)_____ was taken he and his wife were 24)_____.  This was the event that touched off the World War I. Some called it the Great 25)_____. Millions died. And when the 26)_____ cleared in 1918, all the great empires of Europe had 27)_____.

V Match the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	short	a)	existence
2.	come into	b)	in (a city, for example Sarajevo)
3.	they	c)	by the Austrians
4.	at the	d)	trip
5.	broaden	e)	architecture
6.	arrive	f)	say
7.	touch	g)	up
8.	baroque	h)	beginning of the 20th century
9.	built	i)	off
10.	carved	j)	the mind

VI Watch the part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    Watching TV, they say, broadens the mind.

2.    Many buildings in Prague were constructed by the Ottoman Empire.

3.    In Warsaw we can find Soviet buildings.

4.    In central Europe borders moved together with cultures.

5.    In 1850 there were four big empires in Europe: the Austrian Empire; the Ottoman Empire; the Russian Empire; the German Empire.

6.    Between the 1790s until 1918 there was no country called Poland.

7.    Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro used to be parts of the Ottoman Empire before they became separate countries.

8.    In 1871 Germany was divided by Chancellor von Bismarck.

9.    The World War I began after Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated.

10.Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Prague.

11.Some people called World War II the Great War.

12.After the war one of the great empires of Europe had vanished.

VII Match the words with their meanings.

slaughter; Allies; invade; Great Depression; be bent on; troop; symbol; redraw; dismember; demand; liberate ;Iron Curtain; upheaval; descend; collapse; right-wing; precede

1.    (in World War I) the powers of the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, Russia), with Belgium, Serbia, Japan, Italy, etc., not including the United States

2.    to change the borders between countries or regions

3.    disorder or radical change

4.    to divide a country into different arts

5.    the period of economic crisis from 1929 until the start of World War II

6.    the conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system

7.    to be very determined to do something

8.    to ask for something very forcefully

9.    to cruelly kill a lot of people

10.to enter a country by force with soldiers to take control of it 

11.large group of soldiers on duty

12.to help someone to be free

13.the name  of the border between Western Europe and communist countries in Eastern Europe 

14.a sign that is used to represent something else

15.to  suddenly lose force and effectiveness

16.to go or come down

17.to happen before something else

VIII Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the missing words.

At the 1)____ of Versailles in 1919 the victorious 2)____ had redrawn the map of Central Europe completely. Russia became the Soviet Union led first by Lenin and then Stalin. Germany became a 3)____, but the Weimar Republic was hated by the country’s extreme 4)____ as well as the extreme left. And Germany’s first democracy was born in a time of 5)____ upheaval, social instability, and 6)____ assassination. Poland was 7)____ for the first time since the 1790s. A new country, Czechoslovakia, was carved out of the Austro-Hungarian 8)____, and it proved to be the only 9)____ democracy in Central Europe. Both Austria and Hungary were dismembered and greatly reduced in 10)____. Romania, which had been on the Allied side in the World War I, was greatly 11)____. And in the Western Balkans a new country was 12)____, Yugoslavia. It seemed that no one in Europe was fully 13)____ with the Treaty of Versailles. Many said it would only be a matter of 14)____ before war came again. The Great 15)____ that began in America in 1929 quickly made its way to Europe. In Germany the extreme right-wing 16)____, the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler, took 17)____ in 1933. Austria became a dictatorship in the same year as Germany, and Italy 18)____ them both with Mussolini. Adolf Hitler was bent on changing the 19)____ of Europe his way. He marched into Austria in 1938 and then 20)____ a portion of Czechoslovakia. The British and French governments agreed to give it to him in the Treaty of Munich in 1938. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said: “We would have peace in our time.” But then German 21)____ invaded Poland in 1939 setting off the World War II, a war that killed tens of millions of people. Cities were 22)____. And the vast majority of Europe’s Jewish population slaughtered. While American troops 23)____ Western Europe in 1944, in 1945 the Soviet Union liberated Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Baltics, most of Czechoslovakia, and a part of Germany. But wherever the Red Army went they left 24)____ behind. In 1946 Winston Churchill said: “An Iron Curtain had been drawn across Europe dividing East and West.” By 1948 a new 25)____, the Cold War, had begun. The symbol of the Cold War was here, in Berlin. An ugly 26)____ was built in 1961 between communist East Berlin and West Berlin. And West Berlin was then called ‘the island in the Red Sea’. But in 1989 communism 27)____ in Central Europe. Two years later, in 1991, it collapsed in the Soviet Union as well. The Czechs and the Slovaks went their 28)____ ways peacefully in 1993. Yugoslavia descended into a series of wars which 29)____ from 1991 until 1999.

          As you’ve seen in this short film, Europe’s 30)____ have never really stopped changing, and Europe’s history as we see is still being written.

IX Match the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	redraw	a)	assassination
2.	economic	b)	its way to Europe
3.	social	c)	democracy
4.	political	d)	of time
5.	be carved	e)	off war
6.	stable	f)	the map
7.	reduce	g)	into a series of wars
8.	a matter	h)	party
9.	make	i)	out of
10.	extreme right-wing	j)	on
11.	take	k)	instability
12.	be bent	l)	separate ways
13.	set	m)	in size
14.	go	n)	upheaval
15.	descend	o)	power

X Watch the part of the video and answer the questions.

1.     How did the map of Central Europe change after the Treaty of Versailles? What new countries appeared?

2.    What country became the stable democracy in Central Europe?

3.    What countries were dismembered and reduced in size?

4.    What countries became larger?

5.    What new countries were formed?

6.    What countries became dictatorships after the Great Depression had reached  Europe?

7.    How did Hitler want to change the map of Europe? Did other countries agree to those demands?

8.    What event set off World War II?

9.    What troops liberated Western Europe?

10.Who liberated Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Baltics, most of Czechoslovakia, and a part of Germany?

11.What was the Cold War? What was its symbol?

12.When did communism collapse in Central Europe and in the Soviet Union?

13.What happened to the communist countries after the collapse of communism?

14.Can the map of Central Europe change today?

XI Grammar Focus.

Article Use with Country Names

No article is used before the names of countries that have a single name, for example Canada.  

Article the is used before the names of countries whose names includes the words republic, kingdom, federation, empire, union, for example the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Look at the list of the names of the countries and states below. What country names should be used with the article the? Look back at the video scripts to check your answers.

Bosnia; Hungary; Montenegro; Germany; Ottoman or Turkish Empire; Weimar Republic; Soviet Union; Prussia; Austro-Hungarian Empire; Romania; Poland; Russian Empire; Austrian Empire; Czechoslovakia; Austria; Bulgaria; Yugoslavia; Italy; Serbia

XII Look at the list of the names of the countries and states below. Do you think all of the countries and states in the list still exist today? Fill in the table below with the names of the countries and states. Watch all the parts of the video and check.

Montenegro; Germany; Weimar Republic; Austro-Hungarian Empire; Romania; Poland; Russian Empire; Austrian Empire; Czechoslovakia; Austria; Bulgaria; Yugoslavia; Italy; Soviet Union; Ottoman or Turkish Empire; Bosnia; Hungary; Prussia; Serbia

Countries and states that still exist	Countries and states that no longer exist

XIII Study the script for the two parts of the video. Complete the gaps (1- 10) in the table below with the names of the countries/regions, names of the people who live there (plural noun), and adjective. Note that the name of the people is used with the article the (for example the Canadians) and the adjective is always in capitalized (begins with a capital letter).

Country/region	People (plural noun)	Adjective
Turkey	the Turks	Turkish
Bosnia	(a __________________)	(b __________________)
the Czech Republic	1) _________	(c ________________)
Austria	2) _________	3) _________
Poland	4) _________	(d__________________)
the Soviet Union	--------	5) _________
Russia	6) _________	7) _________
Germany	(e__________________)	8) _________
Prussia	9) _________	(f__________________)
Romania	(g__________________)	(h__________________)
Bulgaria	(i__________________)	(j__________________)
Serbia	(k__________________)	(l__________________)
Montenegro	(m__________________)	(n__________________)
Slovakia	10) _________	(o__________________)
Hungary	(p__________________)	Hungarian
Romania	(q__________________)	(r__________________)
Italy	(s__________________)	(t__________________)
(u__________________)	(v__________________)	French
(w__________________)	(x__________________)	British

XIV Complete the gaps (a- x) in the table above (task XIII) with the names of the countries/regions, names of the people who live there (plural noun), and adjective. Use a dictionary to check your answers.

XV Check Your Understanding of Vocabulary. Complete interactive tasks to check your understanding. Focus on the words and expressions (study definitions), match the terms to their definitions, solve the crossword puzzle, complete the quiz, chase down the correct answer to earn, unscramble words and phrases (correct order of letters), type in words to fill in the blanks, test your knowledge of  vocabulary.

XVI OVER TO YOU. Think about your home country or the country you are interested in. Get ready to describe the way its map changed in the 20^th century (or earlier) and the reasons for those changes (5 minutes speech). Try to predict how the map of that country might change in future.