HISTORY PROJECT

For Wednesday, Minimum history assignment: 

·         know events (but not maps and tiny fine print)  in the timeline  below.  Know the dates in boldface. 

·         ID terms in the glossary (below). 

·         Locate sources for your own country’s history

By Thursday Add to your country report as follows:

·         Answers to questions from the bottom of p. 10 and 11 in Global Issues

·         A timeline for your own country’s history (you can copy parts of the timeline below and add to it)

·         A glossary for your own country’s history and culture (you can add to Wednesday's glossary)

·         More info on your country’s culture, history, ethnic groups, embassies, web sites

CENTRAL EUROPEAN HISTORY GLOSSARY [block-mark, copy and paste terms into your own file for your country report]

Alexander the Great Balkan Baltic Byzantium Cold War Constantinople Goth Huns and Atilla Iron Curtain NATO Nazis Orthodox Christianity Ottoman Empire Reformation Renaissance  Roman Empire USSR Vandal

Timeline 
(all maps except those labeled otherwise are from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_europe.html)

~1000 BCE Athenians battle Trojans in Turkey and probably battled in the Balkans too; 
                    while the Israelites were building their first temple in Jerusalem

~300 BCE:  Alexander the Great conquers the "world"
                    He was from Macedonia, taught by Aristotle, who was taught by Plato, 
                    who was taught by....  (See CORE 110 materials)

~0 CE:  Birth of Christ in the Roman Empire, which replaced Alexander's empire 

Within a few hundred years the Roman Empire became Christian.  Emperor Constantine makes the Roman Empire Christian; Rome converts most of western Europe and much of the Middle East and Northern Africa to Christianity.

then the Roman Empire declined under
attacks of the Vandals, Visigoth, Huns, etc. 
The Huns (Central Asian nomads) stop trying to conquer China and its Great Wall and begin to terrorize everyone from the Caspian Sea to what is now Hungary .  They rode shaggy horses with metal stirrups (improved from Indian inventions), allowing them to thrust (instead of throw) their spears with overwhelming force.  Attila the Hun (Central Asian) conquers the Ostrogoths (German) and eventually uses them to help conquer most of Europe .  Then Attila dies after a night of excessive celebration, the Ostrogoths rebel against the Huns, and the Huns disappeared from history (all killed or immigrated or  intermarried or whatever).

but Christians convert all the Vandals, Goths, Magyars, etc. 

And the Christians divide their world into East 
(which became Orthodox Sects and the Byzantine Empire) 
and West which was "Roman"
Rise of Slavs, Bulgars, Avars came soon.

~600 Islam unites the Arabs, 
who conquer everything worth anything 

~1000.  End of 1st Millennium 

1492 or so:  Renaissance & Reformation  (Beginnings of the Protestant Sects)
By 1492, the Muslim Turks had conquered the Muslim Arabs

Ottoman (Turk) Empire  converted many Europeans

-->later-->

and the Russians were taking over from the Northeast

And for the next four centuries the borders and names changed over and over and over.
You can find elsewhere all the details you can handle.
But we're fast-forwarding to the twentieth century:

~1900:  just before WWI  
the Ottoman Empire (Muslim Turks) still owned parts of Europe

~1914  WWI The Ottomans were driven out of    http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/euro1935.htm 
                Europe and the Middle East 
               (check for more at http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/euro1935.htm )

~1940:  WWII    http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/euro1942.htm 
                                  see more at http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2-eto.htm 

.... defeated the Nazis but created the Iron Curtain                     
                                                                         http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/post-ww2.htm   

         ....  and led to the Cold War  .  
            And then, amazingly, not many years after your auspicious birth, came....        

1991:  Collapse of the USSR  (before --> after -->
                                                                                                   http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ussrfall.htm 

And what will happen in the future?   
Maybe this:
 http://www.economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2206761

•Are small nations better off

–In bigger unions, like USA, USSR, EU, UK?

–or

–As independent states?

–Or

–"Balkanized" into even smaller states, each with its own ethnic identity?

You'll be telling us when you write the "Futures" paper due March 26th.

(all maps except those labeled otherwise are from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_europe.html)