UNITY AND DISUNITY IN MODERN EUROPE

Preview of Main Ideas

This activity is designed to help students understand the forces of unity and disunity that exist side by side in Europe today. While devolutionary forces are at work in the United Kingdom and Belgium, and Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia disintegrates, the European Union expands and begins a common monetary system (in most of it), Switzerland remains united within and apart from the EU, and NATO expands.

Connection with the Curriculum

This activity is designed for use in a Geography, World Cultures or Social Studies class.

Teaching Level: Grades 5-8.

Objectives Classification Outline (Also see objectives classification matrix below.)

Objective #1: Students will use a variety of sources to investigate the political issues of unity and disunity in modern Europe.

Essential Element: Human Systems.

Standard #13: How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth’s surface.

Knowledge Statement #2: How cooperation and conflict among people contribute to political divisions of Earth’s surface.

Skill Set #1: Ask geographic questions.

Skill #1: Identify geographic issues, define geographic problems, and post geographic questions.

Skill #2: Plan how to answer geographic questions.

Skill Set #2: Acquiring geographic information.

Skill #1: Use a variety of research skills to locate and collect geographic data.

Skill #2: Use maps to collect and/or compile geographic information.

Skill Set #3: Organize geographic information.

Skill #1: Prepare various forms of maps as a means of organizing geographic information.

Theme: Place.

Objective #2: Students will understand the forces that bind together nation-states or pull them apart.

Essential Element: Human Systems.

Standard #13: How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth’s surface.

Knowledge Statement #2: How cooperation and conflict among people contribute to political divisions of Earth’s surface.

Skill Set #4: Analyze geographic information.

Skill #1: Interpret information obtained from maps.

Skill #3: Interpret and synthesize information obtained from a variety of sources.

Skill Set #5: Answering geographic questions.

Skill #1: Answering geographic questions.

Theme: Place.

1. Text: Ahmad, Iftikhar, Herbert Brodsky, Marylee Susan Crofts, Elizabeth Gaynor Ellis, World Cultures: A Global Mosaic, Prentice Hall, 1996.
2. Dictionaries, definitions handout (attached), and library materials including encyclopedias, almanacs, and trade books on the following topics: European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, United Kingdom (Scotland, Whales, Northern Ireland), Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia), Yugoslavia (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Servia).
3. Newsmagazines, newspapers, and internet news sources.
4. Internet resources especially the State Department web site.
5. Outline maps of Europe and the countries of United Kingdom, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, former Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.
6. Handout (attached) on forces for unity and disunity.
7. Atlases.

1. deBlij, H. J. and Peter O. Muller, Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, Eighth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1998 Chapter 1: Resilient Europe: Confronting New Challenges.
2. deBlij, Harm, Harm de Blij’s Geography Book, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1995, Chapter 10: State of Irrelevance?, and Chapter 13: A United States of Europe?

Opening the Lesson

DAY 1

1. Prior to teaching this particular lesson students should have read the following sections of their textbook, World Cultures: A Global Mosaic:

1. Chapter 30: Western Europe in Transition; Sec 2 Growth of Modern Nations pp. 664-667, 668-670, Sec 3 The Industrial Revolution p. 674, Sec 4 Europe in Two "World Wars pp. 675—682.
2. Chapter 31: Western Europe in the World Today; Sec 1 Political Directions pp. 684-690, Sec 2 Economic and Social Change pp. 691-694, Sec 3 Regional and Global Issues pp. 696-697, 699.
3. Chapter 32: Geography and Heritage of Russia and Eastern Europe; Sec 5 Growth of Nations in Eastern Europe pp. 722-7726.
4. Chapter 34: Russia and Eastern Europe in the World Today; Sec 3 Revolution in Eastern Europe pp. 775-759.

1. Introduce and discuss at length the vocabulary of political geography handout. Make sure the students understand the de Blij definition of "nation" and definition of "state" as being an independent country not, as in the United States, a subdivision of a country.
2. Discuss, using the second handout, the forces that bind a nation-state together and the forces that tend to break it apart. Indicate that as students do their research projects they are to watch for these forces.

1. Divide the class into cooperative groups to research the following topics:

1. United Kingdom: the problems of Northern Ireland; concentrating on the historical causes of the "troubles" and the compromises recently made to attempt to gain peace.
2. United Kingdom: the new Scottish and Welsh parliaments, why were they voted, what powers will they have, what is the historical background on how they became a part of the UK.
3. Belgium: the division between the Flemish and Walloons, the history that made this a country, but not a nation.
4. Switzerland: what makes this country with 4 linguistic nations within a nation-state: Why does it hold together?
5. Germany: the split and the reunification, causes and effects
6. Czechoslovakia: split into Czech Republic and Slovakia, how it was formed and why it split.
7. Former Yugoslavia: how it formed and why it has split (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Serbia (Yugoslavia) and continues to splinter (Kosovo).
8. The European Union: its history, powers and future plans.
9. North Atlantic Treaty Organization: its history, current and future changes.

NOTE: all groups must create maps to share with the class.

DAY 2-4

1. Help students to formulate the geographic questions they are to research, plan to do the research and give help in doing the research in the library and on the internet.

Concluding the Lesson

DAY 5-6

1. Each group gives an oral report to the class. All students receive copies of maps made by the group and take notes.

DAY 7

2. Discuss the future of Europe. Will it be more united or more divided? How can the United Kingdom hold its country together? Can the European Union become a political as well as economic entity? What are the forces that unite and pull it apart?

Extending the Lesson

Take an opportunity to extend what has been learned to other parts of the world: Russia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Canada, Africa. Remind students to use the unifying and disunifying factors to analyze the political geography in other parts of the world.

Assessing Student Learning

Orally assess the student learning in the day 7 discussion and subsequent discussions of the political geography of other regions of the world. Can also use a written essay test which asks students to extend beyond Europe what they have learned.

Handout 1:

Political Geography Vocabulary

Country: a political state or nation or its territory (2 p. 298).

Devolution¹: the surrender of powers to local authorities by a central government (2 p. 348).

Devolution²: in political geography, the disintegration of a nation-state as the result of emerging or reviving regionalism (4 p. 603).

Ethnicity: attachment to ones own ethnic group (1 p. 797).

European Community: organization to promote the free movement of goods, people, and the capital among member nations (1 p. 797).

Imperialism: control by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region (1 p. 798).

Independent: not subject to control by others (2 p. 612).

Nation¹: a community of people composed of one or more nationalities and possessing a more or less defined territory and government (2 p. 787).

Nation²: a group of tightly knit people who speak a single language, have a common history, share the same ethnic background, and are united by common political institutions (3 p. 56).

Nation-state: a country whose population possesses a substantial degree of cultural homogeneity and unity (4 p. 607).

Nationalism: pride in and loyalty to one’s country (1 p. 800).

Nationality: a people having a common origin, tradition, and language, and capable of forming or actually constituting a nation-state (2 p. 788).

Regionalism: strong local traditions that divide people within a county or region (1 p. 801).

Secede: break away and withdraw, especially as a group, from a country or an organization (1 p. 802).

State: a politically organized body of people usually occupying a definite territory; exp: one that is sovereign (free from external control) (2, pp. 1151, 1129).

Subculture: group of people within a society who have their own separate beliefs, values and customs (1 p. 802).

 

Sources of Information:

1. Ahmad, Iftikhar, Herbert Brodsky, Marylee Susan Crofts, Elizabeth Gaynor Ellis, World Cultures: A Global Mosaic, Prentice Hall, 1996.
2. Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Milliam-Webster, Inc. 1998.
3. deBlij, H. J. and Peter O. Muller, Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, Eighth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
4. deBlij, H. J. and Peter O. Muller, Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, Sixth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 1991.

Forces of Unity and Disunity Within a State or Country

Unity: Forces that bind a state or country together.

1. a sense of commitment to the governmental system (a national spirit).
2. a leader who personifies the state and who captures the population’s imagination often extending beyond his or her lifetime.
3. A real or perceived external threat.
4. Common language.
5. Common history.
6. Shared ethnic background.
7. Common political institutions.

Disunity: Forces that can break a country or state apart.

1. religious conflict.
2. racial strife.
3. Regions with different languages.
4. Contrasting regional outlooks.
5. Tribalism (greater loyalty to the ethnic group than to the state or country).
6. Removal of external force keeping the state together.

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