Western Civilization II / Unit 11 WC2 1036 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading a Map of Unified Italy and Germany
The idea
A map question on this period asks which state absorbed which. For Italy, find Piedmont-Sardinia in the northwest, then the pieces it gathered: Lombardy in eighteen fifty-nine, the central duchies and the south in eighteen sixty, Venetia in eighteen sixty-six, Rome in eighteen seventy. Nice and Savoy go the other way, to France. For Germany, find Prussia's two blocks, east and west, and the states it annexed after eighteen sixty-six in between, then the southern kingdoms, Bavaria and the rest, that joined in eighteen seventy-one and kept their own rulers. Alsace and Lorraine sit on the French border, taken from France. Austria lies outside both, which is the point: the German Empire was the small-German answer of eighteen forty-eight made real. If a map shows Austria inside Germany, it is not eighteen seventy-one.
In practice
Piedmont grows east and south; Prussia fills its own gap.
Where people slip
The anchor's map shows the Empire's states keeping autonomy; a witness feature.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it