Using Maps to Teach History
Geography Clarifies the Goals and Objectives of Great Powers
Using maps to teach history is one of the best ways to enable students to fully understand concepts related to major historical events. Because geography has been downgraded in elementary and high school curricula, students in college classes can seldom identify even the most basic geographic sites. Unless the nation is at war in a particular part of the world, most Americans cannot identify countries that played an important part of history, even as recently as Indo China. If Winston Churchill were to give his Iron Curtain speech today, few Americans would be able to plot Stettin or Trieste.
Using Maps in Teaching History
Many instructors teaching the Crimean War might assume that most students know that the Crimea is a peninsula in the South of the Ukraine. This assumption would be completely false. Not only can students NOT identify the Crimea, but they cannot pinpoint the Black Sea or understand the geopolitical significance of control of the Black Sea and Constantinople in 1853.
Good teaching requires the use of maps found in standard texts or projected from support technology. In teaching the Crimean War, for example, instructors can demonstrate how the Mediterranean region – notably Palestine and Egypt, were crucial to British security and economic concerns. Whatever power controlled Constantinople, controlled the region. Hence, it was a vital British interest to ensure that Turkey, the so-called “sick man of Europe,” retain control rather than Imperial Russia. All of this can be demonstrated from maps.
Having students look at period maps in the light of historical events will enable them to see how and why policies, wars, and long term strategies were employed to preserve imperial interests. Maps detailing Italian and German unification similarly help to tell the story of the formation of modern states and, as in the case of Germany, empires. Whatever history lesson is the focus of study, the use of maps will clarify the crucial issues.
Geography Answers Questions
Any instructor lecturing on the Russian occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia in 1853 cannot assume students will understand the significance of this without consulting a map. Once students actually see the provinces, they can better understand why Austria, in 1853, failed to support Russia and why Russia eventually withdrew. A good map will show the distance between Moscow and the Crimea. When students are told that no railroad lines existed between Moscow and the Crimea, they can better assess the impact of Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War.
Maps should be used in all lectures and discussions. Whether learning about the Louisiana Purchase, Italian Unification, or the Vietnam War, students will never be able to fully appreciate the role of geography without a good map. Geography highlights the rise and fall of civilizations and empires. The "how" and the "why" is a vital part of geographic education.
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