Subject: Review of countries on the political map of Europe

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

6th‑grade student of elementary school

Core curriculum

VII. Geography of Europe: location and boundaries of the continent; the division of Europe into regions; European countries and their capitals; main features of the natural environment in Europe; phenomena occurring at the boundaries of the lithosphere plates - Iceland; aging and diversity of societies; the largest European metropolises; features of the natural environment and the economy in Northern Europe; agriculture in Western Europe; the economy of the Alpine countries; tourism in Southern Europe. Pupil:

2) presents the political division of Europe and the role of European Union in social and economic changes of the European continent

The purpose of the lesson

You will learn about the political division of Europe

Criteria for success

• you will point countries on the political map of Europe;

• you will determine the geographic location of countries;

• you will identify the largest countries in Europe;

• you will determine the location relative to other countries in Europe;

• you will point capitals of European countries;

• you will discuss the most important changes on the map of Europe at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century.

Key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in a foreign language;

• learning to learn;

• IT competences.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

• work with educational and multimedia material on the epodręczniki.pl platform;

• use of the Quzizz application;

• individual work, in pairs and collective.

Teaching aids

• e‑manual for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• multimedia projector;

• tablets / computers;

• physical map of Europe;

• political map of Europe;

• geographical atlases.

The course of the lesson

Initial phase

1. The teacher presents the pupils with the goals of the lesson and lists the criteria for success that students should achieve.

2. Introduces students to the topic starting from the solution of the interactive task: connect the names of countries with their capitals. The teacher refers to the knowledge of students.

3. The teacher analyzes the political map of Europe with students. It draws attention to the large number of countries in a relatively small area of the European continent. At present, there are 47 countries and 8 independent principalities in Europe.

Implementation phase

1. Students will familiarize themselves with the material of the abstract „Overview of countries on the political map of Europe” introducing new informations about the political map of Europe.

2. Work with the whole class team. On the political map of Europe, students, using an interactive magnifying glass, look at all countries located on the European continent.

3. Students are searching for the largest European country. It is Russia, whose area exceeds 17 million km2 (although its major part lies in Asia, it is counted among European countries). Students locate on the map the smallest country in Europe, which is the Vatican, with only 0.44 km 2.

4. Students indicate countries that are located on the border of two continents, Europe and Asia.

5. Students indicate the largest of them and read their capitals.

6. Students search for countries that are among the youngest in Europe.

7. Students find areas on the map the status of a dependent territory.

8. Students read material in abstract about changes on the map of Europe in recent decades. Then perform the task with the map: mark on the map countries that have a larger area than Poland.

9. Work in pairs. Students using geographical atlases determine the geographic location of countries in Europe. They point countries bordering with Poland. Pairs alternately indicate countries on the political map of Europe.

10. Work of the whole team. Interactive exercise with a map of Europe. Indicate what kind of state this is. Pupils approach the interactive whiteboard successively, mark the area and enter the name of the country.

11. Students read another piece of material in the abstract. Then they perform an interactive exercise consisting in finding and entering the name of the state and its capital in the indicated places at the given latitude value.

12. Work in pairs. On the basis of the text in the e‑textbook and other source materials, students perform the tasks:

• indicate the events that determined the political division in Europe (from 1945),

• list political events in Central Europe at the end of the twentieth century, which decided on the division of countries,

• explain why Kosovo has recently gained independence

Summary phase

1. The teacher, summarizing the lesson, refers students to the test developed on the Quzizz website: Location of countries in Europe.

2. Assessment of students' work.

Homework

1. Listen to the recording of the abstract. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn how to pronounce the words learned during the lesson correctly.

Homework (for willing students)

1. The students read the last fragment of the material in an abstract about the political system of countries in Europe. Then they perform an exercise of checking and entering names and surnames of the leaders of selected European countries. Because leaders can change, the exercise allows you to enter any data (without checking). The teacher should verify that the exercise has been resolved correctly.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Review of countries on the political map of Europe

The political map is a thematic map that shows the division of an area into political units which are countries. One of the most important attributes of an independent country is its territory. The borders of countries on the political map are precisely delineated, and their area is in a uniform colour. The official names of countries are longer and contain references to history or political systems, while the commonly used abbreviated names are used on the political map.

The political map allows determining the location of the selected country with respect to neighbouring countries and geographical features which sometimes are of major economic importance - for example - access to the sea. This location of a country is called political location. As you know from history, the political location had and still has great significance. Experience shows that it is worth maintaining good relations with neighbours, which applies not only to international politics but also our everyday life.
Changes on the political map may have a different course. The creation of a new state or the change of state borders may be the result of bloody wars. Sometimes multinational states are divided through internal agreements. Sometimes the borders remain unchanged, but the name of the state or its symbols change.
Europe is the most divided continent in political terms. Today, on this relatively small continent there are as many as 47 independent countries and 8 small dependent territories. In total, there are 44 countries in Europe, the remaining 3 - the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Turkey - are in larger parts in Asia.

The political map of Europe has been changing for thousands of years. In the 20th century alone, many important events took place that determined the political division of our continent, for example:

• the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles;

• arrangements at conferences in Yalta and Potsdam after the end of World War II;

• changes initiated in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980’s of the twentieth century;

• bloody local wars on the Balkan Peninsula in the 1990’s of the twentieth century;

• changes taking place in the Balkans at the beginning of the 21st century.

Below, we briefly present the most important events that led to the current shape of the political map of Europe.
In 1989, after dramatic events in Poland, countries in Central and Eastern Europe began to free themselves from the Soviet domination. In 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics broke up. Then, the Russian Federation was established, and the former Soviet republics declared independence. The following have again become independent states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova, whereas Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan (also other Asian republics) gained independence.
In 1990, two German states were united: The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. One state was created – Germany.
Czechoslovakia, a state of two nations, was divided into two independent countries in 1993 – the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The new countries also changed some national symbols and emblems, such as the national anthem, national emblem, or national flag.

Great changes also took place on the Balkan Peninsula. The transformations included Yugoslavia lying on the Adriatic Sea. Until 1991, it was a multinational federation state consisting of six republics inhabited by followers of three religions: Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims. There were 5 languages and 2 alphabets in use (Latin and Cyrillic). In 1991, individual republics declared independence. The intervention of the Serbian army began a bloody civil war. Thousands of people moved, seeking shelter. The wave of cruelty was stopped by the arbitrary armed forces of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) in 1995. Today, all the former republics of Yugoslavia are separate states, and the youngest seventh country in this area is the Republic of Kosovo, which declared independence on 17 February, 2008.

The Russian Federation is the largest country, not only in Europe but also in the world. The country covers an area of over 17 million kmIndeks górny 2², which is more than the entire Europe (10.5 million kmIndeks górny 2²). On our continent there is only about ¼ of Russia’s area (¾ is in Asia).
Apart from huge Russia, attention on the political map of Europe is drawn to 10 large countries with an area of 300 - 600 thousand kmIndeks górny 2², among which there is also Poland.
Other European countries, due to the size of the area, are classified as medium, small and very small.

According to data from 2015, the most populous country in Europe is the Russian Federation with 143.5 million inhabitants of which over 110 million is in the European part. The second largest European country in terms of population is Germany – 80.7 million inhabitants. Then, the group of countries with approximately 60 million inhabitants is distinguished – Great Britain (64.7 million), France (64.4 million) and Italy (59,8 million). The next group includes countries with approximately 40 million inhabitants – Spain (46.1 million), Ukraine (44.8 million) and Poland (38.5 million). The next European countries have significantly fewer inhabitants, below 20 million – Romania (19.5 million), the Netherlands (16.9 million).

The term state system is the way how power is exercised in a given country based on what is written down in the constitution. Most European countries are parliamentary republics in which democratic principles of division of legislative, executive and judiciary power, protection of civil liberties, and the possibility to control power by citizens are applied. Some European countries are monarchies in which the head of state is a king/queen or a prince/princess. However, in most of these countries they only perform representative functions, and the power – like in republics – is exercised in a democratic way.