The World War and What was Behind It; Or, The Story of the Map of EuropeBénézet, Louis Paul
History
The World War and What was Behind It; Or, The Story of the Map of Europe
Bénézet, Louis Paul
Europe -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Causes
The Danes are not all living in Denmark. A great many of them
inhabit the two provinces of Schleswig and Holstein which were
torn away from Denmark by Prussia in 1864. The high mountains of
the Scandinavian peninsula separate the Norwegians from the
Swedes about as well as they divide the countries geographically.
The Hollanders make a nation by themselves, but part of the
northwestern corner of the German Empire is also peopled by
Dutch. The territory around Aix-La-Chapelle, although part of the
German Empire, is inhabited by Walloons, a Celtic people who
speak a sort of French. Belgium, small as it is, contains two
different types of population, the Walloons and the Flemish.
The German Empire does not include all of the Germans. A great
many of these are to be found in Austria proper, Styria
(sty̆′rĭȧ), and the northern Tyrol (ty̆′rol) (western counties
of the Austrian Empire), as well as in the eastern half of
Switzerland and the edges of Bohemia. Germans are also to be
found in parts of Hungary; and in the Baltic provinces of Russia
there are over two million of them.
All of the Italians are not in the kingdom of Italy. The Island
of Corsica, which belongs to France, is inhabited by Italians.
The province of Trentino (trĕn ti′nō) (the southern half of the
Austrian Tyrol) is inhabited almost entirely by Italians, as is
also Istria, which includes the cities of Trieste, Pola, and
Fiume. Certain islands off the coast of Dalmatia are also largely
Italian in their population.
The republic of Switzerland is inhabited by French, Italians, and
Germans. Besides the languages of these three nations, a fourth
tongue is spoken there. In the valleys of the southeastern corner
of Switzerland are found people who talk a corruption of the old
Latin, which they call Romaunsch or Romansh.
Austria-Hungary, as has already been said, is a jumble of
languages and nationalities. This empire includes nearly a
million Italians in its southwestern corner, and three million
Roumanians in Transylvania. It has as its subjects in Bosnia and
Herzegovina several million Serbians. In Slavonia (slȧ vō′nĭ
ȧ), Croatia (crō a′tia), and Dalmatia (dăl mā tia), it has
two or three million Slavs, who are closely related to the
Serbians. In the north, its government rules over several million
Czechs (chĕcks) (Bohemians and Moravians) who strongly desire to
have a country of their own. It controls also two million
Slovaks, cousins of the Czechs, who also would like their
independence. In the county of Carniola (car ni ō′lȧ), there
are one and a half million Slovenes, another Slavic people
belonging either by themselves or with their cousins, the
Croatians and Serbs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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