Small correction: the Anatolian origin for the Indo-European languages has been thoroughly debunked. They instead trace back to the Yamnaya of the Pontic Steppe, north of the Black Sea c. 5000 years ago.
What a lovely coincidence (or not!) that this post's visual style features Prussian Blue 💙 - a color with such deep roots in German history, having been discovered in Berlin back in 1704. The rich, sophisticated hue became one of the most important pigments in European art history, much like how German culture influenced the continent. If you're curious about this fascinating pigment, there's quite an interesting story behind its accidental discovery and how it revolutionized painting! ✨
> Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Germans died during this expulsion: many killed, some starved to death. It was, until that point, one of the largest ethnic cleansing in history, if not the largest.
The largest?! This happened after the Holocaust, correct?
Looking at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims I see 17 million deaths for the Holocaust -- and that's not even counting displaced persons who survived. That seems definitively much higher.
Congrats first! Small addition: in the 16th century in northern Germany a dialect of German was spoken which netherland people could understand but not the rest of germans (and this dialect is still spoken in rural aereas) - and the other way round. And since Luther wrote the bible in middle German language the northern Germans had to learn a virtually new language - and that is the reason that in Northern Germany people speak a very „clean“ dialect free German whereas in the middle and South of Germany people still speak their regional dialects.
Bit of a missed opportunity not to talk about the Revolution of 1848, though I understand some events have to be excluded for a post on this scale.
Grassroots movement with students and idealists at the forefront vs the top down unification engineered by Bismarck. Creation of the first parliament, crushed by the nobles.
Small but common mistake: The frankish empire was not partitioned by Charlemagne. He had one legitimate son, Ludwig I (the pious), who inherited a united realm. It was him who partitioned it and gave a part to each of his sons, who were supposed to rule as kings under one of them who was to be emperor (Lothar or Ludwig II?). Naturally they fought over it, which is what led to the formal partition.
As another comment already pointed out, today majority view is that Indoeuropean spread with the Yamnaya expansion about 5000 years ago from the Pontic steppe, assuming that language matches the genetic influx that has been documented. There was a former expansion into Europe, from Anatolia, also documented as genetic influx. I believe that the majority view is that this anatolic expansion carried anotherlanguage or multiple other languages.
One error in the 1910 German map, Copenhagen/Kopenhagen has been placed on eastern Funen instead of eastern Zealand - Copenhagen is mostly outside of the map, but in 1910 as in 2010 it would not have wholly incorrect to place the marker on the island Amager, that island is in its entierty on the map.
There was a recurrent German propaganda map used by Hitler and Nazism since the 1920s. It shows even better how they leverage the German language and culture to expand across Europe.
Small correction: the Anatolian origin for the Indo-European languages has been thoroughly debunked. They instead trace back to the Yamnaya of the Pontic Steppe, north of the Black Sea c. 5000 years ago.
True! Will
Correct when I’m in front of a computer. I wrote this before that.
I don’t think it makes any difference for this article, but it’s good to be precise!
What a lovely coincidence (or not!) that this post's visual style features Prussian Blue 💙 - a color with such deep roots in German history, having been discovered in Berlin back in 1704. The rich, sophisticated hue became one of the most important pigments in European art history, much like how German culture influenced the continent. If you're curious about this fascinating pigment, there's quite an interesting story behind its accidental discovery and how it revolutionized painting! ✨
You threw me into a rabbit hole. Love it!!
My pleasure! Stimulating peoples minds is my speciality 💫😌
As always, an excellent and informative treatise ...
Great article.
Fantastic narrative and collection of maps.
My education for today!!
> Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Germans died during this expulsion: many killed, some starved to death. It was, until that point, one of the largest ethnic cleansing in history, if not the largest.
The largest?! This happened after the Holocaust, correct?
The holocaust killed a higher share of its population (Jews) but a lower absolute number
Looking at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims I see 17 million deaths for the Holocaust -- and that's not even counting displaced persons who survived. That seems definitively much higher.
And don't forget about 10-20 millions of Chinese civilians in WW2
Not at all. This would be concurrent with Fiddler on the Roof.
Congrats first! Small addition: in the 16th century in northern Germany a dialect of German was spoken which netherland people could understand but not the rest of germans (and this dialect is still spoken in rural aereas) - and the other way round. And since Luther wrote the bible in middle German language the northern Germans had to learn a virtually new language - and that is the reason that in Northern Germany people speak a very „clean“ dialect free German whereas in the middle and South of Germany people still speak their regional dialects.
Bit of a missed opportunity not to talk about the Revolution of 1848, though I understand some events have to be excluded for a post on this scale.
Grassroots movement with students and idealists at the forefront vs the top down unification engineered by Bismarck. Creation of the first parliament, crushed by the nobles.
Small but common mistake: The frankish empire was not partitioned by Charlemagne. He had one legitimate son, Ludwig I (the pious), who inherited a united realm. It was him who partitioned it and gave a part to each of his sons, who were supposed to rule as kings under one of them who was to be emperor (Lothar or Ludwig II?). Naturally they fought over it, which is what led to the formal partition.
As another comment already pointed out, today majority view is that Indoeuropean spread with the Yamnaya expansion about 5000 years ago from the Pontic steppe, assuming that language matches the genetic influx that has been documented. There was a former expansion into Europe, from Anatolia, also documented as genetic influx. I believe that the majority view is that this anatolic expansion carried anotherlanguage or multiple other languages.
One error in the 1910 German map, Copenhagen/Kopenhagen has been placed on eastern Funen instead of eastern Zealand - Copenhagen is mostly outside of the map, but in 1910 as in 2010 it would not have wholly incorrect to place the marker on the island Amager, that island is in its entierty on the map.
There was a recurrent German propaganda map used by Hitler and Nazism since the 1920s. It shows even better how they leverage the German language and culture to expand across Europe.
Here is a version published in 1938, right before taking Sudetenland: https://mapasmilhaud.com/mapas-propagandisticos/87-545-000-alemanes-en-europa-1938/
Great read Tomas!