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.
