A Map of Europe from 1870

Europe, 1870's, W.Schlamp
published on Facebook by Alexandru Ursu-Bukowina
no copyright infringement intended

The map of Europe, as it was at the beginning of the 1870's. The publishing house (Druck u. Verlag v. H Gerbart) was Viennese. The military helmet over the center of the map represented Germany, just set as a major continental player after the Franco-Prussian War (the German Empire would be proclaimed in January1871). Alsace and Lorraine, just taken by the Germans from France, were organized as an Imperial Territory (Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen), and indicated that way on the map. As for the Balkan countries, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria were still, at least formally, under Turkish rule (the independence of Romania and Serbia would be recognized in 1878, at the Congress of Berlin, while Bulgaria would gain full independence in 1908) so the map was leaving them within the borders of the Ottoman Empire.  And the Russian bear, looking at Europe with a seemingly big appetite. Some things don't change ever.


(A Life in Books)