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<<And they would force upon us the English language. Yuk! Or esperanto. Or Folkspraak for Germanic, Interlingua for Romance and Slovia for Slavic mayhap.>>
There is another one more interesting (and difficult). It is Europaio or Indoeuropean. This language can be used by everybody: Germanic, Slavic and Latin people.
<<I was under the impression that Germany and France "control" the EU, at least according to complaints I've heard from folks in other EU countries.>>
Perhaps, but it is very difficult to force to study French or German or a horrible mixture between them.
Several years ago, France and Germany pacted to promote French in Germany, and German in France. Nowadays that is irrelevant.
German is only third in France and French is also third in Germany. You can't force anyone to study a language.
There is a PC option. They can promote the 6 most spoken languages of the European Union: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish. And everbody should study 2 or 3 of them.
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"I've wondered about this. What happened to the German speaking population in those former German territories? "
As usual, WP provides the answer. I know that probably sounds like an ignorant thing to ask, but they never taught this history at school. I'm just putting bits and pieces and together from TV documentaries, WP and so forth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_from_Poland_during_and_after_World_War_II
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Isn't that why Klaus wouldn't sign the Lisbon treaty? Because he didn't want the Germans to try and reclaim what they lost after the war?
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>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_from_Poland_during_and_after_World_War_II<<
In high school I read: After the war 2 millions of Germans were evacuated from the former eastern territories (with areas specified). Maybe it happens that my teacher had done more research on this subject.
The same also happened to Poland. Ultimately, it was the decision of the USSR to exploit both Poland and Germany. For historical territorial disputes, Germany, Poland, Finland, Japan, China... would all find it rather difficult to reclaim anything, I think.
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