How is the American War for Independance taught in the UK?
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here in Wisconsin, you learn all about united states history. as a youth, i was always curious about how things like parliament came to be, and how china got so vast. but it was never taught. they only taught you strictly the united states history, and then you learned about old dead cultures like ancient greece. (which i was already reading up on in my spare time)
ive had a very disappointing education. i had to look all those things i had wanted to know up on my own in my spare time.
although i did learn that France tried doing what the united states did. and the united states backed them, right up until they beheaded their leaders. so it wasn't as much as a French history lesson, as it was an "united states looking at France" lesson.
and now that i think about it, the only thing that was ever covered in my united states history class was wars. and nothing else.
ive had a very disappointing education. i had to look all those things i had wanted to know up on my own in my spare time.
although i did learn that France tried doing what the united states did. and the united states backed them, right up until they beheaded their leaders. so it wasn't as much as a French history lesson, as it was an "united states looking at France" lesson.
and now that i think about it, the only thing that was ever covered in my united states history class was wars. and nothing else.
my favorite fucking restaraunt by far.Harkonnen64 said:
that bread = a gift from the heavens of food
OT: well its a pretty big part/catalyst in history, especially by the fact england was heavily involved in it, so i would assume they teach it at least a bit. But then again i'm very surprised by how much some people do and do not go over history in school...obviously we did a whole year dedicated to U.S. history but we had a whole year and a half dedicated to world history in which we started from the fucking beginning and covered god damn just about everything, i think australia we didn't cover much on but outside of that we covered every god damn ruler to ever step foot on this planet.
In Britain we don't get "a text book" of all British history. That thing would be impossible to carry.maturin said:
But in all honesty, the History education I received, didn't even cover the century that the war of Independence occurred in.
We hardly managed to cover the most important parts of internal British history ( with a bit of Europe thrown in there too).
Really, I would change the curriculum so more History is covered. Maybe cut-down some of the other subjects to give History more time.
For all those Americans whining that we are not learning about their country, don't worry we covered America when it was arguably most important i.e. the cold war. That was part of a year of Modern History.
I don't think it's greatly important in the grand scheme of British history. The 13 colonies weren't that profitable for the British as they took a mostly hands off approach to governing and taxing. When they revolted, a bunch of powerful people in Britain were like, "Yeah, I guess they have a point."
Although, in hindsight, it must have sucked to let such a huge reserve of coal, iron, oil, gold, timber, and cotton walk away.
Honestly, the French probably cover it more.
Although, in hindsight, it must have sucked to let such a huge reserve of coal, iron, oil, gold, timber, and cotton walk away.
Honestly, the French probably cover it more.
hm i don't know where your located in the u.s. but that's not how we were taught -_- we even had multiple speakers come in that were experts on the civil war and even this super super old guy who was in the WW2 (dude could barely walk/talk he was so damn old) but the point is they never made us out to be like you said, hell our teacher mentioned at least once a week how we were gettin our ass handed to us in certain parts of history and how in ww2 we came in and mostly got our asses handed to us more than us doing anything.Kathinka said:
Actually, that's just not true. I'm German, I have ''Abitur'', that's like a high school degree and in history class we discussed pretty much nothing else than german or general history between 1900 and 2000. We talk about pretty much anything that happened in WWII and we are aware that it wasn't the most glorious time of our country. Actually, the topic gets kind of old at times, as most things are discussed several times troughout a school career. I don't see a problem in talking about the past of your own country in a negative way. Times change, people change. Even the USA were holding slaves. I mean, I don't feel any personal shame if I think about the past of my country. Generally, I don't understand national or ethnical pride/shame. So, there is no reason to make a secret of the past. This way, we can asure, that the same thing won't happen again, ever.Baneat said:
Yes, it's not allowed to join or found a Nazi-group/party, but that's not because we fear a return to the past, but because it's against our fundamental law to form a nondemocratic party... Sure, it's not the most enjoyable topic in Germany, but it's not like we scream in pain whenever we here the name ''Hitler''.
Well we get taught in the most un-bias manner possible, that we won the war but graciously gave you independance because we were so kind! For King and Country!spectrenihlus said:
Lol, rather I never got taught it in secondary school. It's common knowledge and we touched a little on the subject but never focused on it in any depth. If we study American history, which we did alot, then it was usually 20th Century stuff; American's involvement during World War One, World War Two, Vietnam, Korea, Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil Rights Movement. Otherwise we don't look into much else.
Many people believe that "We lost the American colonies because our superior forces were in India defending our more valuable colony at the time" - I have a feeling that this is just stupid nationalist spirit rather than actually based on facts, but I don't know!
No we don't learn about it, at least not in my school. i love history, but it sucked at my school. You were lucky if you could learn anything before the 1900's. I would of loved it if they taught more about British history, the good and the bad instead of constant world war I and II politics, in which most of the politics were about Germany anyway. Although British History is long it's still annoying we hardly learn anything to do with Britain, and althoguh it's fine looking it up yourself, it would still be good if they covered it. The closest i got to was the Roman invasion of Britain, and even then that was the secondary subject, the main subject being the bloody third reich...again!
its not taught in compulsory schooling, but i think you can study it if you take history at college or uni.spectrenihlus said:
i remember we were taught in school the development of America from the first settlers, the expansion west, the gold rush, the Mormon expedition to the salt lake and founding of SLC, and the final conquest of the natives as in, wounded knee, Custer's last stand etc etc, along with a fair few other key points such as the completing on the continental railway.
i don't recall the war for independence however, or the American civil war for that matter. the other subjects we studied were the effect of the USAAF in Suffolk (my home county) during WWII, and the Apartheid regime of South Africa. this was all over two years, as part of GCSE or "further" history, if you will.
I'm Irish so not from the Uk. In Ireland we cover the basics of it for the junior cert but it is left out of the more important state exam the leaving cert. We spend more time on the more difficult and interesting Irish struggle for independence. Do you do the Irish War of Independence and civil war? I doubt it.
We're taught the basics in KS2/3 History (9-14). You learn a lot more if you do a politics A-level. It's just that, I'm sorry US peeps, your revolutionary war just isn't as important to us as it is to you. To you we were this great power that was so cruelly oppressing you and you managed to stick it to the man against all the odds. To us you were just another colony. We had bigger fish to fry. To us, there are events in our history that are more important than your history.
For us, at the time, we were beginning a decline in general, and there were significant political changes at home. We had many more far larger and at the time far more profitable colonies and spheres of influence to worry about. When you study the scope of our history in general, the loss of the 13 colonies is tiny, so we don't really study it in much depth other than learning that it happened.
When we do study American history, it's almost completely 20th century stuff, because that's when the US really started mattering in a big way.
It's worth noting, however, that what you get taught varies from school to school. In a big way. At my school, the GCSE history course was about WWII, at the one down the road, it was about Russia from Tzar to the collapse of the Union (not in as great a depth of course).
For us, at the time, we were beginning a decline in general, and there were significant political changes at home. We had many more far larger and at the time far more profitable colonies and spheres of influence to worry about. When you study the scope of our history in general, the loss of the 13 colonies is tiny, so we don't really study it in much depth other than learning that it happened.
When we do study American history, it's almost completely 20th century stuff, because that's when the US really started mattering in a big way.
It's worth noting, however, that what you get taught varies from school to school. In a big way. At my school, the GCSE history course was about WWII, at the one down the road, it was about Russia from Tzar to the collapse of the Union (not in as great a depth of course).
Somehow I assume the Americans were expecting bit more of this subject in other countries, seeing that they see themself to be "so important" in our eyes,
In Finland the American history (Foundation/independence/Civil war/the whole lot) has ½ of a lesson (30minutes) for the whole lot, usually not even asked about in exams.
In Gymnasium (2nd level academic education) There some of it in the English history course, some one world war course and thats about it. We got bit more important things to study, being part of Sweden, then being conquered by Russia, Independence, war with soviet Russia, being a tool of Germany, being stuck between tree and the park in cold war, fall of soviet union and start depression in Finland.
Yeah, you are not reallyimportant to us, you really haven't affected our lives at all.
In Finland the American history (Foundation/independence/Civil war/the whole lot) has ½ of a lesson (30minutes) for the whole lot, usually not even asked about in exams.
In Gymnasium (2nd level academic education) There some of it in the English history course, some one world war course and thats about it. We got bit more important things to study, being part of Sweden, then being conquered by Russia, Independence, war with soviet Russia, being a tool of Germany, being stuck between tree and the park in cold war, fall of soviet union and start depression in Finland.
Yeah, you are not reallyimportant to us, you really haven't affected our lives at all.
its good to see acceptance of such things. the things that happened in the axis territory in the 30's and 40's were downright horrific, but its great to see that Germany hasn't buried its head in the sand and tried to make it go away. acceptance of responsibility and the mistakes of previous generations is what allows any collective to improve itself and grow. and Germany has certainly done that. only brainless idiots think that all germans are nazi's by default, personally i have great respect for Germany simply because of its engineers.sad_panda said: