How much do you know about your country's history?

[Jovlo]

I know quite a lot about the history of Belgium.
It's strange actually. The more I learn about it, the more I feel like it shouldn't exist.

 

[Steven Kyzburg]

I know very little of Chinese or English history. But it really scares me when most of the people I talk to knows much less than I do.

Also I think of history not as "history" but more as propaganda...quote]

I agree with what you mean, but on the other hand China activly engages in the manipulation of education and propeaganda to support their ideaology and i'm not saying that just because i'm British, i'm an ex-communist socialist with communist ideals and an appreciation for capitalism and an adoring unreasonable love for sickles and anvils. But let's face it, never trust anything a one party state churns out of it's govrnment bodies.

And as a minor note I know of the Opium wars and would happily admit that it's our, and by that I mean my Britains, fault, or at least the East Indian Trading Company.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

And dam those Normans... invading a country for no real reason and subjugating it's citizens!

Well, there was the small matter of William having a legitimate claim to throne and being promised it by the previous saxon king. Most medieval wars were more about royal succession rather than 1 country invading another [/sweeping generalisation]. Since European royal lines were so inbred everyone had some sort of claim to everyone elses throne [/hyperbole]

 

[tomdavi]

I like that, it's a good summary, if brief on British history. But why do we Brits always put such a downer on it all (it was so much better then, now it's all terrible). Yes our history was cool (ethically questionable at times, but cool), and that is the reason we are a rich influential nation now. I'm not directing all this at you but lots seem to think like this. You say yobs (idiots or other generic term of abuse, for non British people), are abundant now. Look back real hard at the industrial revolution. the only difference then was that people like you were working alongside them for horrendous wages in poor conditions, and remembering how much better it was when you'd lived on a farm.

And from that rambling, inconsistent and dubiously topical dialogue, I'll give you my conclusion. Britain (without sounding too arrogant) has massively influenced world history, and still is in many ways. We, or settlers originating from these isles, have had major effects on so many nations already mentioned here (good or bad), from America and Canada, to Australia, India and Hong Kong.

Here here my good man! Although I have one or two reas to pick at which I shall do so in my usual pedantic fashion...

Firstly, we always put a downer on it because it's what we do best! No one can ridicule the British than ourselves, is a trade mark of our humour, even in the height of our power we used to make jokes about ourselves (admitedly from a position of smug superiority)

Yes our history was "cool" as you put it, like the Third Reich... only spread over several centuries... cool uniforms but terrible foregn relations when it came to dealing with our "subjects".

Most importantly, this made me laugh, I did not use "yobs" to describe the immigrants present here, I could certainy embark on that topic but i'd rather not. When I speak of yobs I speak of my own degenerate generation! Home grown! The chav for those of you who are British, those people will be the death of everyone including themselves given their affinity for sharp pointy objects...

Aside from that I agree with you certainly, Not-So-Great Britain with it's glourious past and not so glourious future generation once ruled the waves and a quarter of the globe!

Now our empire consists of B.T, the manufacture of life boats and a small carpark.

Yes I completely agree with you for most of that. but in my own pedantic fashion, I should point out that I did not think at all you were talking about immigrants, I was more thinking along the lines that non British people might or might not use the slang term yob and thought I'd try and suggest an alternative in the word "idiot".

 

[Lulzovich]

Well, in school, we are currently going through a period of learning nothing else than our country's history... I have a B from history, but all I've learned from it was that since Columbus found America 'till the first world war, our country's leaders spent more time in Russia, Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool, while Ottoman empire was making trouble in our neighborho-- Err, I mean, country.

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

Well I know that at some point in history we had an empire that covered a quarter of the Earth's surface. But we were forced to give that back and return to our island. Good ol' Blighty. But knowing we have the world's best navy is a comfort

 

[Steven Kyzburg]

Well, there was the small matter of William having a legitimate claim to throne and being promised it by the previous saxon king. Most medieval wars were more about royal succession rather than 1 country invading another [/sweeping generalisation]. Since European royal lines were so inbred everyone had some sort of claim to everyone elses throne [/hyperbole]

You are completely right of course... but... um... *thinks of something to avoid any oppertunity for the French to be "not-wrong"*... um...

Well they're French for starters! [insert nationalist bigotry here]

 

[bad rider]

I know that my country owned 25% of the world at one point the lost the bloody lot for some reason and now everyone craves dissapointment, accepting how utterly useless we have become =) Plus at one point we were ruled by the French, that has to be a low point for any country.

Good old England.

Hey we've had are high points eg when we owned more of france than the french king. Until the next king lost all of it except for Calais... What a dick.

 

[Blandman]

Depends really. Not to tot my own horn, but it depends how much you want me to tell you about my country's history.

Plus at one point we were ruled by the French, that has to be a low point for any country.

For shame sir. For shame! It was the Normans (in a completely unfair fight) who controlled Britain for a time. Though in close proximity to France and being hard to tell apart from the French, they were descendants of Vikings. So that makes it a little better. That and the fact that our King at the time raced his army up North to fight off the Vikings, then charged way down South and decided to not wait for reinforcements. Instead he decided to meet the Normans before they reached London. And the English still almost won, even with a tired and battered army. But that was 1000 years ago. Who's successfully invaded our country since then?

Feel free to correct me on anything you believe I have got wrong. I'll gladly put my hands up and admit it.

Hello by the way.

 

[iain62a]

I'm from Scotland. We spent a long time being invaded by England and William Wallace and co fighting them off, wars of independence and such. Then we had the jacobite wars, which are remembered as also being Scotland vs England, but was more like Scotland vs Scotland. Bonnie Prince Charlie was, incidentally, an Italian with a polish accent.

We also pretty much invented or discovered everything, what with the inventions of steam enines, tarmac, flushing toilet, animal cloning, the bicycle, television(sort of), penicillin, electromagnetism, radar, insulin, calculus, the gas mask, air-filled tire, speedometers, trucks, tubular steel, coal-gas lighting, paddle wheel steamships, screw propeller, cast steel, wire rope, cordite, the adhesive postage stamp, the post office, the mail van service, telephone(sort of), Universal Standard Time, Fax Machine, logarithms, The Gregorian Telescope, The Kelvin scale of temperature, The Noble Gases, The Ultrasound Scanner, The MRI scanner, The Seismometer, Quinine, Cure for Scurvy, The Hypodermic syringe, Waterproof jacket, The Life Ring, The modern economic system(sorry about that, guys), digestive biscuits, The Keyring and colour photography. That's about all we've invented.

(And yes, I did cull most of the inventions from wikipedia)

 

[Sylocat]

More than I'd care to.

 

[Diablo2Fan]

I know that at one point in history we owned a vast majority of the planet but gave it back to everyone, why we did that i have no idea. Bring back the Bristish empire please.

 

[shirin238]

Well... I am from Holland, and I do know a bit about the wars it has been involved in.
The parts about the colonial age I remember a bit about too...
But to be honest, I couldn't care less...

 

[Volstag9]

I'd like to think i know plenty about America. But sadly here we teach other countries history first and our own second

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Maybe it is just the people I have happened to talk to but there are some very crazy views of America's History.

Most Americans I've met have a pretty crazy view of their own history! (Lived in Ohio for a year).

Oh there is no doubt about it hence why I was all inclusive with my "crazy views of history" I have heard some rather bizarre tales from people who spout their nonsense as fact.

i met some guy who claimed that the states never lost one single battle in the war of 1812 and that washington was not burned down. i pointed out a few battles that they did lose, including detroit being taken without a shot, he got really upset with me and denied most of it

 

[Zykon TheLich]

For shame sir. For shame! It was the Normans (in a completely unfair fight) who controlled Britain for a time. Though in close proximity to France and being hard to tell apart from the French, they were descendants of Vikings. So that makes it a little better. That and the fact that our King at the time raced his army up North to fight off the Vikings, then charged way down South and decided to not wait for reinforcements. Instead he decided to meet the Normans before they reached London. And the English still almost won, even with a tired and battered army. But that was 1000 years ago. Who's successfully invaded our country since then?

Feel free to correct me on anything you believe I have got wrong.

Sure thing...they controlled England, not Britain and the Anglo Saxons almost won...but I get the feeling I've said this already.

 

[Auron555]

My school killed history for me. They taught the same countries (China and India. 7th, 8th, AND 9th grade World Cultures/Modern World History all had a unit devoted to them) year after year... slavery and the civil rights movement starts as low as 3rd grade, learning about the underground railroad for Martin Luther King Day, and ends all the way in 10th grade with a huge term paper. I am starting to not give a flying shit about anything that happened before 1950.
That being said, I know enough about American history. The way I see it, I like knowing things that are helpful. History is not helpful to me, given my style of life and the careers I'm thinking of choosing, at all. It just isn't. Who really gives a fuck about dead people? Sure, they did cool stuff, but COOLER STUFF IS BEING DONE RIGHT NOW. That's not to say that I almost died when I heard the Chinese had a repeating crossbow 3000, give or take, years ago.
I just think that there's better things to do with one's time than obsess over the child armies of the Ottomans, or what the significance of Istanbul 500 years ago, whatever it was called back then.


Jeez, that post makes me sound really ignorant. I'm not that bad, it's just a rant.
>_>

EDIT: Came up with a statement that sums up history.
It's like taking apart the VCR. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there, and some of it explains other things, but it's really just a pointless thing to do on a Sunday afternoon.

 

[samsprinkle]

I am somewhat of a WWII buff...don't claim to know everything but it interest me alot...

 

[Rajin Cajun]

Maybe it is just the people I have happened to talk to but there are some very crazy views of America's History.

Most Americans I've met have a pretty crazy view of their own history! (Lived in Ohio for a year).

Oh there is no doubt about it hence why I was all inclusive with my "crazy views of history" I have heard some rather bizarre tales from people who spout their nonsense as fact.

i met some guy who claimed that the states never lost one single battle in the war of 1812 and that washington was not burned down. i pointed out a few battles that they did lose, including detroit being taken without a shot, he got really upset with me and denied most of it

Don't worry I know people who think WWI started in 1917.

 

[stompy]

I don't know enough about my country but I do know that the WWI started because of us.

So, are you Serbian or Austrian?

As for me, you generally get taught quite a bit of Australian history in school, and like Ultra Joe said, there's not a lot, so I know a bit. In regards to Indian history... I know bits and pieces, but mostly about modern aspects ('bout the end of the British Raj onwards).

Edit:

I am somewhat of a WWII buff...don't claim to know everything but it interest me alot...

I've wondered, what does the school system in the US say in regards to the starting date of WW2?