There are certain times and places in history that everybody knows (or thinks they know) about and that have a visible influence in modern culture*. Ancient Greece, Rome, The middle ages after the tenth century, the Second World War, and maybe the American Revolution all have a pretty big place in popular culture and everybody knows the big players. Other times and places such as the Renaissance, the 3rd to 9th centuries in Europe, Spain's empires, and the Colonial European powers of the 18th and 19th centuries are a total mystery to most people. I mean, looking at a map of Europe in about 1300, you'd barely notice that it turned into the picture below before it turns into the Europe we know from the 20th century.
I suppose what I'm wondering is if our times will become the equivalent of
the Thirty Years' War or the Crusades and if there are any common factors in the apparent neglect of some periods of history and the popularity of others?
*By this I mean the European derived cultures of which most of us here are a part.
"Elections aren't about making intelligent arguments; they're about who can mobilize the largest army of idiots." -Wong
Unless humanity suddenly becomes completely illiterate and loses the ability to record anything, I'm not counting on it. And for fuck's sake warn people when you're using gigantic images.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Portugal was there in 1300, 1600 and we're still very there thank you. And our kings and rulers are very much part of the collective memory, from the first to the last. People of young countries sometimes have some trouble to understand that others, in fact, identify themselves fully with almost a 1000 years of History.
It might help if those fucking clouds were out of the way, I might be able to get a better look.
Anyways, I'm pretty sure the only thing anyone will get serious about would be the Twin Towers incident, and the subsequent (or at least more serious) war on terror.
Colonel Olrik wrote:Portugal was there in 1300, 1600 and we're still very there thank you. And our kings and rulers are very much part of the collective memory, from the first to the last. People of young countries sometimes have some trouble to understand that others, in fact, identify themselves fully with almost a 1000 years of History.
Yeah. I'm British. And I haven't got a clue what happened for large parts of Britain's History. Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet that there are significant gaps in the knowledge of portugese History that you and the Portugese have.
"Elections aren't about making intelligent arguments; they're about who can mobilize the largest army of idiots." -Wong
Colonel Olrik wrote:Portugal was there in 1300, 1600 and we're still very there thank you.
No it wasn't, least not as an independent entity.
And our kings and rulers are very much part of the collective memory, from the first to the last. People of young countries sometimes have some trouble to understand that others, in fact, identify themselves fully with almost a 1000 years of History.
Not in your case apparently, seeing as you've forgotten than in 1600 your king was this guy, and Portugal would remain under Spanish rule until 1640.
Colonel Olrik wrote:Portugal was there in 1300, 1600 and we're still very there thank you. And our kings and rulers are very much part of the collective memory, from the first to the last. People of young countries sometimes have some trouble to understand that others, in fact, identify themselves fully with almost a 1000 years of History.
Yeah. I'm British. And I haven't got a clue what happened for large parts of Britain's History. Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet that there are significant gaps in the knowledge of portugese History that you and the Portugese have.
The amount of information gets exponentially larger with the passing of the centuries, due to the continuous increase of stored information and the quality of that storage. But there's still a huge amount of information from the early centuries available for studies, so much in fact that passing it to digital is an ongoing effort for the next decade.
What kind of gaps in knowledge do you have in mind? It's not like there's a hole in History of which we have no clue. Some minor details of History may have been forgotten, but there's a strong sense of continuity since the formation of the Kingdom. Before then, it's true, everything gets a lot fuzzier.
Adrian Laguna wrote:
Not in your case apparently, seeing as you've forgotten than in 1600 your king was this guy, and Portugal would remain under Spanish rule until 1640.
Oh please. During those 60 years Portugal's and Spain's official status was of that of a separate Kingdom under the same King. There was no conquest, it was a legalistic procedure due to laws of succession. Filipe II of Spain became Filipe I of Portugal. The separation, in fact, occurred mainly because Filipe III was a little bitch who thought Portugal should became a normal region of Spain, something the Portuguese nobles were against since they'd lose status, and the populace in general was against anyway due to an innate hatred against the Spanish (which to some measure still exists today).
Due to a natural enmity against the British, Ireland has done a remarkable job in maintaining some form of collective memory about the place, even if we were only recognised as an independent nation by 1922.
However, this hard clinging to our own nation has led to big memory blanks about Britain in particular (unless there's a direct consequence for us. Hi, Cromwell) and Europe in general. Unless we were getting all buddy-buddy with them to help us rebel. Then, we get to know everything about Spain and France in those particular eras.
Masami von Weizegger wrote:Due to a natural enmity against the British, Ireland has done a remarkable job in maintaining some form of collective memory about the place, even if we were only recognised as an independent nation by 1922.
However, this hard clinging to our own nation has led to big memory blanks about Britain in particular (unless there's a direct consequence for us. Hi, Cromwell) and Europe in general. Unless we were getting all buddy-buddy with them to help us rebel. Then, we get to know everything about Spain and France in those particular eras.
Well, the English Reformation led to some .... persecution finally capping it off by Cromwell who ... burned Dublin down if I recall.
STGOD: Byzantine Empire Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
