Hey Pandas, What Historical Facts Should Be Taught More Thoroughly? (Closed)

The pre-colonial and colonial history of Africa, as told by Africans.

Instead of teaching a single period 3 times( I learned about WW2 in 3rd, 7th, and 10th grade), we should be teaching things once and adding in more detailed things. An example is Australia during WW2. Apparently they were waging war against emus. Another example is the origins of the modern day domestic dairy cow. They are vastly different from their wild ancestors. Learning about the little things like that would make history so much more fun.

Geography because the Acropolis is not in Athens, Georgia.

Critical thinking skills, how to research a subject and how to distinguish legitimate sources from the crap. Needs to be taught at an early age and reinforced all throughout school.

How people actually lived, not just what wars were fought and who the rulers were.

The Enlightenment and the Deist beliefs of our Founding Fathers.

I think we need global history to be taught, not in isolation. We all hear about "voyages of discovery" as if europeans discovered these lands - which were populated for tens of thousands of years before (Americas) or millions of years before (Africa). We need to see context and impact. What impact did these "discoveries" have? Why were they undertaken? What was the response e.g. of China? What happened when the Brits tried to colonise China? What about Japan? How many people outside USA even know how long the Americans have been engaging with Japan? What about the Islamic Golden Age? Etc etc etc.

the Armenian genocide. people have to know what really happened not what the Turkish government says happened.

How people from the past weren't really all that different from us.

King Henry VII's wives. There were SIX of them.

Literally anything that isn't World War 2 or Cold War related.

During the destruction of Izmir the Americans and many other countries where not helping they would put headlight and sit and watch the sad view like a movie.

along with jewish people, (around six million were taken from their homes, tortured, and murdered) romas, and disabled people, gay people were also targeted by the holocaust; a formal apology was not made to them until 2002.

everybody i know except for two people didn't know that gay people were killed in the holocaust. there's so much erasure of that fact in history n it breaks my heart into millions of pieces that nobody knows these stories. nobody cares about these people who died. >100,000 gay people died because people hated them for existing, and now people won't know that they ever existed in the first place. all because schools find gay people too disgusting to teach about. it isn't fair. it's cruel.

In 1960, Hans Zauner, the mayor of Dachau, told a British journalist, Llew Gardner, writing for The Sunday Express that the Nazi campaign against homosexuals and "asocials" was justified, saying: "You must remember that many criminals and homosexuals were in Dachau. Do you want a memorial for such people?"

the first memorial was erected in 2008. it's beautiful.

I think in the U.S. we need to be taught more about the Reconstruction Era. The huge gains in equality that were actually made and what things looked like and the resulting backlash. It's part of not just learning from history but also trying to change how we look at history. We tend to be taught that certain things have just been getting better and better. But it's often two steps forward one step back.

If you win the war, you write the history. BUT THIS RECENTLY?

The first permanent English colony in what became the United states was NOT the Plymouth, MA, colony of 1620, but the Jamestown, VA, colony of 1604. The Mayflower---which everyone knows about--was looking for Jamestown.

Everyone knew this, until the South lost the Civil War.

The reality of the land grab generally presented as the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden Purchase. If people truly understood that this huge area was populated with Native Americans & people from further south, maybe there would be less prejudice.

Russia defeated the nazis.

World War 1. The US initially refused to get involved and joined late. Other countries like Austrailia, Canada, NZ, India etc had ten times the people and were in it for much, much longer.

everything involving french fries and it's origins

The French Revolution. So many people just go with the "stormed the Bastille, beheaded the king, Robespierre did stuff with a guillotine, then Napoleon happened" version, which is extremely inaccurate. In reality, the "Reign of Terror" was due to the fact that the country was at war and many aristocrats were trying to regain their previous power by helping the monarchist nations invade. Back then, everyone who committed treason died (and in far worse ways than the guillotine, often). In fact, this is what got Louis and Marie executed- they were liasing with Marie's brother in Austria. Also, Robespierre was not an "evil dictator", and did not do most of the things attributed to him. Most of the horror stores- the drownings and massacres at Lyons and the Vendee- were committed by various military representatives. Robespierre in fact was one of the government members who condemned the excesses. Eventually he got sick, and while he was gone, Fouche (one of the reps from the military) told everyone that he was secretly plotting a takeover. Robespierre gets back to work, and is startled because everyone is attacking him. Having no idea what was going on, he starts trying to speak, but Tallien (the CSP president at the time) threatens to stab him, so stops talking. Eventually Robespierre, St. Just, and Couthon (other political figures aligned with Robespierre on ideology) are forced to flee to the Convention meeting place, where they are cornered by troops and executed. Fouche and some of the other extremists who didn't want to be held accountable had teamed up with some of the moderates who didn't want to be held accountable for things like financial fraud and formed a coalition government called the Directory. This went so badly (and was so corrupt) that Napoleon was able to gain support and seize power fairly easily. Fouche went on to work for Napoleon, never really suffering any consequences for his actions- and we have a prime example of the winners writing history. Conditions for most under the monarchy were far worse than conditions during the revolution. The problem is, we know the names and faces of the monarchs and nobles, so it's easy to sympathize with them, but we never learn the names of the thousands of starving peasants or oppressed street workers who died because of their classist incompetence. Also, torture and executions were extremely common under the monarchy, and they were sometimes very brutal and drawn-out. Robespierre, as the Oxford History of the French Revolution states, was never a dictator and there is no evidence that he intended to be one. Strangely, Napoleon (an actual military dictator) doesn't seem to get so demonized. The French Revolution was the first event of its kind in Western history (the American Revolution was actually a war of succession, academically speaking) and they did not have the benefit of hindsight that we do today. And hey, at least they abolished slavery instead making the slaveowners the new government...

That the various religious books are not facts.