I made this thread with the intent look back on events throughout the history of human beings. American history, British history, European, Australian, etc. Much like we have different viewpoints on modern events, we most probably have different viewpoints on historical ones. Discuss these different viewpoints, look back on these events and see how they affect things that are going on now, if they do. You’re all welcome to make similar posts about historical events.
Uh, do you want the full version of world history, or just a few parts?
Your debate reminds me of the mock exam question: “Review the effect of the papacy on Europe, North America, Africa and Asia between 600 and 2000 AD. Pay special attention to France, Libya, and Cambodia. How would history have been different if all the popes were female?”
Just the parts you feel worthy of discussion.
Actually, Duke I think your question would be easier to answer. I second the request for restricting the OP to a managable subject.
Snappy answer: well, we can’t look forward, now, can we?
Serious sub-question: do times make men…or do men make times?
If Abraham Lincoln had died in infancy, would someone else have risen to his stature? Or was he just about the only person around who could have acted thus?
Was Hitler responsible for all the Nazi’s evil, or would someone else popped up and led the world to hell in a handbasket? Were the times simply “ready” for a totalitarian frenzy? Or, might another person have led Germany back into the sunlight of peace?
Or…is the question even meaningful, since we don’t have any way to know “what would’a happened if…?”
Trinopus
Someone has a homework assignment, maybe?
One day about 200 thousands years ago, on an savannah in Africa, genetic change in a group of isolated Homo erectus (or a perhaps as-yet undiscovered relative of them) became distinct enough from their ancestors and other groups that modern nomenclaturists give them a new name, Homo sapiens. This new species thrived and migrated all over the world. It’s been pretty much downhill since.
::curtseys::
Actually it was the Tuesday after that, when the pack of hyenas did not eat the brave band of Homo sapiens that was crucial to modern history.
I know nothing about Lincoln, so I will attempt to put across my opinions on Hitler.
Social conditions in Germany at the time of his rise to power were turbulent, the country was suffering hyperinflation when a barrow load of marks wasn’t even enough to buy a loaf of bread, and paper money was used as toilet paper as it was virtually value-less, and had been paying reparations to the tune of £6.6 billion to France and Belgium for World War One. The voting public was becoming restless with mainstream politics, and so began to look to extreme options. The popularity of both right and left wing parties grew enormously. However, the NSDAP grew phenomenally, as Hitler was a superb orator and excellent spin doctor. Without his talents, whilst the party would probably have gained independant power outside of the coalition, it is my opinion that the holocaust, and World War II would never have occured without Hitler’s leadership, as it was his foreign policy of Lebensraum which lead to the annexation of the Sudetenland and Austria, and eventually Poland which ultimately started the war, and his propaganda mills that created the idea that the Jews were responsible for the ‘Stab in the Back’ myth that the civillian government (between the end of WW1 and the beginning of the Weimar Republic) was responsible for hyperinflation by siging the blank cheque for reparations in 1919, as the ammount was not decided until the next year. Hitler’s people skills (yes, he did have them), and being able to communicate his ideas and more importantly convince people of their worth, was what ultimately made people put Hitler’s plans into action. There was no one else at the time who was capable, in my opinion, of achieving this.
Looking back at history? Here is a quote and a general observation by historians Will and Ariel Durant…
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.
Will Durant (1885 - 1981)
And in the book Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant, one general fact seems to be significant, to wit…
The people of northern climes tend to invade the more civilized and more prosperous people of the south.
This kinda makes sense, but I’d like to add a more important general observation of my own…
- The dire global dynamics brought about by the last two ice ages gave birth to modern man.*
And that too kinda makes sense.
Food. Food is always the big subject in history here. Who cracked open that first oyster and said “mmmm… that looks pretty good” or “that is disgusting but damn, I’m hungry”. Who were the first few chums to die of eating mistletoe berries before the rest figured they were probably responsible for the death ? People still die from eating ahhh… fugu fish I believe, who the hell figured out not only that the whole fish wasn’t poisonous but exactly which parts were good to eat ? Who started eating snails too ? The conversation inevitibly goes on and and on until we’re at the Waffle House.
And yet this gets more responses than my post about Jefferson.
For shame on all of you.
No, Hank, not food: clothes.
To paraphrase Twain, naked people have had little or no effect on history.
This movie covers pretty much everything up to the French Revolution 