Could you tell me what you know about history?

Question

Looking for alternative views that are factual and not taught in main stream books and courses.

Whatever you like. Open questions tend to lead to more interesting answers then specific ones.

Answer 1

There are more than half a dozen ways of looking at history.

Sometimes school seems to teach history as if it's a heap of unrelated dates and events.

A political interpretation of history regards it as a succession of dynasties and struggles. These make for a seemingly logical progression of events from old times to the present.

Another view is the geographical one which explains happenings in light of the topography, climate, soil etc that affects people. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel incorporates this view into a broader one.

The economic view of history has many adherents and is the basis of the Marxist view of things. It says that history is determined by the way goods are produced ( e.g. hunter-gathering, agriculture, industrial )and distributed. This explains things in terms of technologies e.g. Bronze Age, Iron Age, Dark Ages, Industrial Revolution, etc.

Freud introduced the psychological interpretation of history in which events are explained in terms of individual human psychology.

There is a philosophical view of history which treats each civilization much as one would an individual with a beginning, youth, maturity and decline. This can be cyclic or linear, with evolution being possible.

A popular view of history has it that it depends on individual personalities, often military leaders, who affect things by the force of their natures e.g. Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, Washington, Robespierre, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao etc.

A view which experiences periodic changes in its nature, and is not generally taught in schools these days because it is politically incorrect, is the religious one, History is regarded as a conflict between good and evil between morality and the reverse. This may be coming back into vogue with the idea of the clash of civilizations between a secular West and militant Islam.

Answer 2

Islam was NOT spread by the sword. Contrary to the misconception common in Western books and popular among the fundies, Islam spread across the Old World through a combination of preaching the message and through worldly interactions with other civilizations.

If Islam was spread by the sword then how did it reach the hundreds of islands in Indonesia? Over there, Islam was spread through the merchants' preaching of Islam to the natives, not through violence.

Also, in Egypt about 10% of the population is Coptic Christian, while 90% is Sunni Muslim. If Islam was spread by the sword then wouldn't they have killed off the Christians too?

How about when Islam coexisted peacefully with Christianity and Judaism in Spain for 800 years, before 1492 when the Spanish Inquisition reared its ugly head?

Obviously Islamic conquests did occur, and Islamic missionaries spread throughout Asia and Africa and the Balkan areas. But these conquests were to spread Islam through preaching, and they carried swords and weaponry to defend themselves, which they often needed to do. Islam prohibits forcing people to convert --- people should only become Muslim on their own accord, after being totally satisfied and convinced that Islam is the path they want to follow.


OK, another thing about history I want to say is that the Spanish explorers who settled Latin America were among the most violent and ruthless with the natives than any other group. And in Mexico they installed a very racist caste-type system with many, many divisions.

OK, that's enough of my tiny little knowledge of history.

Answer 3

How to win a war:

1. Be a freakin genius.
2. Have bad ideas, that work.
3. New ideas work well, if they're so stupid the enemy thinks you'd never do that.
4. Summon up the spirits of dead war generals, and ask them what you should do: F.Y.I. Try not to summon up Hitler, his ideas were pretty bad towards the end. He stopped relying on facts and used his "intuition" which lost him the war. Try someone like Napoleon.
5. Lots of guns=good.
6. Lots of soldiers willing to die=even better.

Important Tips on Winning a War:

1. Gun pointed at your head....negociation time.
2. Guns=negociation tools.
3. Muscle=Who you hire to make sure it goes right.
4. People with nukes=don't piss 'em off.

Answer 4

Back in Regency era England, wealthy young adults terrorized the streets by running up to carriages and tossing firecrackers inside them. (I imagine the people would be the social equivalent to our Paris Hiltons and other such wealthy folks).
Back in the 1800s someone unearthed a frozen wooly mammoth, cooked it, and served it to their friends at a dinner party.

Answer 5

The bad/horrible parts in history tend to repeat themselves, and also that people never learn from history...

Answer 6

Columbus really didn't discover America...There were native people thriving in the Americas for thousands of years prior to his voyages to the "New World"

Answer 7

depend of campus of the history are you talking about, there are many many many many many kinds of history classes, courses, book, but most the teachers and book, had been changed by those who make the corruption education ( in the US) so the history of US is a bullshit, is corrupted and full of lies.

Answer 8

i was bottom of class at history hated it i do know when the battle of hastings was 1066 thats about all lol

Answer 9

all i can tell you is that history is anythign that happened in the past. people make history everyday and may never know it..

Answer 10

Um, could you narrow it down some?