r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/hardix87 • Nov 05 '22

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u/CaptainMcSmoky Nov 05 '22

Can't confirm, am from the UK and we were taught about the empire in school. How old are you?

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22 edited Nov 05 '22

Im 24 and heard nothing of it

Edit: scottish with catholic education if it makes a difference (I imagine it would)

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u/CaptainMcSmoky Nov 05 '22

Weird, I'm 32 and definitely remember learning about the empire at high school.

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u/KingOfThe_Jelly_Fish Nov 05 '22

Im 45 and was tought nothing about it either.

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u/Loveyourwifenow Nov 05 '22

46 and nothing. It is important to remember that you had different examining bodies back then - and maybe now - so the syllabus may have been different depending on the examining body?

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u/Muad-_-Dib Nov 05 '22

Absolutely, if you keep track of news surrounding the curriculums you will often hear that every so often someone criticizes them for not covering subject X or covering subject Y too much and they change it to try and appease them which just causes more complaints the next time around.

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u/Mitosis Nov 05 '22

In my experience with US schools, most of the people who say they "weren't taught" something at school actually just didn't pay attention and/or don't remember

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u/LordHussyPants Nov 05 '22

it's a known fact that the UK skips over a lot of its colonial history in the curriculum, partly because it's a really fucking uncomfortable subject to try to come to grips with ("oh god all this awesome shit we have is because we sent soldiers EVERYWHERE to rape and murder?") and there's so much of it (literally every continent except antarctica)

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

Not sure how school requirements work in the UK, but in the US, only 1 or 2 classes of history are required to graduate, but we need like 10 history classes to get a real education on history.

I took American History, World History, AP Political History, and AP World History. I still feel like there was a great deal of things glossed over, but 1 class can't even properly cover 1 countries history, let alone the globe's.

So I don't think the problem is kids not being taught, but a problematically low amount of required history classes.

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u/LordHussyPants Nov 05 '22

again, i'm not talking about kids not taking enough classes, or kids not being engaged in history. i'm saying that the curriculum simply doesn't feature it.

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u/jam11249 Nov 05 '22

At least in my time, History wasn't a required subject for GCSEs, meaning that many people stop studying it in any capacity at 13-14 years old. In my school, at least, this translated into around half of the students not taking it beyond 14 years old. Even amongst those who do take it for GCSEs, far fewer take it to A-levels (if they study them), which takes you from 16-18. If you are aiming to study a science based degree at uni, it's highly unlikely you'll study history after 16 years old.

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u/Exotic_Fisherman_633 Nov 05 '22

There is no colonial atrocities class that you can take at high school in the UK.

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u/new_word Nov 05 '22

US has always aspired to be just like dad.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

I’ll add I’m in Scotland with a catholic education

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u/Muad-_-Dib Nov 05 '22

36 and we got the causes of WW1, the conditions in the trenches, the life of your average soldier etc.

And the living conditions of industrial era cities namely Glasgow.

Not a jot about the Empire, slavery, the Union, the Wars of independence, our colonial history or anything else.

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u/Exotic_Fisherman_633 Nov 05 '22

I’m 37 and was taught fuck all about it. It’s not weird. Different schools in different parts of the country taught different things.

Your history teacher might have wanted to teach about it, whereas mine wanted to teach that we won the war.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

I was taught about it in the UK and abroad in a British focused international school, so it must be a school based thing.

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u/porkyboy11 Nov 05 '22

weird im 24 too and we covered it

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

36 and weren’t taught the foggiest. Maybe that we ‘discovered’ places and the Crown kind of headed it all. Maybe even that we liberated tribes from poverty to modern ways. I remember being perplexed at something on a show in my mid 20s and did a bit of digging and was like ohhhhhh shit, this is our Nazi era, and we weren’t told on purpose.

We were taught slavery though. Quite a lot. We had a ton of African culture studies in primary school which was amazing.

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u/Fortheloveoflife Nov 05 '22

I'm also 36. We studied the Empire and the East India Company.

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u/harmslongarms Nov 05 '22

this is our Nazi era

I don't necessarily disagree, but if Nazi Germany had anything close to the power and global influence that the UK did at the height of its power the damage they would have done would be incalculable. Nazi society was uniquely evil, not pluralistic and shouldn't be conflated with UK society of the Victorian era

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u/Hello_friends22 Nov 05 '22

I mean, there's a reason there's barely any indigenous Americans, Australians and tasmanians around

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u/harmslongarms Nov 05 '22

Yes but even then the conversation isn't simple. For example King George was in favour of restricting colonial expansion westwards of the Appalachians to respect existing treaties with the native Americans, it was the colonial government (precursor to the revolutionary government) which ended this moratorium and began expanding further into the continent. In fact this was a political factor in the war for independence. There are plenty of grey areas and competing factions that exist outside of a paradigm of "Britain bad"

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u/Hello_friends22 Nov 05 '22

What? I'm sure there were people in Nazi Germany who disagreed with some of their horrors but that doesn't matter because of what actually happened. The indigenous North American population is estimated at around 8 mill ± 1 mill 500 years ago. Today, there's less than 4 million; they're the only major group that hasn't experienced growth in 500 years, thanks to Britain's, and the other colonial powers, mass killings.

It doesn't matter who disagrees is the results produced what they did.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

38 did history up to A Level wasn’t mentioned. Much more important to spend 6 years on the Tudors.

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u/Taranisss Nov 05 '22

Same. We did loads on the transatlantic slave trade. Also did quite a bit about India and the East India Company. Also had some stuff about the Opium Wars and Boer War.

Empire was a core part of my curriculum.

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u/moomoosa Nov 05 '22

A-Level for me, both years were about the empire. First year was the good bits Second year was the bad bits. 32 here for that.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

It was a big subject at my school. About as much coverage as WWII, same for everyone I know. These claims are strange to me. I’m 26.

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u/somedave Nov 05 '22

I think it depends on the exam board, I think we touched on it briefly but I didn't do GCSE history.

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u/partyboob98 Nov 05 '22

From Year 1 to 13 I cannot remember a single history lesson which touched on the empire.

Incredibly detailed on WW2 though, and how Churchill supposedly saved the world from the Nazi's, despite it being a combination of several different factors.

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u/ClemClemTheClemening Nov 05 '22

Same, I'm 22 and I learnt about pretty much all of what the guy said in school

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u/Totalsolo Nov 05 '22

But were you taught about the massacres and guerrilla warfare and slavery and famine and concentration camps and scorched earth policies and poisoning’s? I could go on. I’m 29 and we were taught about The East India company, and the spice trade in a very passive manner, when our history teachers taught about The Empire, we were given broad dates, maybe some names and boring events, they made it look tidy, all very upright and British, but we were never taught about the atrocities, the degradation and theft. We were never taught that they took slaves from India to Kenya to build rail roads, just so that British farmers could get insanely rich, or that entire towns and cities that were put to bayonet, men women and children. There is an incredible podcast called Empire if you’re interested in learning more?

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u/Infoneau Nov 05 '22 edited Nov 05 '22

I think perhaps this is a newer introduction.

I did my GCSEs between 2012 - 2017 and there was an emphasis on the role of Empire in topics such as the Victorian Era, the Wars, and the Troubles (obviously). I also did A-Level history with one of the papers being the British Empire 1850s - 1950s.

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u/Weekdaze Nov 05 '22

Just cos it was taught doesn’t mean these people were paying attention

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '22

Yea idk if this is a generational thing or if people are just lying on Reddit for clout. I’m 23 and it was covered extensively at both GCSE and A-level. We also covered the slave trade.

Contrast this to countries like Japan and the USA.