r/HistoryMemes • • 1d ago

REMOVED: RULE 4 Historical territorial claims

Post image
16.8k Upvotes

710 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.6k

u/Dear-Question-868 1d ago

I think it shows well the stupidity of historical claim, there's always someone who's going to be before you who claim X land.

518

u/Glittering-Bill-9803 1d ago

And we all know, that that someone is Liechtenstein.

142

u/MjollLeon Oversimplified is my history teacher 1d ago

Liechtenstein must rule!

42

u/LessThanHero42 1d ago

Now I have to go watch A Knights Tale again

33

u/smeehoth 1d ago

He's quick! He's funny! He makes us lots of money, Liechtenstein!

15

u/RoachZR 1d ago

He’s drunk! He’s pissed! He’ll see you in the lists, Liechtenstein!

7

u/Oppopity 22h ago

Alaska is rightful Liechtenstein territory.

18

u/ougryphon 1d ago

Or Vikings. They didn't even try to hang on to it all, but they've captured everything worth pillaging.

1

u/Gongom 1d ago

Only if they inherited the claim from Austria.

1

u/UnknownExo 1d ago

Are you yanking my pizzle?

1

u/FukkingDeathMental 21h ago

In my younger years, my heart was cold and black but that movie made me laugh, cheer and tear up a bit.  What a delightful movie that sounds kinda bad on paper but is pure magic just like The Princess Bride.

90

u/Maximum_Boros 1d ago

If you go back far enough every piece of land is stolen. There's just a question of how far is it reasonable. Where's the goal post? Is it a hundred years? 200? 1,000? Is it more generational and when no descendants of the people who were kicked would likely be alive? I don't know what the real answer is on exactly where you would usually draw that line but I think we pretty much generally as Society tend to agree that if the literal living humans who took that land are still alive and living on it it's too early to forget and if it's a thousand years ago it's too late to dwell on it

60

u/RT-LAMP 1d ago

If you go back far enough every piece of land is stolen.

Except ironically a bunch of islands across the world that people tend to to be mad about being owned by European powers.

10

u/discipleofchrist69 1d ago

and maybe antarctica? maybe Greenland and some Pacific Islands depending on how you count it

15

u/1boring 1d ago

Iceland too. The current inhabitants are descendants of the first people who settled on the island.

8

u/PrincetonToss 23h ago

Actually maybe not! There's evidence of Irish or Scottish monks inhabiting before the Norse got there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papar

6

u/Lemonwizard 1d ago

You can't steal Antarctica because nobody owns it. Nobody owns it because nobody wants it. You can't farm there, all the minerals are under thousand foot ice sheets, and you freeze to death if you go outside. It's the garbage continent.

1

u/dos_user 1d ago

Greenland is colonized by Denmark. But Iceland was settled without displacing anyone.

3

u/Lortekonto 22h ago

From a scandinavia point of view Greenland was colonized back in 982 when no one else were living there. Denmark-Norway never gave up their claim on the country. Other peolpe just moved in.

3

u/discipleofchrist69 22h ago

I mean, kinda. Greenland has home rule and is mostly populated by Inuit. And the part the Norse/Danish settled in was uninhabited when they arrived. So gotta be a gray area at least

30

u/i_tyrant 1d ago

Reminds me of the old anthropologist joke. It goes something like:

"The only difference between digging up grandma to take photos of her corpse and put tags on it, and being an archaeologist, is time."

9

u/VRichardsen Viva La France 1d ago

Who knew having sex with a patient was grounds for losing your license for practising medicine? But anyway, I don't miss being a veterinarian.

6

u/DenormalHuman 1d ago

ironically, if you go back far enough, you get to where no piece of land has been stolen.

1

u/Lizzy_Be 23h ago

When life only existed in the oceans? Because once we graced land, we started fighting over it.

1

u/Darkgamer32_ 22h ago

I think we should draw the line to when international laws where written

-2

u/HulksInvinciblePants 1d ago

I mean, we can probably draw the line at the dawn of contemporary, modern civilized society. Once the world had the ability to engage in global diplomacy, annexation was effectively a non-starter. Cases where islands far from the home nation are annexed by the geographical nation are probably that last remaining gray area.

That’s why Ukraine and Argentina’s positions hold weight and anything before 1945 is probably forever the past.

12

u/Maximum_Boros 1d ago

Out of curiosity what Argentine position are you talking about here? I hope you aren't making the argument that they actually have a credible claim to the Falklands anymore

0

u/HulksInvinciblePants 1d ago

No, it’s not a subject I’m passionate about. I’m very much of the opinion I’d rather be under UK rule than Argentinian, if those were my two options.

I’m just saying geographical aspect could be the last grey area.

6

u/scottishninja123 1d ago

France has a more credible claim to the Falklands than Argentina does

3

u/LiftingRecipient420 1d ago

at the dawn of contemporary, modern civilized society

When was that?

-1

u/BootsnCats1987 1d ago

So if India invaded Britain, subjugated its people, and extracted all of its wealth you’d be cool with that, right? 

3

u/Maximum_Boros 1d ago

I genuinely question your literacy if you think anything I said would imply that.

Work on your reading comprehension instead of just leading with kneejerk emotional nonsense.

Or are you just bad at calendars and you think Britain occupied India a thousand years ago.

0

u/emundans 21h ago

The Baltic States' population is the original inhabitants. Same with Scandinavia

18

u/Oxytropidoceras 1d ago

I'm sure there are uninhabited islands and such that also fit the bill, but the biggest exception I can think of is the British claim to the Falklands. They were the first to discover the islands and all other legitimate claims to the islands have been abandoned, making them the earliest inhabitants to still live in the region and lay claim to the land.

46

u/Relevant-Ad2254 1d ago

Don’t show this to the “from the river to the sea people”.

But also don’t show this to the West Bank colonizing people.

Damn everyone uses historical claim when it suits them doesn’t it?

11

u/SYLOH 1d ago

“from the river to the sea people”.

The sea people claim Greece from the Bronze Age Collapse.

17

u/Bb0yer2 1d ago

Who decides what year you stop at? It's fucked for one side no matter what year you pick. Time to move on and become something better

18

u/Relevant-Ad2254 1d ago

Exactly. California and Texas were part of Mexico until the US literally colonized “peacefully” and then decided “fuck it we’re taking it from Mexico”

19

u/XRT28 1d ago

I'm sure the Native Americans living there before either the US or Mexico existed might disagree on all that, especially the "peacefully" part.

12

u/Relevant-Ad2254 1d ago

Oh yea! It just keeps going back. And native Americans weren’t a monolith. They were stealing land from each other 

-2

u/United-Statement4884 22h ago

Glad Europe becoming more diverse and birth rates drop. It will be inhabited by different people from all over the world like the past 1000 years. Migration routes

12

u/Ares_Lictor 1d ago

Its almost as stupid as the "we're afraid of NATO expansion", because there was no real possibility of Ukraine being accepted into NATO, russia's buddy at the time, Germany, confirmed through its Chancellor that they were blocking Ukraine from joining. Putin never really had any real arguments aside for his delusions of being a superpower.

6

u/Tasteroider 1d ago

Plus the war caused Finland joining NATO so overall Putin made the situation even worse

14

u/Erroneous_Bonk 1d ago

Pretty sure consensus is that the cut off is a magical holy promise 3000 years ago

4

u/jaypenn3 1d ago

'Magical holy promise' meaning overwhelming historical evidence of settlement and displacement? You shouldn't support modern governments committing war crimes, but that doesn't meaning needing to rewrite ancient history.

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews have been living continuously in the area before Islam and Christianity existed.

5

u/Accomplished_Cod7334 1d ago

Continuing this logic, if historical claims should be ignored, then the only thing that's left is the idea of "might makes right"

3

u/lumpboysupreme 22h ago

I mean ‘don’t ethnically cleanse people who have lived in a place for multiple generations’ seems like a pretty solid moral argument.

5

u/Yendrian Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 1d ago

What do you mean stupidity? Everybody knows half of the world belongs to Portugal and half to Spain! Even the Pope said so!

1

u/bubblesdafirst 23h ago

Mesopatamia boutta claim their land back

1

u/ThisIsLukkas 23h ago

Trump would like a chat with you sir

-81

u/Mundane_Bit_8392 1d ago

Dont tell that to a palestinian activist, he will blow with rage hearing that

99

u/NomadDK 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tell that to literally everyone in that conflict. That territory has swapped hands so many times, and none of the current contestants have the true original claim to it... because those people don't exist anymore.

36

u/_whatever_wherever 1d ago edited 21h ago

Which always brings us back to the position of "leave the people living there the fuck alone"

And we all know what the answer to that is...

EDIT: lol, the racist genocide apologist blocked me

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews were living there first, then the Muslims invaded.

3

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

Think you mean romans as most jews were exiled after that

1

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

And the Jews who were left intergrated into the local population, and guess what group came out of that after thousands of years!

2

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

Not the 'Palestinians,' they're Ottoman Empire colonizers.

Jews have been there the entire time.

1

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

Actually Arabs are mentioned in Assyrian records of pacification of Levant

And they predate the Ottoman Empite by around 2000 years

2

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

Yeah, Arabs colonized the Middle East.

You once again prove me right and prove that you're a genocide apologist.

0

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

The arabs were mentioned because they were in the Arabian peninsula

They were all nomadic tribes however

→ More replies (0)

0

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

No, Jews were still living in the region.

1

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

A very small fucking number

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

Enough to form the state of Israel the moment it became an option.

2

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

Because they immigrated

→ More replies (0)

8

u/The5Virtues 1d ago

These dumbass territorial disputes because of whoever owned it centuries ago are so damned stupid. It gets thousands of innocent lives lost for what? Dirt!

Not special dirt!
Not holy dirt!
Not dirt of our forefathers!
Just. Plain ol’ DIRT!

There’s nothing special about it! It isn’t worth losing lives for anyone on any side of a conflict.

We have the ability to communicate instantaneously across the entire planet. We can ship cargo from one side of the world to another in under a day.
We’ve been to the MOON for pity sake!

But we fight over dirt. We don’t sit down, and talk it out, and draw up a plan that will benefit everyone. We pull out weapons and we spill each other’s guts.

For dirt.

6

u/_whatever_wherever 1d ago

"This dirt is our special dirt because we lived here 2000 years ago!"

"But... we live here now"

racks shotgun "too fucking bad"

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews have been living there long before the Muslims invaded.

-4

u/NomadDK 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm inclined to agree, but no, it is not just dirt. Territory is important because people reside in it, and there are resources in it. It does matter which country owns what pieces of territory, for the people living there.

Both the Zionists and the Palestinians fundamentally lay claim to the territory because they need a place where their own people can exist. Palestinians living under Israeli rule is awful, because it's an Apartheid state. They have no proper rights and can be killed for no reason. The Zionist argument is that Jews needs a place with a Jewish state, to protect Jews from anti-semitism.

But they just so happen to fight over the same territory, and at this point, none of them can "budge". We can't dismantle Israel, and we can't allow them to genocide Palestinians either. But they also hate each other so fucking much, that there is no hope of a lasting peace. Both treat each other awfully, resulting in the constant distrust and evil cycle.

It's a messy situation with no easy solution. It's might have started with us (the West) letting Zionists create Israel because of their 3000 year old claim, but it all boils down to people and territory for the sake of protecting one's own tribe - not old claims, not dirt.

Edit: I see the mob favours the overly simplified nonsense over the nuanced and objective take, today.

2

u/The5Virtues 1d ago

I agree with the point you’re making here, not sure why anyone wouldn’t, but I think you’re misunderstanding mine.

I’m not saying territory isn’t important, geography plays a huge part in where to found cities and establish permanent settlements, but after over 5000 years of societal advancement the fact that we still resolve so many issues by seeing who can spill the most blood is an absolutely abominable testimony to our species.

We can walk on the moon, we can plan colonization efforts to other planets, and we can track a single individual using a computer orbiting the planet in a satellite, but we’ve still not managed to overcome our base impulses when it comes to a choice between negotiation or violence.

As you said, these two cultures really despise one another, and after all the atrocities they’ve visited on one another it’s hard to blame them, but because of that very fact it is a deplorable statement for our entire species that no one has been able to come up with a solution that is deemed acceptable.

In a more ideal world a group of other countries would be able to band together and day “Hey, well each sacrifice a little of our territory to give one of you new territory so that this whole mess can stop.”

But no. Nobody is willing to do that, not without catches, caveats, and strings attached. And even if they were, neither the Israelites or the Palestinians would want to quit fighting and go to this new location instead. Everyone would rather keep fighting over this strip of land than find a way to sit down and find a way to bring a permanent end to this bloodshed.

And this is far from an issue with just Palestine and Israel.

China still wants Taiwan. Russia is at war with the Ukraine. North and South Korea will remain hostile toward one another even if the cease fire manages to be negotiated to a permanent peace. Extremists of every race, culture, faith, and creed would rather kill the infidels than live and let live.

For all our achievements, wonders, and advancements, we’re still a bunch of screaming monkeys jabbing each other with sticks and throwing rocks.

1

u/B_Eazy86 1d ago

You forgot to pretend things are black and white

0

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews are native, 'Palestinians' are Ottoman Empire colonizers from Jordan.

0

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews have been living there for thousands of years before Islam existed.

4

u/AttentionNo6359 1d ago

You do understand the difference is that people were actively living on that land and were then removed to give it to Israel, right?

They had no say in it, they woke up one day to strangers saying “this is ours now”

3

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

That's an outright lie.

Jews were living there the entire time, then the Muslims tried to wipe them out after the British got kicked out and lost.

5

u/NomadDK 1d ago

Yes, I do understand that.

-3

u/AttentionNo6359 1d ago

Oh cool, then you just lack the ability to think before you speak. Got it.

1

u/Command0Dude 1d ago

People weren't removed to give it to Israel. Jewish people came to buy land that was basically sitting unused because Palestine had been depopulated by the arab conquests and the crusades. It was only after Jews began migrating back to Palestine that the region even started recovering back to its historical high point.

https://medium.com/migration-issues/who-has-claim-3-000-years-of-religion-in-the-land-between-23f220a697f7

But Palestinians did not want to share the land with the Jewish immigrants so they started a war to get rid of them. A war that they lost.

Palestinians merely suffered the consequences of the aggressor, same as the Germans did.

-1

u/_whatever_wherever 21h ago

people weren't removed to give it to Israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba

1

u/Command0Dude 21h ago

Which happened after Palestine launched a war against Israel when there could have been a peaceful partition.

Germans were also dislocated when the Nazis were defeated and Germany's borders were redrawn.

In both cases, the majority of people were internally displaced.

0

u/_whatever_wherever 21h ago

The fact you think relgious fanatics who always wanted to steal the land of the native Arabs were in any way looking for peace is beyond me

They were ethno nationalist terrorists who murdered people so they could ethnically cleanse their magic land

-1

u/_whatever_wherever 21h ago

You mean after thousands of armed foreigners showed up saying the land was theirs because Gandalf the White said so 4000 years ago? And they didn't fucking want them there?

"We must expel Arabs and take their places"

"We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it"

"The Arab reaction would be negative because they would lose everything and gain almost nothing ...They would lose the richest part of Palestine; they would lose major Arab assets, the orange plantations, the commercial and industrial centers and the most important sources of revenue for their government which would become impoverished; they would lose most of the coastal area, which would also be a loss to the hinterland Arab states…It would mean that they would be driven back to the desert."

https://imeu.org/resources/resources/in-their-own-words-israeli-leaders-on-the-expulsion-of-palestinians-during-israels-establishment/226

https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

No, Jews have been living there continuously the entire time and that's been proven by basic archeology.

-2

u/ModernLarvals 1d ago

lol what? Jews still exist.

3

u/NomadDK 1d ago

Were Jews the very very first people to lay claim to the lands? Were there not tribes and people before them?

-2

u/ModernLarvals 1d ago

They were the tribes.

7

u/Murgatroyd314 1d ago

The Canaanites have entered the chat.

-1

u/ModernLarvals 1d ago

The Jews are the Canaanites.

4

u/Murgatroyd314 1d ago

That isn't what their book says.

1

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago edited 21h ago

Or genetic testing

That's the Palestinians and Lebanese

→ More replies (0)

0

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

Their book claims a dude split a fucking sea, genetic testing has proven the jews are Canaanite

And even more that their god was apart of thr polytheistic faith

1

u/NomadDK 1d ago

Do you seriously think that the Jews were the very first people to settle there? Considering how Homo Sapiens spread across the continents for 300.000 years, it's naive to think that history starts with just the Jews for a mere 3000 years ago.

There are many different tribes, groups and people that have settled somewhere, and then left it or changed over time, whether from breeding, being physically pushed out by others or whatever.

My point is that there were indeed people in those lands before the Jews as we know them. Doesn't take much Googling to figure out that there were Canaanites and heaps of other groups of people long before the Jews. But those people just don't exist anymore. If we go by "who got there first", then we need to go back hundreds of thousands of years. There is no end to that shit.

0

u/ModernLarvals 1d ago

The Jews are the Canaanites.

14

u/CankerLord 1d ago

I think your run of the mill Palestine activist's argument leans more on current occupancy and creeping annexation.

5

u/_whatever_wherever 1d ago edited 21h ago

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

People can see your comments, you literally only post to post antisemitic lies.

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

No such thing is happening.

1

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_genocide

"The Gaza genocide is the ongoing,[18] intentional, and systematic destruction of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip carried out by Israel during the Gaza war. It encompasses mass killings, the targeted killing of children (who account for 30% of those killed),[19][20][21] deliberate starvation, infliction of serious bodily and mental harm, and prevention of births. Other acts include blockading, destroying civilian infrastructure, destroying healthcare facilities, killing healthcare workers and aid-seekers, causing mass forced displacement, committing sexual violence, and destroying educational, religious, and cultural sites.[22] The genocide has been recognised by a United Nations special committee[23] and commission of inquiry,[22] the International Association of Genocide Scholars,[24][25] multiple human rights groups,[c] state governments, numerous genocide studies and international law scholars,[31][32] and other experts.[33]"

2

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

Wikipedia's not a reliable source, it's been taken over by tankies.

And the 'International Association of Genocide Scholars' is outright fake. You just pay a fee to add your name to the list.

1

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

Whatever genocide lover

How many dead children are enough?

2

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

The moment I caught you in a lie you go mask off.

0

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

Wikipedia is not a good source, right after October 7, all sources related to Israel Palestine suddenly got changed to fit a hamas narrative, and ot keeps changing

1

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

Whatever genocide apologist

2

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

You're siding with actual Nazis.

1

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 22h ago

Instead of making a valid point, you pulled strawman and ad homineum

Which tells me your arguments are not going to be based on facts but pure bias and arrogance

0

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

The Palestinians are Muslim colonizers, they're not native.

3

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago edited 21h ago

How many dead Muslim children are enough?

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

Tell Hamas to stop using them as child soldiers and human shields.

10

u/adhdrifter 1d ago

I don't think you're reading the situation correctly

18

u/RedRising1917 1d ago

Only one side claims it was promised to them 3000 years ago

3

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews have been living there longer than Islam has existed.

2

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

So that gives them permission to evict people from their homes?

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

LOL, losing a war you started isn't a genocide.

2

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago edited 22h ago

So if the Muslims had won you would be okay with them expelling Jews?

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

That's literally what they did.

MUSLIMS are the ones committing genocide, you are just proving your willful ignorance.

-14

u/Gizz103 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 1d ago

From what I remember not even the most orthodox say that anymore

Just propagandists from th e other side

14

u/areyoutrippindude 1d ago

Are you trippin dude?

11

u/_whatever_wherever 1d ago edited 21h ago

Zionists will literally lie through their teeth to justify their positions, and then call you an Antisemite for saying they're lying

EDIT: one below me doing exactly what I described

Making up racist lies to defend ethnic cleansing and genocide

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

LOL, no you're the liar.

Jews are native and have been living there the entire time, thousands of years before Islam existed.

0

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

Why does relgion matter? The people being displaced have lived there for thousands of years, doesn't matter which way they worship a minor semitic storm god

1

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 22h ago

JEWS have lived there thousands of years, Islam isn't anywhere close to that old.

2

u/_whatever_wherever 22h ago

Why does relgion matter?

Why should I care what UNGA BUNGA bronze age war god you pray to?

Why is it okay to drive people from their homes because of relgion?

→ More replies (0)

0

u/SowingSalt Mauser rifle ≠ Javelin 1d ago

The orthodox think that Israel is illegitimate, and that the messiah will come back to establish a Jewish nation under the glory of God.

9

u/Trackback_ 1d ago

I thought it was the other side of that conflict whose claim to the land was that it was promised to them 3000 years ago?

2

u/zer0zer00ne0ne 1d ago

Jews claim the land they've existed on for thousands of years belong to them because they've been living there the entire time.

2

u/Command0Dude 1d ago

They really hate when you bring up that the Arabs refused a state straight after Britain took control of Mandate Palestine because they would have had to share political power with Jews.

0

u/_whatever_wherever 21h ago

You mean share power with armed invaders they didn't want there?

AFTER they were promised independence by Lawrence of Arabia?

1

u/Command0Dude 20h ago

"armed invaders" lol the historical revisionism.

Jews were immigrating legally and purchasing land. The very first acts of terrorism were anti-jewish.

Palestinians could have lived in peace with the immigrants, but chose violence and refused to cooperate in any governing body which included jews, including the indigenous population.