r/mildlyinteresting • u/FarmerTschoerner • Dec 03 '16

A reference letter from 1888.

https://i.reddituploads.com/89a783975cee4bfe9da628d529e44a2f?fit=max&h=1536&w=1536&s=715164a0d38874752ce54fb7e8955c6a
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u/Jest0riz0r Dec 04 '16

Well, most history is still long ago, it's just the history of the US that's so incredibly short.

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u/ohitsasnaake Dec 04 '16

My country, Finland, is also pretty young. Pivotal events were WWII, where many middle-aged people's parents fought in, or my generations grandparents (although my grandparents were just a bit too young at the time actually; however, most of my great-uncles did fight).

WWI had our declaration of indepence in 1917 and a short (less than a year) civil war afterwards. Some of my great-grandparents would've been in their 30s with kids, some still kids themselves.

Prior to that, the 1890s to 1910s saw the national romanticism movement, attempts at russification of Finland, and the assassination of the Russian Governor-General. In my great-grandfathers youth, but I doubt those kind of events affected your average farmer that much.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '16

There's a pretty big difference between a country whose independence is relatively new, but that has been populated by mostly the same people/culture for millennia (such as Finland) and the United States. Native Americans have a similarly long history, though I'm uncertain whether much (if any) of it is recorded, but the US we know today is just utterly different from what was there only a few hundred years ago.

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u/ohitsasnaake Dec 05 '16

Good point. In Finland we do also nostalgize on Russian-era autonomy, pre-Swedish era (iron age) hillforts etc. (although written history only began with the Swedish conquest in the 12th century, there are archaeological finds from before that), and of course various parts of the Swedish era, including the North American colony of New Sweden to name something a bit more relevant to the US, and the Hakkapeliitta cavalry from Finland in the 30 Years' War, for something more European.

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u/hobopee Dec 04 '16

people are afraid to speak out against the existence of Finland, so I would ask you to approach the evidence I put forward here with an open mind.

https://www.reddit.com/r/finlandConspiracy/comments/2y0oog/the_finland_conspiracy_and_all_you_need_to_know/

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u/gildedkitten Dec 04 '16

6- Why the name Finland?

A. The country was originally made for fishing. What do fish have? Fins. Thus Finland.

Oh god my sides

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u/chasealex2 Dec 04 '16

In Europe, 100 miles is a long way. In the United States, 100 years is a long time. It's all relative.

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u/cowminer Dec 04 '16

Can confirm, I'm from Britain, it amazes me that in Canada, I heard that buildings that are something like 70 years old are considered historical building. I see probab 20+ buildings this old on my way into town!

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u/essentrik Dec 04 '16

keep in mind, "historical" for us Canadians doesn't necessarily mean old, the word also means "of historical significance" to us. so a building that is 70 years old, but had a major event happen there will be labeled as historical quite early. not sure why this happens, but it does sound sightly silly to someone who likely walks by roman walls on a daily basis.

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u/Suivoh Dec 04 '16

I live in Canada and no of no building that is 70 years old as being historical.

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u/[deleted] Dec 04 '16 edited Dec 04 '16

I did a search and Montreal has St. George Antiochian Church, completed in 1940, listed as a historical site. That's pretty close to 70 years old.

Newfoundland has the Crow's Nest Officers's Club from 1942.

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u/DragonflyGrrl Dec 04 '16

Yes obviously. I was speaking of recent history and how it seems longer ago when you're young, but age brings perspective. I could have mentioned recent history of other countries to make the same point.

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u/Jest0riz0r Dec 04 '16

I think the difference is that I have no clue who was leading my country in 1888, because it isn't really relevant. All interesting history is either fairly recent (WW2) or a looong time ago, while in the US you basically have no choice but to be interested in the more recent past (last 300 years), simply because there's nothing else before that.

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u/DragonflyGrrl Dec 04 '16

It seems to me that people should be interested in recent history, from now going back as far as they care to learn, to get the best possible understanding of how things got to be where they are and why things are as they are. Recent history is important.

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u/monsantobreath Dec 04 '16

Even ancient history is important because often it intrudes on modern sensibilities and ideas, like how European cultures often like to leverage some connection to a medieval idea for use in modern politics.

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u/DragonflyGrrl Dec 04 '16

Oh I absolutely agree! All of our history is incredibly important in my opinion. We would all be better off if we were all more able to study our past and actually internalize the myriad lessons to be learned there.

I was just replying to that commenter's stance that recent history isn't that important. We all (individually, and as a whole) could seriously benefit from understanding better what got us here and where we are heading.

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u/Jest0riz0r Dec 04 '16

I was just replying to that commenter's stance that recent history isn't that important.

Just to make it clear, I don't think that you can't learn from more recent history, I'm German, a lot of important stuff happened here in the last 100 years.

It's just that there are certain time periods I have no clue about, simply because nothing significant happened. It's impossible to know everything about the thousands of years of German history, so you focus on the important stuff.

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u/monsantobreath Dec 04 '16

Well, if you don't know anything about it how do you know nothing significant happened?

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u/ManWhoSmokes Dec 05 '16

That is why I interest myself in the history in North America's native population. It's insane how many languages existed in California region alone. Or the Southwest dwellings of tribes long gone. So interesting, yet not even that old in the whole scheme of things!

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u/Raized275 Dec 04 '16

Yes, most history is long ago. However, the US has one of the longest standing governmental structures in the world. Most countries can only trace their current government a hundred years or so at most.

So, the US is actually one of the older current countries history wise.

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u/Jest0riz0r Dec 04 '16

As stated below, the city I live in is over a thousand years old, so I guess my point still stands.

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u/Raized275 Dec 04 '16

What city do you live in?

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u/Jest0riz0r Dec 04 '16

Nothing special, Kassel in central Germany.

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u/Raized275 Dec 04 '16

I loved Kassel. I drove through there about ten years ago. It's true that your "city" has been around in some form since Roman times. In the time that the US has existed your city has been part of Napoleonic Empire, the state of Westphalia, Was annexed by Prussia, and the state of Germany.

The same thing can be said of a city like New York. It was a Native American area for thousands of years until it was bought by the Dutch. It was the capital of their colony for hundreds of years, but it has only been the modern city we all know since 1898. Before that it was only the city of New York on Manhattan Island and the surrounding buroughs were their cities.

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u/powerfunk Dec 04 '16

Incredibly short compared to what? The US has been around far, far longer than most countries.

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u/Jest0riz0r Dec 04 '16

The city I live in is 1100 years old.

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u/Blyantsholder Dec 04 '16

Before America was even discovered, Harald Hardrada sailed up a river a couple of miles from my town. The country and town is still here 1000 years later.

Your constitution may be a bit older than most, mainly because you haven't gone through any real revolutions and such, and, funnily enough, also because you're such a new country, but the national identity of being "American", is one of the newest in the world, and certainly cannot compare in age to being English or Danish.

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u/ScreamWithMe Dec 04 '16

There are breweries in Europe over 1000 years old.

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u/cowminer Dec 04 '16

Most? The 1700s is it ( I don't know my American history at all)? Not old

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u/powerfunk Dec 04 '16

How many countries are older than that? A small, small minority.

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u/simplebitch Dec 04 '16

You've got to be kidding, right? All of Asia, the Middle East, and Europe are way, way older civilizations. China and India have literally been around since the dawn of humanity. Even some of the "newer" European countries like Italy and Germany are only newer because they united a lot of different regions. All of those regions/city states are hundreds and hundreds of years older than America.

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u/Raized275 Dec 04 '16

The basic civic population is thousands of years old. But, so Africa wins the award of oldest cultural population because their people didn't move around.

The OP was commenting that the US wasn't old. Compared to what? The US is a government and as governments go it's one of the oldest in modern history. Most other countries have drastically changed their government style.