How has your country used history to promote a national identity?
In Canadian schools, we're taught that the Battle of Vimy Ridge was where the nation was born. The narrative of the battle emphasises that an all-Canadian force succeeded where others had failed; that novel tactics were employed; and that the battle was a turning point in the war.
A lot of these ideas come from the CBC's (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) 50th anniversary project on the battle in 1967. This project was somewhat sketchy. It was based off of oral histories, gathered through interviews with veterans of the battle. If you look at transcripts from the interviews, you'll notice that the interviewer asks a lot of leading questions; it's clear that he had expectations in mind for the outcome. The questions tend to focus on preparation for the battle, cultivating the idea that superior Canadian tactics were the decisive factor. By contrast, the veterans seem more inclined to talk about things like the leave they got in Scotland after they were injured. The results were further biased by the selection of interview segments for the final cut.
The idea the Vimy Ridge was our nation's seminal moment is pretty problematic. The First World War was a particularly divisive episode for Canada. Conscription was widely opposed in Quebec - the separatist movement can be traced to this sentiment. Also Newfoundland was not yet a part of Canada, and had already had its baptism of fire at Beaumont-Hamel in July 1916.
Also, as for the battle being a turning point - I'm interested to know how many of you that aren't from Canada have heard of it. Most people I know that studied history outside of Canada haven't.
Post similar rhetoric from other countries (or more from Canada)
australia
>muh gallipoli mateship
>>386347
Well at the time larrikinism was verboten, the Rape of Cairo had happened, along with the Sydney Beer Mutiny.
Bean is pretty much responsible for the post-war myth, and the two strikes and two referrenda were more important at home.
I dunno, eh? Scates has a good book on the anzac myth.
We learn our forefathers did really cool shit but couldn't go too far because our neighburs were assholes while actual important thousand-year old relics are rotting in piles of rubbish or are literally getting bulldozed.
>>386378
I find the -ism attached to larrakin odd and somewhat amusing.
It's expressly forbidden on my geology field trips after some hard partying a few years ago.
>>386887
larrikin*
>>386867
Italy?
>>386336
All I can do is answer your last question and say yes, I've heard of Vimy Ridge. Went there for a school trip 5 or 6 years ago. Been to that monument. Couldn't tell you anything about the battle though
Britbong here
>>386336
I know about this, but only in the context you've just presented
That it was important in forming Canadian national consciousness
t. Slovak
>>386887
STOP FUCKEN RAPEN THE GIPPOS CUNT
>>386902
I guess Romania
>>386336
The Discoveries and the global empire my country mounted in the 16th century make the base mithos for our national identity over here. That and conquering the Muslims and keeping the Spaniards at bay.
t. Portuguese
>problematic
oh shit...
>>387523
Yeah.
Yes, in America they use the "Founding Fathers" as justification for contemporary political action and treat them like a monolithic entity with one set of opinions.
>If the Founding Fathers were alive, they'd want us to have national health care!
>If the Founding Fathers were alive, they'd want every American to have fifty assault rifles and machine guns!
>>386378
Tfw when I've heard of none of this thundah down undah.
Suckled by wolves
t. Romans
I can't decide whether the Vimy memorial is the best effective war memorial, or whether the extreme minimalism of the Vietnam memorial is better...
>t.
can someone explain this meme
>>388377
>The Founding Fathers ARE the birth of the United States as an entity that is more than just divisions of British control over territory though.
That may be the case. I'd say a good deal of historical revisionism goes on in their perception in American culture though. The aspects of muh liberty are emphasised over, say, muh business. George III is cast as some brutal tyrant. Also their place in the founding of America doesn't necessarily justify invoking them in current arguments. Most 18th-century attitudes are understandably seen as outdated.
>>388173
> Adolf Hitler, who reportedly admired the memorial for its peaceful nature,[65] was photographed by the press while personally touring it and the preserved trenches on 2 June 1940 to demonstrate the memorial had not been desecrated.[66] He ordered Waffen-SS troops to guard the memorial from both German and Allied armies.
A monument that can move one of the most evil men in history to compassion is pretty darned effective, yeah.
>>388377
>The Founding Fathers ARE the birth of the United States as an entity that is more than just divisions of British control over territory though.
Yeah but the problem is the people who invoke them generally don't know what their stance on shit was.
For one they're all seen as devout uber christians, when most of the leaders were deists, and Thomas Paine was the closest you'd get to an atheist in that society. The other is the gun issue, but that was mainly because at the time America's army and America's people were more or less the same so people needed guns so that the army could actually fight anything.
Not to mention, the plain fact is these guys weren't perfect. I mean Ben Franklin supposedly had every venerial disease known to man in him when he died, that's not exactly a value you teach. Also they stopped shit from happening for purely petty reasons. Want to know why America uses imperial instead of metric? Because Jefferson saw metric as being "too French". And this is coming from the guy who was such a huge francophile that he actually had a chef at the white house whose sole purpose was to make french fries to him.
>>388173
I would say the Douaumont Ossuary is also moving in his way.
The bone of French and German Unknown soldiers who falled during the Battle of Verdun, eternaly mixed in their last residence. It's a huge symbol of peace between France and Germany. It's here that the famous picture of Kohl and Mitterrand, holding hands was taken.
The surroundings are quite impressive too. The cemetery, the ground full of giant hole made by artillery, the Forts that took the full blow of rhe German offensive.
>>388672
>A monument that can move one of the most evil men in history
cringed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlEmKXm9eCE
