31 Historical Misconceptions That Change Everything

‘Vietnam stood a very small chance of joining the Chinese communist body’
31 Historical Misconceptions That Change Everything
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We like to imagine periods from history as being neat enough to wrap up in a single establishing shot. Medieval times? Okay, serfs, scythes, a knight on a white horse with a damsel astride behind him, and cut. The fact is, there’s some eras from history that have been oversimplified, and sometimes even miscommunicated.

A post on Reddit asked historians to share some of the misconceptions of different eras of history that upset our nice, neat imaginings of the time. Surely, there would be no way they would lie to me at the movies, would they? Next, you’re going to tell me America isn’t automatically the good guy.

cortechthrowaway 7y ago Edited 7y ago How densely settled the ancient world was. We often think of the ancient world as just being a few islands of civilization (Egypt, Greece, Babylon) separated by a vast wilderness inhabited by nomads. But cities sprouted up everywhere in the late Bronze Age. (everywhere with a temperate climate and adequate rainfall, anyway). In fertile lands, you'd be surrounded by villages. EDIT: Also, the number of different civilizations! We only remember the ones that built big temples or preserved their texts, but there were dozens of different societies, each with their own language, laws, gods,
hennybenny23 7y ago The idea that the European middle ages were a period of nothing but stagnation and religious madness is a common misconception. Today's Historians see these times much more nuanced, as they also were, at least also, a time of urbanization, constant scientific innovation and, surprisingly, more peace and prosperity than one would think. The image of the dark times, with cold winters and famines and constant religious war is much more fitted for the 16th and 17th century.
IcedMercury ® 7y ago That there were between 20k-40k prostitutes in Whitechapel when Jack the Ripper was doing his thing. It gives you some idea of just how unlucky those specific women were to be killed with so many other options available. Also, it gives an inclination as to just how overcrowded Victorian London was; especially in the slums.
Ramsesak47 7y ago That the great pyramids were not built by slave labor. Granted, did egypt have slaves? Yes. Did some of them likely assist in the building? Probably. But the vast majority of workers were not slaves. What makes the most sense is that the workers were farmers paid to build them during the months in between planting and harvesting crops, given that many workers were compensated and any who died on the job were given proper burials.
No-BrowEntertainment 7y ago Cowboys weren't the glorious rough-and- tough gunslinging heroes we're led to believe. They were usually sweaty teenagers and young adults who roped and led cattle for a living, and usually didn't make that much. The trade died out within a decade with the availability of the railroad and the ability to transport cattle via train.
RealPhali . 7y ago Edited 7y ago A solid majority of the Vikings from Norway especially were tradesmen and settles. The pillaging bit only happened full scale for a limited time period, and most Vikings only cared about trade and expansion. Oh, and they never had horns. Never.
mighij . 7y ago Most Barbarians who invaded the (western) Roman Empire were also Christian. The main exception were the Franks who only became Christian/Catholic after settling in Belgium/France.
7y ago A common misconception is that Philistines (from the Old Testament Bible) were a boorish, unsophisticated people who were indifferent to culture and the art. Truth is they had a rich culture, were creators of fine pottery and grand architecture, clever urban planners and cosmopolitan, also skilled cultivating grapes and at wine-making. If anything, the Israelites, at the time mostly shepherds and farmers in the hills, were the less-sophisticated and - cultured folk.
The_Presitator 7y ago The idea that everyone back in the olden days thought the world was flat. Western scientists have known the world was round since the Roman Empire because they were pretty good math. When Columbus sailed across the ocean he wasn't trying to prove the Earth's roundness, he was trying to prove it was smaller than what scientist had estimated it to be. If he hadn't run into the Americas he certainly would have starved to death, which is why nodoby sailed west in the Atlantic back then. The myth that medieval people thought the world was flat
starkicker18 . 7y ago C Edited 7y ago It's not so much a specific time period, but life expectancy is a common misconception. Lots of people assume if you lived to 30s or 40s that was a ripe old age, but in fact, if you survived childhood, you were just as likely to live until your 50s-70s (or older). The reason the average age expectancy is so low is that there were a lot of infant and child mortality, as well as women dying young in childbirth. Those very young people's deaths lowered the average significantly.
Herogamer555 . 7y ago Spartans were not the ultimate badasses of Greece. Fellow Greeks actually admired Argos for producing the best warriors, Sparta was admired for their stability. Their records in the Olympics are not that exceptional except in chariot based events, because Spartans could afford to practice them constantly thanks to their entire economy running on thousands and thousands of slaves.
BrocializedHealth 7y ago I'm not a historian, but something that radically changed my idea of the 20th century in America is that most traditional American values were actually solidified in the 1950's to unite the American people against communism. Most people seem to believe that the 1960's was the first radical change in American society, but there were similar movements in the 1930's, they were just overshadowed by the great depression and WWII.
ikonoqlast. 7y ago The Middle Ages was not 1000 years of overcast weather, dirty houses, brown clothing, and unending toil. The sun shone, people actually cleaned and painted their houses and had colorful clothing and holidays were common.
While the Dark Ages were going on, you have great Islamic Golden age in the Middle East. Many Greek texts at this time were translated and preserved by Islamic scholars, ideas like Algebra are calcified in the Islamic world, the basis of the renaissance is born here too(Jews in Al-Andalus translated Arabic sources and works from Arabic or Judeo-Arabic into Hebrew. Christians who understood Hebrew moved it to Latin, and that is how things like Aristotle gets to Renaissance Europe.), plus you have great works of literature like Arabian Nights. Plenty was going on in Asia too, especially with architecture
. 7y ago Not a historian, but... fuck it, I bet at least 98%, possibly 100%, of the people commenting here are not historians. Here's a small one: Ancient Scandinavians and Russians (long, long before the Viking age) had skis. These dudes were skiing the slopes back when there were just primitive swords and shields and shit.
uReallyShouldTrustMe Ф 7y ago There's one misconception that I never considered until my professor pointed it out. We have this idea that China is rising to power and is finally relevant. If you look at history, he said, China has been a superpower for the last 10-20 years. Oh yeah, and from around 1750 to the beginning of civilization.
Jackpot777 7y ago People think that Thomas Jefferson freed all of his slaves on the event of his death. Nope. Although he owned hundreds of slaves, he freed only five in his will. The rest were sold as part of his estate to settle debts. People have this idea of the Founding Fathers doing what we'd think is the right thing (more often than not) by our 21st century way of reckoning. Jefferson personifies this, especially when it comes to that history of slavery after 1776 ...but Virginia abolitionist Moncure Conway, noting Jefferson's enduring reputation as a would-be emancipator, (,once said,
. 7y ago Not so much a misconception, but a general sense of time. Who lived at the same times, what was going in around the world at the same periods, etc. It puts it all into perspective.
Galileo wasnt jailed for beliveing the Sun is revolving Earth. Не was sentanced because he was teacher at Catholic school, who talked about Copernican view. Не wasnt prohibited to believe, he was prohibited to teaching it at Catholic School while official stance is other way around.
. 7y ago That the Aztecs have been around for less time than teaching at Oxford, a lot of people (including myself) thought of Aztecs as ancients but they were quite modern
7y ago Native Americans were way more advanced than we give them credit for. Corn is man- made. The cultivation fields of the Yucatan peninsula were brilliant works of engineering, as were some cities.
-domi- . 7y ago Vietnam stood a very small chance of joining the Chinese communist body. The entire conflict in Vietnam was pointless and dubious.
tripplowry 7y ago The myth of social progress. I studied East Asian history and it clearly showed that there is no such thing. For example something like women's rights in china, women have had far more and far less rights under different dynasties, as well as modern goverments, with women being as likely to gain or lose rights when government changes. This can be forotten by Americans as the last generation or two we have seen expanding rights but this is just our current historical trend, it can easily go the other way. Not to be political but many who
TheGoodJudgeHolden 7y ago Edited 7y ago That the US Founding Fathers, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence were rich landowners that didn't want to pay any more taxes to the British, so they sat on their ass and sent poor boys to go die Yes, some of them were wealthy landowners of the time, and some were slaveowners, so yeah, they weren't the saints that they've often been depicted as in the past. But a number of the roughly 50 signers paid dearly for their stance. Some were tortured and killed by the Brits. Others lost everything they
bcanddc 7y ago That the politics of today in America is somehow more divided than in the past. Our entire system is set up to be divided, to make laws more difficult to pass so the government doesn't pass too many and limit freedoms. We just live in a time where we expect instant results, we shouldn't from the government really.
Ricky_ RZ 7y ago The Japanese didn't really kill anybody during WW2. The Nazis are known to have killed millions of Jews and other folks, but the Japanese atrocities are rarely discussed. Only recently through movies are some conditions of POW camps revealed, but the government still denies many events took place. The prime minister even claimed that convicted WAR CRIMINALS would not be criminals under Japanese law. A lot of folks see WW2 Japan as saints compared to the Nazis, in reality they were just as bad, if not worse in many cases
. 7y ago That Jesus looked like the paintings of him in postcards. Не was a Jew from the Middle East, he probably looked like the average brown guy TSA pulls aside for 'extra' screening.
damgnoise . 7y ago The Elizabeth Bathory story. Or at least the numbers and hysteria surrounding the story. It was actually more likely that it was a manufactured political scandal to take her secularism out of the equation and redistribute her land. There's no way she tortured and murdered 600 virgins and bathed in their blood.
communist_panda 7y ago After learning about the cultural and historic background to the New Testament you can start to see how radically political Jesus' teaching really were. For instance the saying when someone strikes you to turn your other cheek was a way to resist roman occupation. For Romans, seeing the Judeans as lesser to them, would strike with the backside of their hand. But by turning your other cheek you would force them to strike you again, but this time with their open palm which would mean that the attacker and attacked were societal equals.
Its sYaBoyDarkness . 7y ago France was still executing people by guillotine when the first starwars was released.
Cananbaum 7y ago Everyone thinks that after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it was an instantaneous change when it really wasn't. Many schools, businesses, services, housing etc. found legal loopholes to exploit to perpetuate their racist agendas and at times we can see the reverberations from it today- that is if they didn't simply try to ignore the law to begin with.

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