History is a mixture of facts, truths, and perceptions... perceptions from those that won the battle to defeat others. To the victors not only goes the spoils, but the ability to write history as they perceive it. In other words, they get to write history to fit their political and religious views, and justify all their actions... as if the ends justified the means. No matter how many lives were ended, his many died, it would all be justified and deemed just and righteous. As numerous societies progressed over the ages the killing of thousands upon thousands of people were justified, and once a society progressed to maturity, it would condemn other societies for the same atrocities that they had done in their early years.
Growing up post World War II .... the Holocaust and the loss of life seemed to be the worst atrocities and the loss of life in history of the world. This is far from the truth.
While the holocaust claimed 6.5 million lives, this was close to the lives taken by the
Religious Crusades, yet history justifies the crusades.
The European expansion into the Americas, especially the United States westward expansion across north america claimed 20 million lives of native Americans. To the victors goes the ability to write and justify history as they perceive it. 200 years later the U.S. would condemn even the smallest loss if life in foreign countries... as it should be. Civilizations over history have repeated this scenario time and time again. And history is always justified by the victors of any conflict.
So... history is not always what we were taught or believe. There's the perceptions which justify the means, the truth which is itself objective and open to interpretation, and the facts which are mostly obscured by those that write history.
Growing up post World War II .... the Holocaust and the loss of life seemed to be the worst atrocities and the loss of life in history of the world. This is far from the truth.
While the holocaust claimed 6.5 million lives, this was close to the lives taken by the
Religious Crusades, yet history justifies the crusades.
The European expansion into the Americas, especially the United States westward expansion across north america claimed 20 million lives of native Americans. To the victors goes the ability to write and justify history as they perceive it. 200 years later the U.S. would condemn even the smallest loss if life in foreign countries... as it should be. Civilizations over history have repeated this scenario time and time again. And history is always justified by the victors of any conflict.
So... history is not always what we were taught or believe. There's the perceptions which justify the means, the truth which is itself objective and open to interpretation, and the facts which are mostly obscured by those that write history.
