ITT, we post historical misconceptions we had as a child:

Huh... that makes much more sense.

I once asked my parents if the Huns had been allied to the Aztecs at some point in history. If you've played AoE II, you might know where I got that idea.
I played that game too, can confirm it was Rostov.

I once thought Egypt was inhabited by vaguely white people, and that the British Empire was one of the most monstrous things in existence for what they did to the Native Americans.

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.Thought Gandhi was a good peaceful role model

He was a good role model, unless you're a complete cuck and are cool with sucking the dick of a foreign power owning your land, in which case please gas yourself.

>720p

I thought the Yugoslav conflict was Bosnia waging a war against Herzegovina

...

yeah he was a cool guy but most people think he's cool for the wrong reasons

When I was taught about the Spanish Inquisition as a kid in Jewish religious school I was led to believe that they just rounded up all the Jews and tortured them then burned them at the stake. It was only much later that I learned it was only the idiots who refused to either leave or convert.

Eh, they also tortured people who had converted but were suspected of ceing crypto-jews. In practice, this mean a lot of people would accuse the descendants of converted jews of being secret jews out of spite or as a ruse to steal their property. I do agree that the issue was oversimplified for modern audiences.

Some might call Arabs white. They'd be wrong, though.
And the Brits didn't make the diseases, they just introduced them.

>Jew

>Some might call Arabs white. They'd be wrong, though.
A century ago they said Irish and Italians weren't White. 'Whiteness' is a meme.

i used to think Aachen was in France

I thought that Germany was just another side in WW2. There was no good or evil and the war just sort of happened because of bureaucratic bullshit like every other war.

>A century ago they said Irish and Italians weren't White.
Nobody except random nobodies said this. The US government and well renowned racialist certainly didn't.

>I thought that Germany was just another side in WW2. There was no good or evil and the war just sort of happened because of bureaucratic bullshit like every other war.
>inplying this isn't true

Ummm user i..

>what is the KKK

Ah yes, the US government, the governing authority Whiteness (tm). You might be interested to read that in 1909, the US government decreed that Syrians, Turks, and Arabs were White:

arabamericanhistory.org/archives/dept-of-justice-affirms-arab-race-in-1909/

I used to think Italy was actually a thing before 1861, just in form of some kind of confederation, and that the Holy Roman Empire was current-day Germany under a cooler name.

Sure, if you're an anti-vaxxer obsessed with his own poo.

I thought the holy Roman empire was

I didn't know the sea of Marmara connected the Dardanelles and the Bosporus until I was like 26.

Bump. I am interested in hearing more of these.

I thought UK, England, and Britain used to refer to the same thing.
I thought Taiwanese people were just stuck up narcissists like New Yorkers instead of being a politically exiled demi-nation.
I thought Robert E Lee fought for the Union because everyone sucks his dick.
I thought Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover were the same person. Not as in someone with 3 names, but whenever someone mentioned one of them, I amalgamated all three's accomplishments.
I thought the Greek philosophers were a part of Rome.
I thought Russia was always USSR.

Related, I still refer to Czechoslovakia a lot enough though it no longer exists.

Thought Prussia still existed until i asked a Polish person if Poland was near Prussia and they laughed in my face.

Rightful clay

I was like 7 and I didn't think it was that inpossible that there'd be an elephant sized gorilla at some point in history and it would end up climbing skyscrapers and getting killed before I was born. I only saw a clip of the movie and I wanted it to be true. It was also a factor in me being obsessed with NYC as a kid.

*impossible

I knew BC meant Before Christ, but for some reason I thought AD meant After David. (I also wasn't aware of the large amount of time between David and Jesus.)

I once thought that left automatically meant liberal and progressive and that right meant conservative and regressive. Then I understood that those notions can mean more than one thing and that the left-right dichotomy is bullshit and that I'd have to think for myself.

That reminds me. I thought unicorns were real because I saw one on Xena, and the idea of a horse with a horn doesn't really seem impossible.

> thought Germany and Japan were still "evil"
> thought that Britain and the US were still at odds with one another over the the declaration of independence.

Funniest one that I can remember from my childhood is
>If a Peruvian enters Chile then they will be captured and their head will be cut off
I never really thought badly of Chileans and I remember in highschool when I met some Chilean exchange students they were pretty chill. Although brainwashing can go a long way and so my a part of my mind would tell me to stay away from them or that they'll do something horrible in this very instant such as suicide bomb the room.

My mom is Peruvian and she used to have nightmares about the Chileans invading, so maybe this one isn't uncommon.

as a kid I thought AD meant after death

Are you implying that show wasn't a 100% accurate representation of life in Mycenaean Greece?

I remember when I was little watching the movie History of the World (part 1) and getting really confused at the French Revolution part because I thought revolution automatically meant the american revolution.

>why does it say 1793, don't they know the revolution started in 1776

He was good unless you're black

I don't know about misconceptions but I watched some WW2 movie and I literally couldn't grasp what the fuck Jews are supposed to be. I asked my mom and she said they're a nation, but then also said they're a religion and it just seemed so incomprehensible to me.

It's really interesting to me how a conflict back in the 1800s can still breed so much hatred. Although we're nothing compared to the Balkan nations' history of conflict and hatred between each other. That reminds me of two things actually. When I look at a map I still at times expect Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia to be there even though they're long gone. I also still can't believe that the Soviet Union collapsed give or take 26 years ago. It feels like it wasn't that long ago but I'm only almost 20. Then again I remember thinking as a child that dreadnought ships were some of the most powerful weapons we have. Guess a part of me is still stuck in the 1800s then because of that unconscious hatred.

>I expect Czechoslovakia to be there
>I'm only 20

>tfw there will never be another south american dreadnought race
>tfw there will never be another dreadnought race
feels bad man

Almost 20. Have you ever been told in the background soundwaves of your everyday life of something horrible that happened in the 1800s and continue on learning about history in your free time? It can cause someone to think that something that happened 40 to 100 years ago wasn't that long ago at all. Hell when somebody says old movies I think of the 1910s. I moved to the U.S. at a young age so it's not like it was it continued on into my adolescence. I guess sometimes the feelings of the collective consciousness of fellow countrymembers can rub off on you.
I will always miss the aesthetics of those glorious cannons.

Well I was actually born and raised in Czechoslovakia and even the younger generations born in '93 from the area don't know shit about it, so it seems pretty absurd a 20 year old from the other side of the planet would expect it to exist, that's all.

>thought that the American Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, American Civil War, etc. were all fought with modern technology, with the only difference being how they dressed
>thought the atomic bombs destroyed all of Japan and it was repopulated by a handful of survivors
>right after 9/11 happened I thought the Afghan army consisted entirely of bearded men in kamikaze jets
>I thought the Cold War was an actual war between US and Russia, and it was called the "Cold War" because it was fought in Russia
>I thought drawing a swastika on something literally put a magical curse on it, proceeded to draw swastikas on things I didn't like

Even though we may not be as developed as other nations certain schools still try to give their young ones an education. I'm very thankful for that. Also I now realize that Veeky Forums's memeing with Otto von Bismarck has caused me to idolise him and his ability to unify states into something greater. Even though he himself caused his own share of problems that were out of his control.

>thought the 2nd and 3rd reichs were the same thing
>thought the war in the pacific was an easy victory secured solely by the USMC
>thought gun names were determined by how many bullets they held, which is why the Americans lost Vietnam (M-16 vs AK-47)
>No knowledge of US engagements outside of Independence, Civil, WW1&2, 'nam, and iraq
>Thought all Romans were gay

>right after 9/11 happened I thought the Afghan army consisted entirely of bearded men in kamikaze jets
kek

>>thought the war in the pacific was an easy victory
You weren't exactly wrong about that if you're a yank.

>one state per president
>all dinosaurs lived during the same time
>Lincoln was the 5th president because 5 dollar bill
>Native Americans were cool and pilgrims were boring every Thanksgiving
>Greece turned into Rome

I know there are more but I honestly can't remember that far back. I took an interest to history early so I got my facts straight for the most part.

>Afghan army consisted entirely of bearded men in kamikaze jets
It's actually kind of an accomplishment of American propaganda to make people believe 9/11 was conducted by Afghans. I was almost 20 when it happened but I wouldn't be surprised if people who were little kids back then believed all sorts of bullshit about that war.

>>Thought all Romans were gay
well by modern standards they were definitely a whole hell of a lot gayer than any society that currently exists. They felt that having sex with another man was 100% hetero as long as you were the top.

>can you believe this faggot with my cock in his ass

in 2003 a majority of americans thought Iraq was behind 9/11

oh and remember these?

I thought Hitler was the bad guy. Oh, and I also thought it was cool to be edgy.

I thought Portugal was a South American country

When I was little I was obsessed with WW2 stuff, I mean 4 years old and I wanted to read books about WW2 tier obsessed. Of course, I could hardly read well, but I liked seeing the pictures of all the tanks and planes and battleships and stuff. I was reading on a third grade level by 1st grade, actually, but that's besides the point.

Anyways I understood enough about WW2 that Germans were the "bad guys" and America was the "good guys" and I thought the American flag was the star you usually see painted on Shermans or what have you and of course the Nazi Swastika I came to associate with Germany. I loved to draw WW2 stuff, and I'd label what was what with flags. I also ended up starting Kindergarten when I was 4.

So anyways my parents got called to a parent teacher conference after my teacher saw me drawing an American tank fighting a German tank. They had to explain I was just really into WW2, and that we weren't actually Nazis despite the fact I was drawing a half dozen Swastikas a day.

While in reality it's African.

>parent being called and having to explain to the school he isn't a nazi just because his son drew a swastika
This is some USSR tier shit

It was a small, quiet American town. The teacher was mostly just confused why a 4 year old kid was drawing Swastikas on the wall and building MP40s out of Lincoln Logs.

From what my parents told me they all laughed pretty hard after my mom explained it. Although my teacher still wasn't pleased when I'd build machine guns out of the blocks.

When I was a kid, and I learned that my state was Republican, I was unhappy, since my liberal mother had taught me that Republicans are evil. Now, I'm pretty happy about that.

I hear that you guys didn't actually want to split. What do you think?

Most people didn't but politicians had other ideas. I think both Czechs and Slovaks are extremely passive and peaceful people who just eventually accept whatever shit is pushed on them, so they got used to this too.

But, if you had a referendum to reunite, what would you vote? People you know?

That's actually a pretty difficult question and I have no fucking idea. I think the answer depends on what would cause the referendum.

It was. For 13 years.

In each country, a new leader is elected who, while also generally having good policies, wants to reunite, though that wasn't what really got him elected, necessarily. They decide to hole mutual referendums.

What now?

I'm guessing yes by a narrow margin.

In both, do you think?

>(((history and humanities)))

I would pay good money to watch a western with cowboy Hitler.

Same here. I mostly assumed that modern countries were the same forever.

I didn't know what World War One was. I knew WWII was called World War Two but I didn't think about the fact that there had to be a first one.

That would be pretty weird considering a massive chunk of the KKK had Irish ancestry.

I used to think that all of south America was Brazil. I just never looked that long at that part of the map.

I used to think Mexico was South America and to be honest I still don't know why they aren't considered at least central American. They definitely belong in the same group as Guatemala and Honduras rather than the USA and Canada.

I thought byzatine was just another empire instead of being part of roman empire.

>they aren't considered at least central American.
They aren't? Really?

Bullshit. Unless you mean memey "2/97ths" muh huritage, or simply confusing actual Irish with Scots-Irish

The KKK are a retardestant group through and through

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I used to think that Popes were these Chinese emperor-like figures that plebs were forbidden from even looking at, and they could make and unmake kings at will. Like, they could just send a letter ordering a king to abdicate his throne and he would without any hesitation out of respect for the papal office.

Alexander the Great was a much more ancient figure. Out of a bronze age Trojan War period, not immediately before Rome started to become a major power.

Money didn't exist until very recently. Reading about fealty and honor and such, I figured that knights soldiers up until about the 1800s all fought in battles solely out of loyalty to their king, because it was their duty to do so, and they received no payment for it.

I used to think London was in France for some reason.

Youre out of your fucking MIND if you think italians EVER counted as white give me a fucking break

It used to be at the heart of the Frankish realm.

>Taiwan
>demi-nation.
What makes you think they aren't a real nation in their own right?

I didn't know that the Holy Roman Empire existed or that any of the kingdom and states like Prussia excised. I thought it was all Austro-Hungaria and later Nazi Germany once Austro-Hungaria fell apart.

The problem is judging the situation through the judeofascist lense of nationalism. Taiwan is part of China. China is not monolithic.

Taiwan is not part of China.
It's an independent nation that isn't recognized, because people don't want to piss off China.