What Children Should Learn

Simon Schama has listed his six key moments from our history which he feels that all children should learn,

Death of Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162, was embroiled in a conflict with Henry II over the power of the Church before being assassinated by the King’s followers in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Black Death and the Peasants Revolt
The Black Death is believed to have killed up to 1.5m people between 1348 and 1350 and resulting changes to England’s social structure contributed to the Peasants Revolt of 1381.
Execution of King Charles I
The death of Charles I followed his defeat on the battlefield by Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell. The King was charged with high treason and put to death in 1649.
Occupation of India
Rule over India was to last almost 200 years until 1947 as the Britain hung onto its prized Imperial asset while losing its grip on most of America.
The Opium Wars and China
The conflict between the UK and China was fought in from 1839 with the aim of securing key economic benefits in the Far East, leading to the cession of Hong Kong.
The Irish Wars
Prime Minister William Gladstone attempted to solve the “Irish question” by passing his Land Act in 1870, along with education and religious reforms,

An interesting overview of our history. But looking at it it is all pretty heavy on guilt if you ask me. India, The Opium Wars and the Irish wars seem to be there to show how ghastly and bad we have been as a nation. The peasants revolt to show the way in which the poor were always trying to throw off their shackles.

To me it seems that that which should be compulsory is that which either builds pride, or that which is essential for us to understand who we are. Why? Because that way you engage young minds in the story of these isles. Later when the imagination is engaged one should easily move on to the less glorious aspects of our story.

So for what it is worth my six.

1066

Well you have to start somewhere, and British history without the Norman conquest is akin to bread without flour.

Thomas a Beckett

I agree with Schama on this as it is such an important moment. The start of a division between church and state. Also the beginning of the idea of the Church of England, rather than the church in England.

Magna Carta

The events leading up to it, and the formal beginning of the growth of Liberty

The Split from Rome

Henry the Eighth and the reformation in Britain. Had a massive impact on the rise of Britain and its sense of self

The Civil War-Glorious Revolution

The way in which autocracy was overthrown and the shifting of power within the nation away from the King and towards the people.

The Napoleonic Period

Britain, France, Empire, Wellington, Mrs Bellamy's pies. War, glory, liberty, blood, guts, costumes, heroism, Corunna, defeat. What's not to like? 

Of course everybody will have their own ideas, so what would you choose?

Herman the ahem federalist

2000 years ago a bunch of Germanic tribes under Arminius famously took out three Roman Legions under Varus. The battle has gone down in history in various forms but is best known as the Battle of Teutoburg, or Varusschlacht ( rather wonderfuly the slaughter of Varus).

The EU as is its wont has decided to hijack the anniversary of the battle with an event uropean Parliament next week hosted by Hans-Gert Peottering and with special guest star Mr Barosso. They will be opening an exhibition of 2000 standards of peace, and proclaiming the Europeanness of the victory. A victory for liberty and so on.

Of course this is a rather problematical. Because to Germans the battle has intense and immense historical importance. Arminius, otherwise known as Herman is to the Germans what King Arthur is to the British, a near legend of resistance against foreign domination.

One only has to understand the power of the concept of a German leader defeating the Romans when in 1808 a play was written in its honour that was baned by Napoleon. The battle is the defining moment of Pan Germanism, the founding myth of the German nation and the historical lodestone of that nations fight for freedom over an overburdening centralised harmonised and integrated European Empire.

It is the myth that sustained the liberal nationalism that created Germany, and the EU is trying to use it to defend the EU!! I suspect that a few Germans might rather take against this collosal act of lesse majestie. Or in the words of the flyer advertising the event,

"27 PEACE SYMBOLS FOR EUROPE reminding of this date in European history are supposed to campaign for inner and outer peace.... Peace is the paramount concept of a large-scale campaign remembering an antique battle.
For peace changes things. Peace is creativity, discussion and cooperation....
27 PEACE SYMBOLS are going to take their place in Strasbourg, ambassadors of European history and joint statement of European present — symbols for peace.

You got that?

A New dawn for Human Rights

Further to my post below about the European History program, I found myself flicking through the "Connecting Europe Through History" booklet. And was surprised to discover on page 4 a picture of the storming of the Bastille.

It wasn't this picture but one like it. Anyhow what took me by surprise was how it had been captioned,

"Storming the Bastille: 1789 was a turning point in establishing human rights in Europe"

Well I suppose you could say that. It was the precursor to all the ghastly ideological regieme's who have murdered millions in the name of ideology. The "Quartering of the Vendee" was the first time that a form of genocide was practicsed against a largely civilian population because they rejected a political ideology,

"Infernal columns After Savenay, Rochejaquelein and Stofflet, which managed to cross the the Loire, are joined by a few thousands of survivors. On its side, Cart, which did not take share with the “Virée of Galerne”, holds the Breton Marais. In front of the return of a guerilla warfare and knacks, Blue, exasperated, same those originating in the departments concerned, claim the execution of the decree of the 1793 on the “destruction of the Vendée”. Named general-in-chief of the Armed with the West, although noble, the general Turreau proposes a plan of columns flamers, baptized the “infernal Colonnes”, with the Comité of public Safety, which does not give him the full power that he hopes for, being satisfied to invite it to carry out the decisions of the Convention by respecting “the spirit and the terms” of his Décret S.

The February 17th, the plan is put at execution, with two armies divided each one into six columns, leaving one the west, the other of the east. However, all the chiefs of the columns did not apply the orders of destruction and systematic slaughters. In the same way, the Members of the Commission civil and administrative created with Nantes to recover vivres and cattle with the profit of the Blue ones, accompany the armies, which makes it possible to save lives and localities. Certain columns, on the other hand, are delivered to plundering and massacre the civil population, raping and torturing, killing women and children with the knife not to waste the powder, burning Village S entireties, destroying harvests and killing the cattle. Well far from making disappear the revolt, the more so as out of the Vendean patriots are killed very as much as insurrectionists, the columns make flee the population (see the refugees ,
hereafter). Some leave the department, but several thousands join the bands of
Cart and Stofflet, intensifying the Guérilla, which becomes crueler than ever. This period also sees the return of practices related to the violence of Ancien Mode: “on decision of a military commission, heads of some Vendean and chouans notable, of which that of the prince de Talmond, are same exposed after decapitation to terrify the public. ”

Estimates of the dead range from 120,000 to 600,000.

Yes they are right. I suppose it did usher in a new era of human rights in Europe.

Bastards.

Who said the Germans were Barbarian's?

One of my little pet hates about the European Union is how it is slowly trying to rewrite history to its own benefit. We have the President of the Parliament's own little vanity project, the European House of History, which Bruno Waterfield Telegraph, and we have the Euro Clio project, with its slightly sinister subset Conecting Europe.

Education policies and regulations are commonly decided by national governments. In history this results in a focus that is very nationally oriented. Research by EUROCLIO confirms that the national dimension in history education is overrepresented, whereas the regional, European and international dimensions are underrepresented.
The disadvantage of a dominantly national approach is a distortion in historical events. The EUROCLIO Annual Meetings have always been a way to increase the European Dimension.
History educators from all over Europe have addressed a variety of topics and good practice that broadened their perspectives. Furthermore, EUROCLIO uses of trainers from a variety of European countries and beyond it all its project work. This transnational cooperation also increases the European dimension of history education and reduces the risk of a national bias in the developed material.

You get the idea.

Anyhow my favourite European history project is the Franco-German textbook, whose lead author Professor Marcel Spisser - an Alsatian Frenchman spoke at a conference in Brussels yesterday about the troubles they had getting the academics to agree...

"There was a big clash at the first meeting (of the editorial team of academics) a content problem. Was it the Versailles Treaty or international relations post 1945?

No it wasn't about that at all, it was about the barbarian invasions.

"Barbarians - Are you calling the Germans Barbarians!!!"."

It appears that in Germany the waves of Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and not least Huns are referred to as 'the movement of peoples'.