Shame on you.

[gael]

We all tend to focus on the glories of our nations when it comes to reading about its history, and tend to censor or understate the failures, embarrassments and/or horrors that they have done in the past, (with varing degrees).
Its only natural, but we have all, I'm sure, read something that made us ashamed, disgusted or angry when reading the history of our nations.
What is the one (or maybe few) things that you are ashamed of when you read about the history of your country.

 

[yaroslav]

There are things in Spanish History to be shame of:

* The Inquisiton and the intolerance towards non-catholic
* The behaviour of Duke of Alba in the Netherlands
* The use of slavor fource (like many other European Countries)
* The support to the Axis in the second World War (stupid Franco)


Of course, there are more things, but those are the first I have though about...

BTW, the tittle is somewaht confusing, I think

 

[SunTzu]

that the US helped the french out twice.

Moderator Action: Pls refrain fr French-bashing! Thanks - XIII
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Mojotronica]

Slavery, breaking treaties w/ Native Americans, Japanese internment and the Jim Crow laws.

 

[gael]

I hate reading irish history, theres no glory in it. The victories have been blown way out of preportion.

We were always fighting amongst each other and could never unit as one. England played with us like a game and we were lambs to the slaughter.

Instead of being angry at the enemy,( historically to any English folk reading this ) I end up feeling disgust at how weak the Irish were and how easily we were turned against each other.

It was'nt irish bravery that won us independance, but Irish incompetence that brought about the political presure that lead to the Irish free state.

 

[Richard III]

Treatment of natives, turning away jewish refugees in WWII, those are the top two.

 

[ivory]

- Holland has been a major player in the slave trade.
- Holland prides itself on its stiff resistance in WWII while the truth is that most people just collaborated. More jews were carried away here than anywhere else relatively, because public servants continued to keep the files in order.

 

[Sodfather]

America:

• Ripping the land from the Native Americans' hands and not seeing anything wrong with it.
• Total bullsh*t justice system at the time of and after slavery towards blacks (And I'm not black so don't think I'm biased).
• Stealing even more land, this time from the Mexicans, due to the belief in manifest destiny.
• Going to war to try and stop the spread of Communism in Viet Nam. It's really none of our business.
• And, of course, helping the French twice as SunTzu stated .

 

[Vrylakas]

In my quiz I just had a question about Jedwabne, the village in northeastern Poland, which is hyper-controversial in Poland nowadays because of a book a Jewish-Polish historian living/working in New York, Jan T. Gross, wrote: Sasiedzi (Neighbors). Gross claims in his book that a small village went crazy and murdered its own Jewish population in 1941 occupied Poland in spectacularly nasty fashion, including beheadings and burning many alive in a barn fire. There is much controversy over Gross' use of sources for the book but be that as it may, the fact remains that a shock has been delivered to the Polish psyche; Poles have been brought up in their school system to believe they were primarily victims in the Second World War - and they were indeed, moreso than most - but the idea that Poles could also be victimzers was profoundly shocking. Whether Jedwabne happened as Gross claims or not, there are plenty of episodes and anecdotes from the war years illustrating bestial or conniving behavior on Poles' part. The situation is made worse because a sort of historigraphical war has been waged between Polish and Jewish historian since WW II, with both trying to claim status as The Most Righteous Victims and both portraying the other in crude stereotypical terms. Yes, as Poles point out there are more Poles represented among Yad Vashem's "Righteous Among the Nations" than any othr nation, but to deny Poland's past Anti-Semitism is to deny its own history.

 

[JamesL]

England: A long list really but here are a few,

a) Ireland. Probably the greatest shame of English history. In particular in the 19th century with our inability to deal with the famine or grant Home Rule.

b) India

c) Our role in the slave trade

d) The anti-semitism of the middle ages, particularly the forced deportation of the Jews.

e) South Africa. We should of done more to leave the natives in a stronger position before we gave it independence.

f) The Spice Girls

 

[Evie]

Canada

-Treatment of natives, especially in the 19th century.

-Jean Chrétien's one blunder a day tour of the middle east some years back (where he managed to say the wrong thing at EVERY step of his visit. "Oh, yes, the golan should be in Israeli hands" - to the Syrians, completley avoiding the palestinians on his first day in Israel, then the next day, to make up for it saying that Jerusalem should be palestinian - with Israeli around...)

-The whole deal with Louis Riel

-Over-reliance on the church for many years, especially in Québec, which for a time was pretty close to a Christian Theocracy, with all the power the church had.

-And last but not least...Céline Dion.

I have a few others more recent ones, but I think they're TOO recent for the history forum (most noticeably, the behavior of BOTH the Alliance and Liberals overs that whole Iraq war deal).

 

[SunTzu]

i didn't bash the french, did i say anything bad about them?! i simply said thats the thing that i'm ashamed that my country did. so that moderator action was not needed.

You know the rules. You have a problem with the mod(s); you bring it to Site Feedback, TF, or PM me. Pls don't argue over my moderation in public again. - XIII

 

[aaminion00]

Originally posted by SunTzu
i didn't bash the french, did i say anything bad about them?! i simply said thats the thing that i'm ashamed that my country did. so that moderator action was not needed.

Care to explain how helping out the French was shameful?

 

[tonberry]

Originally posted by Oda Nobunaga
Canada

-Over-reliance on the church for many years, especially in Québec, which for a time was pretty close to a Christian Theocracy, with all the power the church had.

You refer, I presume, to the Duplessis rule (1936-1959). To elaborate on that:

- Suppression, to a certain degree, of freedom of speech
- Cheated election result (altough the Union National would have won anyway)
- Great corruption
- Elimination of opposition (ridiculous jail sentence for ridiculous reasons)
- Horrible police behavior

The list can goes on. This period is not called "The Great Darkness" in Quebec for nothing.

Originally posted by SunTzu
i didn't bash the french, did i say anything bad about them?! i simply said thats the thing that i'm ashamed that my country did. so that moderator action was not needed.

Ever heard of insinuation?

 

[Evie]

Tonberry - yes, mostly Duplessis. That was NOT a part of the history of our province to be proud of.

Fortunately, we've had our little Révolution Tranquille, and while it left us with some problems, it certainly was a giant step forward.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

The United States turning back refugees from Nazi-controlled parts of Europe before WWII stands as inexcusable in my mind. I'm not sure if it "shames" me, but it does disapoint me greatly.

 

[Furius]

New Zealand for...
The whole Treaty of Waitangi thing
The Land Wars
The fact that we colonized Niue (none of our business) and they're still a colony today

And that's New Zealand history since colonization!

Oh, and that was very insulting to France, shame on you!

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Repealing some of the glorious and sensible policies of old.
Not banning and persecuting communism.
Allowing liberalism and political correctness to infiltrate public policy and education.
Not following through with the nuclear weapons program.
Letting the Pacific Islands go to their own doom, rather than ruling them.
Betraying purity.
Downgrading the military, and cancelling the aircraft carrier replacement.
Suffering recalcitrant neighbours to live.
Holding a position against South Africa.

Comment removed after rebuke - XIII

 

[ZultanofZex]

Sweden:

Returning the Baltic nationals to uncle Stalin 1945
(They were, of course, all killed)

 

[SunTzu]

well i wouldn't have a problem with the new mods if they would mod fairly and would step off of their high horse closing the simplest of things. If your going to give me a mod action for what you call "french bashing" then u better do the same in the OT forums for those who bash americans in the way that i just "bashed the french".

You're held to a higher standard of politeness and civility than upstairs in OT, to cultivate a more academic atmosphere here. There's also a little function called 'Report post to moderator' if you see any American-bashing. - XIII