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TheJeeronian t1_j6fqlwl wrote

Mainstream history tends to skim over anything before 1500, and most things after 1500 that don't have direct noticeable impacts on the modern day.

The atlantic slave trade has directly and memorably impacted the families of a solid 50% of my country's population (America having an enormous influence on popular culture and education). People to this day, en masse, try to pretend it was a good thing. It is clear that education has been insufficient.

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yolofreeway OP t1_j6fqrdb wrote

barbary slave trade has had an impact on millions of people in my country yet no one talks about it nowadays

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TheJeeronian t1_j6fqw5k wrote

What country? When? How big is your country? What are the lasting cultural impacts?

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yolofreeway OP t1_j6frckw wrote

Greece. My great grand parents were hunted even when they were going to get water. Many of their relatives were caught and sold in the empire.

My country and my people would have turned differently if their ancestors did not live in fear of being kidnapped. There is quite a lot of emotional abuse that was being passed down to generations because of the actions of the ottoman empire.

A cousin of mine told me about one of his grandparents who was kidnapped from his own home, while his family was watching. He fought back and was killed by the muslims who wanted to capture him

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cammer_habibi t1_j6fy9zn wrote

My understanding is that Greeks are well aware of their history with Turkey and there isn't really a shortage of (especially right-wing) Greeks who make a big stink about it.

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ayerik t1_j6fyt22 wrote

And I think this is part of the answer. In today's pop culture, the US is king. The Barbary Slave Trade (BST) didn't impact US culture. Sure, it impacted European and likely African and even Western Asian society, with effects still felt today, but the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST) affected North America, South America, and Africa. Combined with the TAST captive numbering 10 times what the BST trafficked, it makes it a larger impact. Add in also that many textbooks are written in North America by North American publishers, and the topics are going to focus on New World events, particularly US History.

I also checked, and Greece's population is estimated to be about 10 million. The US is approximately 333 million. New York City alone is approximately 8.8 million. Canada has approximately 39 million, Mexico 129 million, and Brazil 217 million. And local impact is always larger than something from further away. Plus, over 13 years of schooling for students in the US and Canada, there's approximately 15,000 hours of school (180 days per year, 13 years, from about 5 (Kindergarten) through 18 (12th grade). That time has to be divided between reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and other curriculum requirements.

Let's say approximately 750 of those hours are spent learning about world history, which is what the BST falls under for anyone in North or South America. Those 750 hours needs to cover all of history, from the stirrings of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the other early civilisations, through to at least post World War II, though that still leaves about 50 years of history untouched. That's approximately 6,000+ years of events covering 7 continents, because we do need to understand how North and South America fit into these, and we reall6only cover our own country in the rest of our history classes, not even really our neighbors. So there are many, many, many events that are left out that still have a major impact on society daily, even centuries later.we don't spend much time talking about Australia's colonization, about the changing political landscape of Europe beyond the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, and the World Wars. We barely touch on the Moors and Islamic spread through Europe, much less Africa and Asia. There is so much of history that gets culled out of what's taught because it's impossible to include everything. Greek history essentially covers Ancient Greece, through about Alexander, until the Romans dominated the Mediterranean.

I am someone who enjoys learning, including on my own. I've spent a lot of time watching history documentaries, and what I can find generally covers about the same content as the basic school curriculum covers. Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, snippets of China, snippets of other cultures, but mostly small and not well made. Lots of World War II, lots of the aggressive parts of history. But to understand anything else, there's just not much content for teachers to use to teach about things like BST, and tough choices about what not to teach to include BST, if their local curriculum mandates even allow the flexibility.

It's been said that history is written by the winners, and at this point in time, culturally, that's the US. Hopefully, it becomes more balanced in years to come, but the choices of what to cull to make room become even harder.

(And for reference, I grew up in New England, moved to Indianapolis for about 16 years, and have since moved to Canada.)

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TheJeeronian t1_j6fsdot wrote

I know little to nothing about greek education. I don't even know if it is public. My best guess would be the heavy influence that America has had on your history curriculums, but this sounds like a question that would best be posed somewhere a little bit more specific to your part of the world.

It sounds like it should be in your history education but isn't.

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