Historical myths

[edyzmedieval]

Post your historical myths here, and what do you think about them....
And questions also...

I found in one book, evidence that suggest that the great leader of Moldavia, Stephen the Great and Saint, was a Templar Knight.... Did the Templar Knights arrive in Romania?!

[lars573]

Mine is that the medieval eastern Roman empire was ever called the Byzantine empire, which it never was. It bugs me to no end. I'm going to invent a time machine find the historian that started this incorrectness and kill him.

[Ironside]

The myth about the middle age man thinking that the earth is flat.

First mentioned 1828.

It annoyes me.

[The Wizard]

Mine is that the medieval eastern Roman empire was ever called the Byzantine empire, which it never was. It bugs me to no end. I'm going to invent a time machine find the historian that started this incorrectness and kill him.

It's simply a scientific term nowadays. Keeps the Roman and Greek phases of the empire neatly seperated.

I say Atlantis. All that lefty nonsense about sinking islands... get real!



~Wiz

[King of Atlantis]

It's simply a scientific term nowadays. Keeps the Roman and Greek phases of the empire neatly seperated.

I say Atlantis. All that lefty nonsense about sinking islands... get real!



~Wiz

[caesar44]

Adam and Eve...

[Incongruous]

I found in one book, evidence that suggest that the great leader of Moldavia, Stephen the Great and Saint, was a Templar Knight.... Did the Templar Knights arrive in Romania?!

Do you mean St Stephen the Great King of Hungary, he was the one who Christianised the Magyars and was annointed as first King of Hungary.
I have never heard of a Stephen the great of Moldavia.

[edyzmedieval]

Do you mean St Stephen the Great King of Hungary, he was the one who Christianised the Magyars and was annointed as first King of Hungary.
I have never heard of a Stephen the great of Moldavia.

Bad for you.....

Stephen the Great was the greatest feudal leader of Moldavia.....

1457-1504

[Kraxis]

The myth of the Jomsvikings. A really nice myth and a really good read (Jomsvikinga Saga).

Why I like it? Because I think I have found the background to it. And because it is not a crazy myth but rather a legend.
Studied it as my main subject the first year of my historical studies and had a verbal exam in it. Did quite well.

[ShadesWolf]

The V sign and the link to the hundred years war.

[lars573]

That the great wall of China is an actual wall for it's entire length. And that it was all built by Qin Huang-di to use demoblized soldiers after his war of unification.

[Colovion]

Alexander was a Greek.

hahahaha, oh man that one gets me every time

[Azi Tohak]

That aliens built the pyramids.

Wait...does that not count as historical?

How about Noah's surivors after the flood? The flood was probably real (too many similiar accounts of a huge flood), but we are all descended from a half dozen people? Talk about inbreeding...

Azi

[PanzerJaeger]

The US lost the Vietnam War.

[Meneldil]

Germany was more powerful than France in 1939-1940.

[barocca]

that america was discovered by columbus, which is STILL taught in schools

so how do they explain the viking settlements that predate columbus by several hundred years?


that australia was discovered by Captain Cook - which they ALSO still teach in schools...
what a joke..


B.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

That the Nazis and Japanese were the only ones to commit war crimes during WWII.
*cough*Katyn*cough*

[Kraxis]

that america was discovered by columbus, which is STILL taught in schools

so how do they explain the viking settlements that predate columbus by several hundred years?

Heh... True, but we are still a bit behind there... There are some who discovered it even earlier.
We should redefine it to spreading the knowledge ofte continent, then it would certainly be Columbus.

that australia was discovered by Captain Cook - which they ALSO still teach in schools...
what a joke..


B.

That one is bad... again I think a redefinement would be nice.

That the Nazis and Japanese were the only ones to commit war crimes during WWII.

Yes that is true... But even in the west we see crimes. Such as the blowing up of docks and other port facilities after the war to 'prove' how effective the bombing was. A disgrace and something that hurt the civilians!
The execusion of youths on their way to join the army (the stories and evidence abound in the Ruhr), the official destruction of the surrendering of a depleted SS division on the ground that it had captured a field hospital (and treated them nicely, though gorging on the supplies). The local commander basically told his troops to kill them all. Well that more or less happened.

But we don't want to hear about that as many of us know/knew people who fought in the war, and we don't want to look at them as potential warcriminals. Also, who won? The winner's right.

[Colovion]

Germany was more powerful than France in 1939-1940.

Please explain. After reading Paris 1919, something rather drastic must have occured to produce a strong France by the beginning of WW2. Population size and resources alone lead me to believe the alternative.

[Meneldil]

In 1939 and even in 1940, the French economy and military was much better than those of Germany. The war would probably have ended in early 1940 if the Franco-British had attacked Germany with a valid strategy.

I'm pretty sure some Germanophile folks will have something to say against that, but facts are that France lost because it had sucky generals, not because its economy/manpower/whatever was unefficient, or because "France sucks", as some people keep claiming.

This issue is not really related, so if anyone wants to discuss about that, create a new topic, or dig another one about WWII and 'how french sucked', because I'm sure there's a lot such threads

[hoom]

God(s)

That the 2001 NZ power crisis had anything to do with drought rather than power companies simply dumping far too much water from the hydro dams.

Cook 'discovered' NZ.

[The Wizard]

Oh; the myth of samurais being categorically superior to knights. Both one-on-one and in a battle. But especially in one-on-one.



~Wiz

[Kagemusha]

And another one about Knights being superior against Samurai specially on one against one.

[The Wizard]

Indeed; you see, they are equal warriors. That was my point: both are theoretically equal to each other in one on one combat -- but then there are so many variables in a duel that any of the two warriors can win. It depends on what type of warriors are squaring off against each other.



~Wiz

[Watchman]

Pit either against his colleague (ie. professional heavy cavalry warrior) from about any culture and military system of equivalent tech level anywhere, and odds are any practical superiority will be due to individual factors and/or a fortunate mismatch of weaponry and armour (a la knight in full plate with a poleaxe vs. a samurai in lamellar and wielding a katana, a ghulam in heavy armour with a shield and a heavy mace against a knight in mail hauberk with shield and an early-medieval slashing sword etc.).

One of my favourite beefs is the weight and general usefulness, nevermind the timeline, of body armour, or rather the popular misconceptions thereof. Like the ones involving cranes. Or the one about firearms obsoleting armour (seeing as how armoured cavalry saw field duty as late as 1870...).

[swirly_the_toilet_fish]

Cavalry wasn't disposed of until WWII (poles, heh).

The Fountain of Youth.

It is still popular today as the elderly still flock to Florida in droves. I don't understand why, especially with the sinkholes, hurricanes, crocodiles, humidity, heat, etc.

[master of the puppets]

custers last stand being orderly and honorable to the end...BS!!!
he foolishly split his troops, held back a charge, and declined several oppertunities to entrench himself.

also i say he deserved what he got, GO CRAZYHORSE w00t

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

That the Nazis and Japanese were the only ones to commit war crimes during WWII.

That always makes me laugh. *cough* Dresden carpet bombings */cough*

[swirly_the_toilet_fish]

Just so everyone knows, only losers commit war crimes. Our most recent example of this double standard is rather clear, isn't it?

[Ace of Spades]

Mine would have to be the myth that if the Confederates would've taken Little Round Top on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union line would've been rolled up and the battle would've been over, thus ending the ACW. This myth has been perpetuated by "The Killer Angels" and then the movie "Gettysburg".