So, Kissy's topic got me thinking about the most defining moments of a nation's history and I began to wonder, if I was to rank events in my country's history, what would they be? What are the most defining moments in my country's history? What about other countries? So I thought I'd have a go and perhaps you should too. Here's my list:
5. English Reformation - involving Henry VIII declaring the Church of England's independence from Rome. Much of English history has been shaped by the Reformation, to which Christians are saying that you cannot understand England without knowing about the history of Christianity in this country. As much as I would like to protest, they are actually right. Quite a lot of our history was determined by our Protestantism. Strangely, despite our break away from Catholicism, the habit of not eating meat on Fridays has remained, which segues into my next point.
4. Immigration (from all times) - I've had to lump them all together, because they're all important. Brits owe the fish part of Fish and Chips to the Jews, and for some bizarre reason, Catholicism (an imported religion, let's face it) established the habit of eating fish on Fridays and hence Fish and Chips on Fridays. Most of our famous construction companies are Irish. Since the 70s our corner shops have been associated with Indian, Pakistani or even Bengali shopkeepers, one-third of all native Londoners can trace their heritage back to a black person even if they're white, we owe Savile Row's fame to Hugenots fleeing persecution in Europe. Even the Danes held some influence. There's places up north called Scunthorpe and Braithwaite, which were all named by Viking invaders. And of course, there's the Romans. And let's not forget, our monarchy is German.
3. Magna Carta - despite the fact that upon retrospection, not much emphasis was actually given to the Magna Carta in my history lessons, it is important in that it led to better laws that would eventually replace it. Interestingly, all but three of the original clauses in this document have been repealed.
2. Establishment of the NHS - free healthcare for those who need it. It's ultimately the most humanitarian of institutions our nation produced and our flawed.
1. The Two World Wars - these really did define a lot of current British attitudes and characteristics from distrust of those in power, stiff upper lip to bad food. I suspect that Americans only thought we have bad coffee, because we didn't actually have any during the war. And I shudder to think how many American GIs got the runs because some members of the British public were adulterating their butter with paraffin.
Edited by Wolf O'Donnell, 08 October 2013 - 03:20 PM.
