I got into a rabbit hole, and thought about the expression "history is written by the victor" (of, presumably, war). I wanted to see if there were historical examples of this being subverted - to see if there were examples of conflicts throughout history in which the victors were largely viewed by history in a negative light. The most shining example was the Opium Wars in China, in which China noticed a ton of Opium being smuggled into China from India by Britain in the mid 1800s, noticed a huge epidemic of addiction, tried to curb it, and was met with military action by Britain who wanted to protect their lucrative trade. This ended with Hong Kong famously being ceded to Britain.
Another famous example is the European colonization of the Americas, from 1492 onward. But I was looking for more recent examples.
I saw the Franco-Prussian War in the late 1800s, in which Germany defeated France and unified Germany under Prussian rule. Particularly the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, which begat animosity that ultimately became one of the many factors of the beginning of World War 1.
And then there was the Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe after World War 2, where purges and political repression wiped away the good will they amassed during the primary WW2 conflict.
And then the Korean War, which really had no good guys at all. Just a conflict between two bloodthirsty regimes that ended with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
Just some random thoughts of the day. |
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