I really do not understand the comments under that video. Yes the video is kind of making the Europeans look evil, but it's just not true.

My question is what are the people outside or Europe learning and teaching about Europe?
Do you all study only about the colonization(which most of the countries in EU did not participated in) and enslavement? Do you learn about anything bad that had happened do the Europeans? For example my country spent ~700 years being enslaved, have you ever learned anything about it? Why people think that *we are so evil (as we clearly do not deserve it)...

1 - I didn't invest 1.5 hours as well but probably video is about American civilizations before discovery and colonization of America

2 - Seems comments refer to Youtube comments below video.

3 - From name, I might speculate it's Bulgaria. Mentioned 700 years of enslavement is Ottoman rule.

4 - Mentioned "we" is apparently Europeans (although it's clear that Ottoman Empire therefore entire Balkan geography didn't take any part in this colonization story)

And yes colonization was inhumane ( for example http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/father-hand-belgian-congo-1904/ ) although it was very effective in wealth accumulation. But it would be unfair to deny Europe of technology and science.

And that colonization was in no comparison to your "enslavement" where you were able to preserve your faith, langugage and culture ( Ironically Bulgarians are of a Turkic originated tribe blended with local Slavs, just like Hungarians ) .

Hey guys, I'm referring to the youtube comments below the video.

Additionally I'm not bragging nor I'm telling that everyone should know anything about Eastern Europe, I was just asking, because there are a lot of things that happened and nobody mentions them.

otherwise I intentionally did not mention any Country explicitly, as I did not want to start a specific conversation about that.

 

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And that colonization was in no comparison to your "enslavement" 

I was Ottoman + Byzantine 
Well I'm not trying to compare them. I'm just pointing it out. any why is the word "enslavement" quoted. It was enslavement and the people managed to preserve their culture because they were on their own territory and they were a lot (+ they were mainly farmers, this basically saved them). A lot of bad things happend to these people, but I again I do not want to turn the direction of the dialogue.
 

Can we delete this thread? I really did not want to start any political discussion, but this is where we are heading.

8 hours ago, KostadinPetkov said:

I was Ottoman + Byzantine 
Well I'm not trying to compare them. I'm just pointing it out. any why is the word "enslavement" quoted. It was enslavement and the people managed to preserve their culture because they were on their own territory and they were a lot (+ they were mainly farmers, this basically saved them). A lot of bad things happend to these people, but I again I do not want to turn the direction of the dialogue.
 

I don't know much about Roman/Byzantine rule but for Ottoman one, I'd hardly call it enslavement, that's why it's in quotes.

A state where non-Muslims have religious freedom and exemption of military service in exchange of a levied tax is doubtfully matched by European states of era ( Spain was busy with Reconquesta and departion of Sephardic Jews for example )

Apart then Janissaries consisted of Christian boys taken from families, Ottoman rule was more of a mafia extortion, you were rather fine as long as tribute is paid.

But fair enough, if we take issue more generalized, people think Europeans are evil because they did horrible things in the past even though many admirable things were also on the table.

Well I suspect you were studying the subject from the other point of view, and a lot of thing that are highly important to us are not for you.

However let's quit the subject, I really dislike discussing history on forums and probably non us will gain anything. We all should be grateful that we live in counties that have good enough standards for gamedev  

Maybe open another thread, leave out video material that just distracts from the topic, do not refer to comments to a single video (which might have as well been victim to a troll attack by a hatemob thus containing non-representative hatecomments by a vocal minority), but make your question as clear as possible: "What do people outside of europe think of europe in regards to the history of colonization?"

Of course, you will get political discussions, you will get rather extreme viewpoints... the more extreme viewpoints are almost always more vocal.

Also, be aware talking of "Europe" is just about as effective as talking of the "USA". In the latter case, yes its officially a single country, but boy will you be surprised about how different the average texan and the average guy from california (californian?) thinks. Boy is the country divided into extremes.

Europe is not even officially a country. Yes, there is the EU, but this is a quite shaky construct. The outlook and problems of people in the different countries are vastly different.

IF anyone, online or offline, gives you s*** because he hates europeans, feel free to ignore him. If anything, by not taking into account a) that europe as such is a continent and not country, b) most european countries never participated in the colonization, c) european countries got oppressed by other european countries just as often as non-european ones, d) the people that did the crime are long dead and e) he didn't even bother to ask for YOUR opinion on the matter, he just has shown that he is not worth talking to.

Its one thing to raise awareness about the negative consequences of colonialism, and wanting people to talk about that. To complain about the people claiming colonialism not having had negative consequences or spreading other lies. But hating on a continent because of that just shows that this is just the kind of person that the person complains about. Ignore such people...

I'll try to answer the original question without getting into history discussions. But first, Gian-Reto is right, youtube comments are usually not a good sample of the general opinion on any topic.

The curriculum for history classes usually is created with the following types of content:

• Important events that happened in your country.
• Important events that happened in nearby countries and affected your country or the political situation between your country and the nearby countries.
• Important events that happened somewhere and affected your country somehow.

In general, what history classes try to do is to give a very broad overview of humankind history and teach the important events that shaped your country the way it is today. Teaching important stuff about every region and culture in the world is absolutely impossible.

Therefore, what people outside Europe learn about history at school are events that had an impact in their country or globally in the world*. That's why most people know about colonialism and very few know about the wars, occupations and miseries that happened within Europe, it's simply not that relevant for their history. Also, we humans tend to simplify and generalise all the time, so even if people were taught at school which countries had the most weight in colonisation, most of them by the time they are out of school will have replaced that list with Europeans in their mind.

It is sad when your country or region is put in a bigger sack that includes atrocities that your people didn't do and cultural background that you don't want to be associated with**. Unfortunately, this is the case for hundreds to thousands of cultures all over the world and you can't expect outsiders to be acquainted with your culture's history. All you can do is ignore morons on the internet and teach about the history of your culture to people that are willing to hear about it.

* This is the very same reason why people in the Western World are taught about World War II, but few know about the Second Sino-Japanese War.

** This spawns a deeper conversation that is not what you are asking. For instance, Spain enslaved, wiped out and plundered most of South America almost single-handedly. Are current Spanish people bad people because of their ancestors' deeds? From a certain point of view, you could argue that today's Spanish people have as much to do with the "Europeans who invaded America" as your country.