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INTEREST: 12 Things You Can Learn About World History From Manga, And More

But Zambia? It's a pretty humble choice given the panoply of turbulent African countries to choose from.

His disillusionment over the rebels' cause introduces a fairly nuanced point: that sometimes, fighting for the cause of the poor and downtrodden against a corrupt tyranny isn't always the right thing.

A few years later, a mutiny broke out among Britain's Indian soldiers, and the flames fanned into a national rebellion.

Felipe II drove Spain to bankruptcy despite all the gold and silver from the New World.

Sometimes, even well-intentioned policies don't work out that well.

Wang refuses to blame the Chinese government, and points out to his peeved daughter that America, China's arch-rival, may have more freedom, but it also has a greater wealth gap, and "it's a harsh society for the weak."

But did you know there was an older Summer Palace? The "Yuanmingyuan" was built near the modern Summer Palace in the early 1700s. The Chinese emperors at that time were influenced by Jesuit missionaries in the imperial court and wanted to see fountains and European-styled architecture in their garden.

Considering that Gandhi, with his spiritual aura and lovable doctrine of non-violence, is the more charismatic figure, this is a surprising choice.

Even wilder, though, is that it makes Japan seem like the bad guy, pointing out that Japanese lords pillaged Korean pottery and presenting Korea as the protagonist in Japan's invasion of 1592. Yi Sunshin, the admiral who turned back the Japanese fleet with his fearsome "turtle ships," is called a hero. Now that's something most countries would have a hard time doing.

The Crusades were really a money-making scheme.

Indian soldiers fought as mercenaries in British colonial wars in Africa.

...was later used to crown the kings of France.

Otto von Bismarck had a sentimental side.

Quote:

Felipe II drove Spain to bankruptcy despite all the gold and silver from the New World.

Yet another reason why monarchies are an inferior form of government. Sure, that's not to say that democracies can't get into financial trouble; just look at the great depression or the global financial crisis. But it is harder for one prick to squander a country's wealth in a democracy than an absolute monarchy.

dtm42 wrote:

Quote: Felipe II drove Spain to bankruptcy despite all the gold and silver from the New World. Yet another reason why monarchies are an inferior form of government. Sure, that's not to say that democracies can't get into financial trouble; just look at the great depression or the global financial crisis. But it is harder for one prick to squander a country's wealth in a democracy than an absolute monarchy.

Felipe could have been the most careful spender in history, and all the world's gold wouldn't have saved Spain. The only thing importing gold did was drive up the inflation rate, devaluing the currency. The more he imported, the more he devalued his own currency. It's basic economics that lots of politicians still don't grasp today.

I wish these manga were around when I took World History in school. It would've been much more fun.

I'm a bit concerned about the portrayal of Henry Ford, since in real life he was a union buster and a fierce anti-Semite who had professional dealings with Adolf Hitler based on mutual admiration.

^
Then don't spend the gold in Spain; simple as that. Keep it in reserves, buy things from other countries or pay off debt.

You make it sound like being wealthy is automatically a bad thing when it's not.

As for "inept", well. It's quite obvious the author is not an historian and he's just taking "common History", with its well known bias.