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14 Stats That Change How We See History

Hollywood lied to us. And so did the history books.

14 Stats That Change How We See History

April 06, 2021

News Flash: Hollywood lied to us. And so did the history books. Or at least or social studies books in elementary school. Actually, come to think of it, adult books lied to us to. Did you know Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was NOT a documentary? Man, it was news to us. We wasted a whole summer in Franch being all “es-tu lalle fille de Jesus” only to be met with “what are you talking about? The McDonald's is over there, and no, they don't serve Royale With Cheese.” That a whole summer we could've spent time-traveling to a peacefully idyllic…wait, no, densely populated Pre-Columbian city.

See, a lot of our concepts of history comes from images and characters that have been condescended for narrative brevity. But if you look at the actual data, you'll learn that the world was (and is) fairly different from what you've been picturing.

For example ...

14

china lost 80 million people to World War II. CRACKEDCOMT Russia's loss is often overlooked, but China's is far more overlooked and is nearly as big. China's civilian toll, at 16 million, was even more than Russia's. — Source: CNN

13

D-Day was more a British operation than American. CRACKED Eisenhower commanded Allied forces, but D-Day had 892 British warships and only 200 American ones, 800 British planes to 400 American ones, 113, 000 British naval men to 53,000 Americans. — Source: CNN

12

Women owned 40%6 of property in Sparta. CRACKEDCONT Sparta, unlike a whole lot of places at the time, had an inheritance system where the deceased would split their property among all their children, both sons and daughters. — Source: Economics of Governance

11

Only two Wall Street people leapt off buildings in '39. EXCHANGE STOCK YORK And only one was a stock broker, despite the myth of scores of brokers jumping to their deaths. In fact, the suicide rate in New York dropped from where it had been when the market was — Source: Washington Post

10

Gandhi had huge support among Chinese people. CRACKED.COM When his non-violent movement started, one in nine protesters were Chinese. By 1911? His imprisoned supporters included more Chinese than Indians. — Source: National Gandhi Museum

9

Germans have made up the bulk of US immigrants. CRACKEDCONT Between 1870 and 2000, seven million immigrants to the US were Germans, making them the country that sent the most people during this time. — Source: Library of Congress

8

Brazil received four million African Slaves. CRACKED COM That's during the entire Atlantic Slave Trade and was over ten times the number that went to the United States. When Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, 40 percent of Rio were slaves. — Source: The Guardian

7

Pre-Columbian American cities were huge. CRACKED COM Lower estimates of the population of Tenochtitlan (in what's today Mexico City) put it at 200,000, putting it among the top three biggest cities in the world. Higher estimates peg it at 400, 000. — Source: Smithsonian

6

The Civil War

Civil War generals were 50% liklier to die than privates. CRACKED COM Unlike modern warfare, generals back then had to lead by example, by being the first person to charge into battle, on an easily targeted horse. — Source: The American Surgeon

5

A plague killed haif the world's population. CRACKED.COM There's some debate, but upper estimates of the sixth-century Justinianic Plague's death toll make it much worse than the Black Death, which killed only a quarter of people worldwide. — Source: National Geographic

4

Unbelievable Statistics

Only five states had no lynchings from 1883 to 1968. Those states were Alaska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. (The Chicago Tribune started tracking stats in 1882, and the Tuskegee Institute stopped in 1968.) — Source

3

400,000 Muslims fought for Britain in WWI. Britain's Indian troops also included 800,00 Hindus and 100, 000 Sikhs, but the Muslim contribution surprised modern Brits the most, when they learned it during the war's recent centenary. — Source: BBC

2

Over 400 Black politicians held office during RecOnstruction. These included secretaries of state, mayors, congressmen and (briefly) even one governor, Twelve different former slaves made it to Congress, often representing ck-majority districts. — Source: Smithsonian

1

The US dropped 8 million tons of bom bs during the Vietnam War. CRACKED CONT Laos alone got more than 2 million tons of explosives, more than the US dropped worldwide during the entirety of World War II. — Source: Smithsonian

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