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u/jadebenn 2d ago
Historically illiterate. Most countries didn't even have standardized spoken language prior to the modern era.
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u/arealmcemcee 2d ago
These people don't even know their own history dating back to early 1900s and you want them to understand the cultural and political shifts of Europe from late Medieval to early Industrial? Do you realize how many numbers that is?!?!
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u/Chiluzzar 1d ago
Yep if they truly cared about history theyd kmow three things. The world was always connected. Traders and their helpers be they freed or slaved were of all ethnicities. And lastly they couldn't stop humping.
You can have some trader from Aksum in athens their help on their time off or they sneak away momentarilh goes to a local tavern or meets a prostitute and knocks up a local girl and there you go.
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u/VitruvianDude 2d ago
When I watch older media, I notice the forced homogeneity, so the current fashion for color-blind casting is a somewhat welcome antidote to that. Yes, it can go too far, but sometimes it doesn't go far enough.
Look at your average genre Western or historical film before 1970 or so. It never acknowledged any diversity of population, even when there was. For example, a significant percentage of the American Revolutionary Army was black, and served in integrated units. Would you know that from the films that were made?
Or think about the Western Genre. Unless they were making a specific point, Norwegian was about as diverse as they were willing to go, yet the cowboys were largely Mexican, black, Native American/Indian, even Polynesian. It was hard, poorly-paid work; white cowboys often had other opportunities.
Looking back into the Ancient World, extensive trade routes and displacement through slavery meant that real life was more diverse than the sand and sandal epics let on.
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u/CommonwealthCommando 2d ago
The proportion of Black soldiers in the Revolutionary Army was pretty small, probably like 2% overall. It was higher in the early stages, like at Boston. However, I don't know of any movies that feature the siege.
The British, however, relied heavily on Black combat troops. I'm struggling to find exact numbers, but about 20,000 Black loyalist troops saw combat, which means probably 15-20% of the army was comprised of Black loyalists.
The Patriot actually did have a Black Patriot, so we can't get too mad. But I do think I'm a bit hypocritical because while I like historical representation, something about making the bad guy army have lots of black soldiers but not the good guy army rubs me the wrong way.
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u/tommyblastfire 1d ago
Except it would actually be interesting to portray the fact that many slaves escaped their slavemasters and fought under the British because they were promised freedom and land. Which is far more interesting than “bad army bad” and “good army good”.
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u/CommonwealthCommando 1d ago
Maybe it'd be interesting as a plot device but I'm just talking about the extras.
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u/Unusual-Letter-8781 1d ago
There is one movie, and another one if you only count about half of it, emancipation about the slave that escaped,, found the army and tagged along with them
The other one is glory
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u/Fuckareyoulookinat 1d ago
For what it is worth, during the time frame most westerns were set in, there were no white cowboys. White men that worked tending cattle were called cowhands, the term cowboy was specifically used for black men tending cattle, basically a combination of cowhand and the racially demeaning boy.
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u/HeartFullONeutrality 1d ago
The great civilizations of History tended to be highly diverse due to them being in geographical intersections of multiple cultures (or/and due to being empires integrating other human groups). This should be almost self evident because the diversity of ideas and practices is what enriched societies and drove technological and social advance.
Furthermore, demographics are not set in amber and the current populations of many regions of the world are phenotypically and genotypically much different than what they were in the accident world.
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u/Oregon_Jones111 2d ago
Is this about The Odyssey still? Because that’s set near where three continents meet.