Opinion

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

History is neither myth nor legend. Those are simply views on how we interpret history from our own perspective.

History is but a teacher of fact, of record. History simply tells us in the most objective terms what occurred.

For example, on March 5, 1770, a group of soldiers was being harassed by an angry mob. One soldier was being pelted with snowballs when seven others came to support the soldier, and as the mob confronted the group, shots rang out, and several in the mob were killed.

This became known as the Boston Massacre and was used as an example of British brutality against the “colonists” in Massachusetts.

How that moment is interpreted is determined by who is providing the account.

Was the shooting necessary? Maybe. Maybe not. Why were the soldiers there in the first place?

Any action, from the view of the Americans, was tyranny. To the British loyalists, soldiers were needed to keep order and provide public safety.

This is just an example of how a moment in history can be used to push a narrative, and both sides chose the narrative they wanted to believe. Neither was completely wrong or right. But what happened that cold March night is enshrined as a moment in history.

Today, history is being used as a tool to push agendas. One of those is the concept of colonization and whether or not certain people have a right to claim their current residency as home.

This is where it is helpful to let go of the desire to use history as a weapon and to simply learn the truth from it.

Human populations have been in motion since the beginning of recorded history and even before. Archeological evidence shows when humans first reached certain parts of the planet.

One point that is most certainly accepted as truth is that humanity originated close to Africa.

Was all of humanity expected to stay put, or as populations grew was it a natural state of man to move to other regions?

Clearly, humanity moved.

According to the Australian Museum, Asia was their first destination about 50- to 70,000 years ago.

The Australian Museum then states that humanity found a way across the water to Australia from 50 to 65,000 years ago.

Stonybrook Univerity research indicates that humans made their way to Europe next, somewhere between 43 to 48,000 years ago.

More recently, in historic terms, mankind then found its way to the Americas, first to North America across the Bering Strait land bridge anywhere from 13 to 26,000 years ago.

Near the same time, a group of humans navigated the Atlantic Ocean and landed in South America according to EBSCO Research.

With humanity bridging out across the planet, efforts continued as technology advanced. The need for raw materials or even precious metals was not much different than those following a herd from Asia to what we now know as Alaska. The hunt for natural resources has always been a key factor in human mobility.

Cities came and went in what we now call the ancient world, whether by war or nature. In other areas where stability was more prevalent, cities stayed and advanced.

Little of this is questioned.

In many of these moves around the world, not all people went willingly. Servitude was part of human life for thousands of years.

One group that practiced this way of life were common in the Middle East, and they would raid the Slavic nations for human laborers and concubines. Because these slaves, mostly white, came from Slavic nations, the term “slave” was introduced.

Humans continued to move, and in many cases started to conflict with other humans who had also laid claim to certain regions. Unknown diseases were introduced which led to massive death.

Wars took place. The first known war in recorded history was between the Sumerians and the Elamites in Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago.

There were winners and losers, land was controlled by this group or that.

Winners typically had either more people or better technology.

Customs and culture developed to create distinct groups, and battles for resources continued.

Cities developed into nation states, and battles for resources continued.

History has shown no legitimacy to the argument that once any group occupies a territory that the territory is the property of that group for the rest of time. History has taught that the only way to retain territory is to defend the territory.

Claims that any portion of land is the property of a previous occupant is only settled through conflict, be that in court within a nation state, or through war when that claim is made outside the nation state. Sometimes divisions happen from within, but they, too, are settled through war.

Maps change. Nations come and go. Cultures evolve. Some disappear.

There has been an attempt to modify colonization from its historical standard of people entering a new territory and battling for resources to a political term meant to degrade.

The problem is all humanity has been involved with colonization at some point. Even the space considered the cradle of humanity has been ruled by different cultures throughout history.

History isn’t glamorous or boring. It simply states that the land belongs to whoever is holding it today and by whoever has the ability to hold on to it tomorrow.

Some try to judge whether or not land should have been taken. History doesn’t make such assertions.

Land will remain in possession of those who control it until some force can claim it. That is happening in South Africa today. Land control is in dispute in Eastern Ukraine.

History will report the outcomes, but don’t try to abuse history by trying to decide what it could have been or should have been.

History is not something to be modified by politics. It’s a teacher. Learn from it.