What Happened In The Past

The Earth has existed for over four billion years. In this time, tectonic plates have shifted, species have gone extinct, empires have crumbled, and society has developed in ways previously thought impossible. All of this is the past, and it is history, but it is not history simply because it happened in the past. The past is not history, the past contributes to history. History does aim to understand what happened in the past, but moreover, historians attempt to understand why an event happened, the repercussions of the event, and its overall impact on the world and society as a whole. Such understanding does not come merely from reading what information is presented directly to them and accepting that as fact. Historians have to partake

In every historical source, there is a bias. The point of view of the author taints their account, however slightly, and results in a version different from the actual truth. Though no historical narrative will ever be entirely factual, a historian’s job is to filter away as much of the bias as possible. When the New World colony of Virginia was settled in the early 1600s, several groups kept record of the events that transpired. The colonists were idealists, wanting to paint the New World in the best light possible, intent on impressing the British and convincing the monarchy to let them stay in America. Captain John Smith published A Generall Historie of Virginia in 1624, and in it he boasted of the prosperity of the colonial “utopia” that he led. Other records, however, suggest that the colony was less than successful, with a high mortality rate, low production, and little in the way or morality. Smith’s account appears to be greatly embellished to make himself seem the model colonial leader. In addition, Smith described the native Algonquians as savages, “barbarous” and violent in their practices, as he claimed they captured him and prepared to kill and sacrifice him until he was saved by the chief Powhatan’s daughter. The Algonquian account tells a much different tale. The “capture” was a test of Smith’s bravery, an initiation of sorts. If

Once they have all the facts, they must consider if and, if so, how the event was important to the development of the world. The plumber’s death is not history because he was one plumber amongst millions, the impact his death had on the world was much smaller, much more personal. Likewise, the death of one man over five thousand years ago would not in any way be a historical event, unless his body was kept in near perfect condition by being preserved in the ice for thousands of years. When the corpse that would later be dubbed “Otzi” was found by hikers in the Alps, it was assumed that the body was no more than a few decades old. Through more extensive research, though, it was discovered that Otzi’s body was not tens or even hundreds of years old, but rather, several thousand. This makes the finding of the body a largely historical event. Otzi is the oldest complete human corpse to ever have been found. The condition and location of the body allowed scientists and historians together to collect a multitude of information about the past, as well as the present. Otzi’s body showed evidence of the practice of early acupuncture, but more importantly, the fact that he had been so well preserved enabled historians to better understand the movement of certain glaciers like the one in which Otzi was found. Such discoveries would not have been possible without an exhaustive study of his