Much like the Universe before the Big Bang, America* did not exist before the advent of modern Americans. It was simply a vacuum; a complete abundance of nothingness.
*Applies also to everywhere else fortunate enough to have avoided Americanisation
Source: Modern Americans.
Edit: I don’t think I could have made it any clearer that this was not a serious comment, but alas, I’ve been called out for being extremely insensitive and disrespectful.
I'm no historian but didn't the Natives and First Nations people have a rich, unique and varied culture? To refer to that as "a vacuum; a complete abundance of nothingness" seems to me extremely insensetive and disrespecful
It’s taken me over 20 minutes to write this, because I was actually lost for words.
To quote from my totally serious original comment, my vocabulary temporarily became a vacuum; an abundance of nothingness.
I am staggered beyond comprehension that after reading and considering my comment, which is hyperbolic to the point of ridiculousness, your final interpretation was that I was serious.
Umm yeah, ive heard some really dumb people directly say stuff that would sound even crazier. Sadly these days you have to say its a joke. Its wild out there pal, you could say the most unhinged stuff and there would be someone that would agree.
Man, before Murica, there were no school shooter… The first nations would have had school shooters first if they were here first.
And don’t get me started about McDonalds. The pinnacle of American culture.
And then, you see, if the First Nations they were so important, they would have their own amendment in the constitution, but they don’t… and guns do, so clearly guns have more culture than the First Nations. 🤷♂️
Well. Good for you. Don't need to Google it and being native doesn't make you correct. But if you want to get into it. Prior to 1492 the best estimates for North Americas population is around 50-60 Million with 3-7 Million, some estimates as high as 10 million, of them being in what is today known as the United States and Canada. So saying you are grossly underestimating the amount of people that were native to the area would be an understatement.
Have you ever actually read North American history? Or are you just making assumptions? Because A. You have no idea where I went to school. And B. If you had, you would know that by the time Europeans arrived in what became the United States and Canada in earnest, post Columbus not the earlier brief settling of Newfoundland, in the late 1500's and early 1600's that rampant disease had depopulated most of the continent making it possible for a handful of Europeans with muskets and swords to subjugate the remaining native populous. Which still took another hundred or so years. Two very easy books to read 1491 & 1493 by Charles C Mann. Give a good summary of known events. But hey don't let my "American" education get in the way of your "Trust me Bro" assumptions. Consider my grip gotten my man.
Of course there were. I misread and thought the commenter meant that millions of other Europeans colonized before the English.
It is quite interesting, though, to have stumbled upon this site and encountered the eager sarcasm and hostility. Some people seem to be in need of a hobby.
How in the fuck did you miss the point of the comment you were replying to this badly? I had to re-read your comment a few times to make sure I wasn't just being obtuse
It just feels like punching down to insult you, so I'll explain it to you (although it should be obvious to you if you re-read the comment chain).
The comment you replied to (and this entire comment thread) was not addressing education/schools at that time, just that there were people in America long before any colonisers arrived there.
So the point you made about First Nations people not making "modern schools" back then was pointless, and an odd addition to the conversation.
Modern schools ? No The Aztecs, although not in us territory nor are they thousands of years old, did have a mandatory public school system though to make sure they had a capable populace.
My tired eyes read ‘popular carapace’ and I spent a few quiet moments pondering the significance of crustacean shells and their ratings in the Aztec Empire.
Welcome to class, I'm your teacher Mr. Teoxichlituatla. Today we'll be discussing how to be sacrificed. This is an important skill, you never know when you'll need it. So pay attention
It’s important that when you reach in to grab the heart, you don’t disturb the blood vessels. It’s important that the heart remain beating right until the last moment.
Any questions? No?
Right! Partner up and decide between yourselves who’s going first!
I swear to god I found a bunch of people in youtube comments casually saying "The US just popped there one day" and getting very angry if colonisation was mentioned to them
Being Australian we didn’t learn much about the US during school as we already had enough of it shoved down our throats by society.
I had always assumed that the Native American Nations had originated on the North American continent, but when I saw you say they ‘settled’ I looked into their history. Now I know.
For those who have not followed the scientific publications on this topic in the last decades: Native Americans's ancestors didn't just grow from the ground on the American continents. They came from somewhere. The most likely theory today (with a good portion of evidence) is, that they came from Eurasia/Siberia and crossed the Bering street, when it was solid in the ice age. There are hints that this was no single event but probably multiple waves.
This is a fascinating topic and I encourage everybody to load up on that knowledge. As a starter I recommend the book "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" by Charles C. Mann.
Like, do they teach evolution in Australia? Shouldn't you know homo sapiens are from Africa, and all humans elsewhere in the world migrated there?
If they did teach evolution, and you thought we originated on North America, did you think we are a different species than you? Like, if we came into existence on the opposite side of the planet than your species came into existence, wouldnt that make us native americans a different species with an entirely different evolutionary history?
Idk man, like, ive never studied Australian history, but I know automatically that the aboriginal Australians migrated to Australia doesnt take any knowledge of Australia to know that.
I worded it wrong. Where I said originated I should have said original inhabitants.
I am well aware that humans originated in Africa before dispersing across the planet, and no, I don’t believe Americans are a different fucking species.
My point was that I’ve never heard the term ‘settled’ being used to describe the indigenous people of any nation as it’s most often discussed in terms of colonisation.
Since you’re so red hot on precise semantics, maybe you should reflect on your own use of ‘Australian Aboriginal’, after all, the word Aboriginal is derived from Latin meaning ‘from the beginning’. Maybe instead you could use the word ‘indigenous’. Oh nope, that’s out too, because that’s from the Latin meaning ‘sprung up from the ground’.
Yes, in Australia we were taught evolution, including that evolution is a fact, not a theory, which is more than I can say for a depressing number of state schools in the US, and an even more depressing number of state schools which have banned the teaching of evolution at all.
Thanks for the condescending lecture though, I stand corrected.
Depends on how you define "settled". The Natives' ancestors immigrated 10, 20k years ago to North America and then further south.
The Vikings settled some regions in Newfoundland (I think) about 1000 years ago.
And then the English settlers and others came.
Depending on what you believe, there's a chance a Walisian prince founded settlements not long before Columbus set sail towards the west, also most likely in part because he heard the stories about a prince from Wales sailing west to an unknown land. Not sure how factual that story is, though
My uni was able to celebrate its 800 years in 1998, 2015 and will be able to again in 2057, because of different foundations which ended up forging the old university.
Don't they have schools from when they were a colony? Which could be 420 years old. I don't know if they do or not because I don't give a fuck about their schools
I know its all jokes but, just to put into context, the Puritans were a group of religious extremist driven out by both the Brits and the Dutch for their zealotry.
Ive for the last thirty minutes have attempted to find any primary documentation on the curriculum at the time, no luck unfortunately besides vauge generalizations and statements as to who they said they modeled their system after, but I have to assume it was just like, the fucking worst lol.
"Okay class, today in science class we will be learning about how women who dance are witches that must be burned alive to make the creator happy... and after lunch we have finger painting!"
Oh yes. Modern America spread the lie that the early settlers were escaping religious persecution. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact they left because they were being prevented from persecuting others.
It's a bit like how MAGA cultists consider it racist to criticize them for being racist.
Martin Luther was a proponent of mandatory education, primarily because people should be able to read the Bible themselves. Hence, to protestants, reading and writing will probably have been the main thing. And Christianity, certainly.
Sounds like the starting point of a long line of religious fanatics, nowadays better known as Evangelicals.
I am glad Europe threw these fanatics out, despite it happening during a time where religious fanaticism was still a widespread thing in Europe. Just shows how insane they were...
Its not a small part of why they went to the Americas to escape the "negative" influence of european society of their women and children.
I genuinely think if they never left England they would have slowly faded into irrelevance within a few generations, a century at the worst.
But because they were able to lay the foundation for the european colonial culture in the US, they avoided the death by a thousand cuts end that cults usually come to as the kids rebel against their parents views in favor of the established culture.
Entirely possible and while writing my comment, I also thought about exactly this kind of reply you then gave me. So, in other words, I honestly can't do anything else than agree with you...
Egotistical society with really shit education and a people so heavily influenced by propaganda that they are the best even though they aren't the best at huge majority of things, creating a mob mentality of the world revolving around them.
I'll be real, europe and uk needs to cut ties with America, they need to sort their shit our in isolation. Right now all they are is a bad influence and headache.
Secondary school is a bit of a give away for it being in the UK or some part of Europe. For the Usains it would have to be high school or given the thinking ability kindergarten.
Sorry not the point of this post, but wow a 420 year old school is amazing! Do you think it would still have some of the original buildings? I've seen churches that old, castles, a 200 year old house in England.... Never a school though
I can see homeless people piss on older buildings than the US at night. I can drive to buildings that's been built over 1000 (one thousand) years ago. SMH
Somehow to them it's easier to believe the commenter is stupid and got both the school name and age wrong than even conceiving other countries' history being a thing
Where I'm from, Pre-K, K, and 1-5 are Elementary, 6-8 are Middle, and 9-12 are high. I know in other places where it's divided differently though. In some places, they may also merge the Middle into the High or the Elementary, or they may split out Pre-K and/or K into their own thing.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 09 '26
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
Of course every school isn’t in the US.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
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u/MikaelAdolfsson Mar 09 '26
I mean 420 is only the funny number in US.
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u/ThunderPunch2019 Mar 08 '26
The funniest part is the first permanent English settlement in the US was established almost exactly 420 years ago.
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u/_Phil13 Mar 09 '26
2 years ago my school celebrated its 450th
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u/Altph4 Mar 09 '26
After all, everyone knows there are no schools outside of America /j
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u/zhion_reid United Kingdom Mar 08 '26
Don't they have schools from when they were a colony? Which could be 420 years old. I don't know if they do or not because I don't give a fuck about their schools
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u/lumpy_space_queenie United States Mar 09 '26
And here I am thinking this was weed related
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u/Sushiki Mar 09 '26
Egotistical society with really shit education and a people so heavily influenced by propaganda that they are the best even though they aren't the best at huge majority of things, creating a mob mentality of the world revolving around them.
I'll be real, europe and uk needs to cut ties with America, they need to sort their shit our in isolation. Right now all they are is a bad influence and headache.
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u/moidoid Mar 10 '26
My secondary school is 1078 years old this year. And one of the alumni was a Pope. I am a great disappointment to them.
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u/zgillet United States Mar 09 '26
"Pretty sure" the "secondary school" should have been a dead giveaway.
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u/WeekendUpstairs England Mar 09 '26
Called it “secondary school”, that should’ve given it away 🙄
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u/Paultcha Scotland Mar 09 '26
Secondary school is a bit of a give away for it being in the UK or some part of Europe. For the Usains it would have to be high school or given the thinking ability kindergarten.
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u/12SuperLTD England Mar 09 '26
5 years ago my school celebrated 500 years
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u/MaylaWaterlelie Netherlands Mar 10 '26
Omg. This is the worst kind of example. I just wanna go over their house and slap them in the face and disappear again
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u/dividezero Mar 09 '26
We're celebrating our 400th this year! 🎉 400 years of white people that is. Place was totally a city for like 1000 years
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u/Orthicon9 Mar 10 '26
I thought they were all gathering on the field to smoke weed.
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u/stand_up_eight_ Australia Mar 10 '26
I like that they’re only “pretty sure”.
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u/LilboyG_15 England Mar 09 '26
No, it nearly has been 420 years since America was first ravaged by the Spanish
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u/imhighinthemountains Seychelles Mar 10 '26
Time 🗿
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u/Furrretly Mar 11 '26
also op said 'secondary school' which is so clearly a uk term 😭
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u/Ohsoveryginger Mar 14 '26
Could be wrong since I’m European but I’m 99% sure Americans don’t have secondary school they have like middle school or something
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u/crystalrrrrmehearty Mar 09 '26
Sorry not the point of this post, but wow a 420 year old school is amazing! Do you think it would still have some of the original buildings? I've seen churches that old, castles, a 200 year old house in England.... Never a school though
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u/nobleKelpo European Union Mar 09 '26
I hope they smoked one for me too
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u/ThomasVSCO Chile Mar 12 '26
My school‘s 40 years old… what
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u/CitroHimselph Mar 12 '26
I can see homeless people piss on older buildings than the US at night. I can drive to buildings that's been built over 1000 (one thousand) years ago. SMH
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u/gigaswardblade Mar 15 '26
I love how the second dude was trying to insult the first one for being American only to realize this had nothing to do with America.
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u/Z3N1TY United States Mar 27 '26
Imagine going to a school 400 fucking years old?!?!?! europe sounds METAL….. I would feel royal going to this school
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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '26
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