Australia's War in the Mediterranean

History’s Greatest Misconceptions Debunked

History’s Greatest Misconceptions Debunked

Jan 16, 2025

Reading time: 7 minutes
From Napoleon being short to slaves building the pyramids, there are hundreds of common historical misconceptions floating around.
Sometimes deliberate propaganda attempts created by political enemies, and occasionally simple misunderstandings of the truth, people love to recite interesting facts and titbits about history, but not all of them are completely true.
Here are some of the most famous misconceptions about history you may have heard of, along with some surprising accurate revelations.

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The First World War continues: Medina, Arabia, January 1919

The First World War continues: Medina, Arabia, January 1919

Jan 6, 2025

Reading time: 6 minutes
or many in the West, the First World War in the Middle East was a sideshow to the Western Front. The story of the wartime siege of Medina is even less well-known. But in the region it is still debated and contested, for example in December 2017 when the Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates accused Fakhri Pasha of stealing items from Medina, which earned a strong rebuke from the President of Turkey. The First World War in the Middle East had a profound effect on the region, with consequences to this day.

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Military History

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The Akikaze Massacre: the Japanese Navy’s Mass Murder in the Solomon Sea

The Akikaze Massacre: the Japanese Navy’s Mass Murder in the Solomon Sea

Jan 2, 2025

Reading time: 12 minutes When the Pacific War began in 1941, Japanese military planners had long recognised that they could not hope to win a protracted war against the United States, its likeliest and likely deadliest opponent in the Pacific. Instead, they pinned their hopes on a swift, devastating series of campaigns to seize strategic points.

Political and Economic History

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The Myth of the Fall of the Roman Republic: A Misconception You (Probably) Share with Ridley Scott

The Myth of the Fall of the Roman Republic: A Misconception You (Probably) Share with Ridley Scott

Dec 30, 2024

Reading time: 10 minutes The Roman Republic had an empire long before it had an emperor, and even after it gained an emperor, it did not cease to be a republic. The changes that occurred in the Roman state and the roles of its institutions over the centuries were not the result of sudden political upheaval. Instead, they reflected a gradual process of adjustment and evolution - sometimes influenced by the needs of the elites, sometimes by the demands of the people, and often by external factors.

Social and Cultural History

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Where did the new year’s resolution come from? Well, we’ve been making them for 4,000 years

Where did the new year’s resolution come from? Well, we’ve been making them for 4,000 years

Dec 26, 2024

Reading time: 5 minutes As we welcome in the new year, a common activity across many cultures is the setting of new year resolutions. New year represents a significant temporal milestone in the calendar when many people set new goals for the year ahead. Here in Australia, over 70% of men and women (over 14 million Australians) are reported to have set at least one new year resolution in 2022.

History Audiobooks

A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World – Audiobook

A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World – Audiobook

On his first journey Cook mapped the east coast of Australia, on his second the British Admiralty sent him into the vast Southern Ocean. Equipped with one of the first accurate chronometers, Cook pushed his small vessel not merely into the Roaring Forties or the Furious Fifties but become the first explorer to penetrate the Antarctic Circle, reaching an incredible Latitude 71 degrees South, just failing to discover Antarctica.

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History Guild would like to acknowledge the Boonwurrung people, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we are based, and pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.