One thing I learned recently is that British people have been enjoying curry like way earlier than I thought they were. I had guessed that curry only started becoming popular in like post WWII Britan, but apparently some people on the isle have been enjoying curry since 1747.
Are there any other examples of facts from your country that feel anachronistic?
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There were ads in Hungarian newspapers about sexual services and sex toys even in the 1890s, but later this was very much restricted in the Interwar era, and completely banned in the Communist period, only resurfacing a century later, in the 1990s.
Not that I personally care all that much, but we have some restrictive rules regarding the sale of alcohol. IIRC, the main rules are:
Only weak beer in stores, and only until eight on weekdays and six on Saturday. Not at all on Sunday.
Anything stronger must be purchased at the official state-run stores.
Probably not entirely correct (I don’t buy alcohol), but you get the gist. Anyone who’s bought alcohol lately, please chime in with relevant information.
Combined with the rules for when and how long stores can be open, it feels kinda puritanical.
I am bit surprised that you didn’t realised a country that occupied India would have curries? Queen Victoria liked curries. British officers and government workers in India took their love for spices with them when they returned to UK.
I have a family book ( also known as Advice book) from 1850, it surprisingly modern when it comes to it view of people from different parts of the world, women , equality in marriage. The only thing in the book that feels of the time is the hatred of cats and snakes.
The fact that the blasphemy law was only repealed as late as 2017. The last time anyone was actually sentenced with it was in the 1800s. It was kinda one of those laws that was technically on the books, but that no one ever bothered paying attention to.
(Although our spineless government is contemplating bringing that back in some form…)
We have been operating with republican mechanics since the middle ages, and all the countries around Switzerland found that extremely odd.
Now, we’re one of threecountries with a collective head of state that is a continuation of a 1st-French-Republic style directory. It was also inspired by the Archonts of ancient Athens.
(“Archont of the Federation” would sound badass…)
Some time ago, I read that the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in the 18th century, while remaining an absolute monarchy, had, under the influence of Enlightenment ideas, adopted some reforms that appear very modern. Under Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine (who later became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Leopold II), marshes in the Maremma were reclaimed, medieval guilds were dissolved and a liberalist policy was undertaken, the tax system was improved through the land register, a new code of laws was introduced that suppressed monasteries and abolished ecclesiastical mortmain. All medieval laws were also removed from the penal code, as well as the crime of lese majesty, confiscation of property, torture and the death penalty (it was 1786, the Italian state abolished the death penalty for the first time in 1889, only to be reintroduced by the fascist regime in 1926, and finally abolished in 1947).
Leopold also wanted to grant a constitution and bring the Catholic Church in Tuscany closer to the principles of Jansenism, but both of these reforms met with strong opposition and were abandoned.
West Germany only allowed women to work without their husband’s permission in 1977.
West Germany also kept the Nazi version of §175 until 1973.
in 1983, 4 star general Günter Kießling was commander of NATO land forces and deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. He was removed from this position and thrown out of the Bundeswehr when allegations came up that he was homosexual.
Up to 2021 our labour law contained a line like “pursuant to Marxism-leninist ideology, to achieve cominists society, support great October socialist revolutionary ideas, and class struggle of workers of the world …” 🙂
Despite decomunisation law being in place for 8 years by that time, and USSR failing 30 years ago.
We just inherited bunch of legislation from USSR, and majority of new staff was added by amending old laws. But labour code is big, so every government expected to pass a completely new document and just didn’t want to waste time repealing Soviet preamble. That way it managed to stay there 🙂
There were takeaway services (by horse and cart) offered back in 1810 by the Hindoostane Coffee House, which delivered curries from door to door.
IPAs also date to around the same time, which surprises some people as they’re very popular with the modern “craft beer” surge in many countries.
The first ever recipe for an apple pie comes from the court of Richard II in the 14th century.
We basically had “Protestants” in England even before the Reformation. There was a movement in the late 14th century called the Lollards, founded by renegade priest John Wycliffe, which rejected transubstantiation in the Mass, belief in Purgatory or indulgences, praying to saints, and services in Latin (i.e not in the vernacular). They became so popular they were heavily persecuted during the 15th century by Henry V, but some vestiges of them survived underground until Henry VIII. Books by Wycliffe were brought to Bohemia, where they were read by Jan Hus, who went on to influence Martin Luther. So for this reason, Wycliffe is called “the morning star” of the Protestant Reformation. This was back when Chaucer was writing, by the way.
We abolished the monarchy back in the 17th century, over a hundred years before the French did (some people don’t know this).
Stonehenge actually pre-dates the ancient Britons. Despite being popularly associated with Druids, it actually had nothing to do with them at all. It was built back when Egypt and Sumer were in their infancy, and was already ancient by the time of Caesar. The popular association with Druids only comes from the 18th century when antiquarians really had no idea how old it actually was. In medieval legend it was built by Merlin.
People were unearthing fossils way back in the 17th century (mammoths, hyenas etc.) but as they didn’t know anything about how old they were they assumed they were creatures brought into Britain by Romans.
The very first King of England (Athelstan) also at various points conquered large swathes of Scotland and Wales and also styled himself on occasions as King of all Great Britain. This was back in the 700’s and 800’s AD, meaning that the idea of England and of a “united kingdom” are around as old as each other.
Kings of England have established contacts with kings and emperors in the courts of Greece, Ethiopia and India even right back in the earliest days. Athelstan’s grandfather Alfred tried to establish contact with India. Henry V also established contact with the Abyssinian kingdom and his own father Henry IV had been visited in London by a Greek emperor and had pledged to him promises to fight the Turks.
The first Parliament dates back to the 13th century, and before that, there were limits put onto the King’s power by the lords in 1215.
The Dutch Republic’s rehabilitation of criminals in the 1600’s. Partly because they were always short on sailors and other labour, but also influenced by humanists like Coornhert from the 1500’s.
There was big national charity set up to help flood victims in the East in 1708 if I remember correctly. Very reminiscent of those private national disaster relief initiatives in the last century, often for foreign disasters, only without a big television show.
Women’s voting rights in 1795. Only in one province and only for land owners, but that applied to the men too.
The widespread knowledge about the clitoris and female joy in the 17th century, the Dutch word for clitoris is from the 1500’s or older.
The dual remained in the Dutch criminal code until the 21st century. But it had additional sentences for cheating, by which the proper way to have a duel could easily be deducted. It could also have led to legal implications, because if someone was only charged with murder while it was in fact a duel, the defendant would walk free.
The god zij met ons/god be with us on Dutch euro coins. Despite it’s long history of religious tolerance going back to 1579 and religious equality since the 1800’s, the Dutch state is still protestant and sometimes that just pops up, not unexpected but still surprising.
Netherlands:
We use [steam pumping stations](https://youtu.be/wqgsSSc_6yw?t=19) and [centuries old windmills](https://youtu.be/VaCuvmS2wgk?t=33) to help keep our country dry.
The [Teutonic Order of Knights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailiwick_of_Utrecht) of crusader fame still exists in the Netherlands,the Dutch chapter was founded in 1231. They use their headquarters build in 1345. The order still has farms it has owned since the middle ages.
The Netherlands was a Republic in the past and only became a kingdom in 1806.