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Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

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Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#51

Post by saagarjha »

buboard wrote: post #39
lordnacho wrote: post #24

What's interesting is if you did this for just about any other country, there would be a wall of star spangled banners. If you ever travel outside the US, you inevitably hear about what the US is doing, what they're discussing, who the important people are, etc. The reverse is not true: - Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthca…

I ve noticed that most americans are not aware how important the US is for the rest of the world. I don't even think it is a matter of education, except for some elite northwestern european countries, where it matters. Most people learn a lot about the US through the movies and random news headlines. It's what always happens with global leaders.

> I ve noticed that most americans are not aware how important the US is for the rest of the world.

My experience has generally been the opposite: many Americans overestimate their country’s importance in the world. Just because the U.S. does or says something doesn’t mean other countries will necessarily go along with it.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#52

Post by mariojv »

I was surprised that the Korean War barely stood out compared to most other conflicts (at least, if you're only looking for a Korean flag). There are indications of changes like Chinese involvement in late 1950, but I think it'd be hard to pick out the start date if you weren't sure of the decade. Compare that to Kosovo for example, where there's at least roughly half a year of prominence.

One other factor that stood out to me was that it seems like there are more countries popping up from the mid 70s to the 90s, then it flips back to the previous pattern of a handful of countries dominating the picture (Iraq, then China).

It's a very interesting visualization, thanks for sharing!

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#53

Post by hliyan »

saagarjha wrote: post #48
hliyan wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not entirely accurate, except in those same countries that appear in the US's collective conscious (e.g. Russia, China). The news in my country, for example, does not have the luxury of focusing a lot on other countries -- we have enough things to deal with domestically. Although India and China do come up a lot because it is believed that we're at the center of a tug of war between those two nations.

I don’t think I could name any provinces in China, but I’m sure many Chinese know about New York and California.

I think that has more to do with TV and Movies than news...

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#54

Post by cromwellian »

qwertay wrote: post #50
jaabe wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that there is certainly a US focus in the world, but you could frankly replace “US” with any G8 member or China, and everything you’ve listed would be true for me. It would also be true for all our Scandinavian neighbours. I’m part of what you could fairly call the cultural elite of my country, and as such I’m not representative for every Dane, but knowing what goes on in important countries, is frankly part…

As an Australian I know the names of quite a few Chinese cities but I think I know a whole lot less about the country because of the language barrier and the fact that most of the websites I use are blocked in china so I don't meet the people online much.

Language barrier would prevent memory of a lot of these. Consider the Shaanxi province vs the Shanxi province.

It’s much harder to recall things you can’t spell in you vocabulary to break them down and where pronunciation is similar.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#55

Post by ygra »

petercooper wrote: post #7
Emma_Goldman wrote: post #3

A few things which I found of note: 1. The blanket of Union Jacks, especially in the first half of the 20th century. 2. The impact of the Korean War clearly pales in comparison to the impact of Vietnam. 3. If you didn't know better, it would look like the US and China were at war. 4. France in 1926-27. I'm not sure what happened in France of international significance then? The bombing of Damascus?

4. The French were having (prolonged) issues with some of their colonies around this time, such as in Morocco and the Great Syrian Revolt - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Syrian_Revolt It would be neat to extend this visualization into clicking through to see which headlines/stories influenced the choice.

There is a “show headlines” button.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#56

Post by bmurray7jhu »

gpvos wrote: post #18
pizza wrote: post #14

Wonder how it would change if e.g. mentions of Soviets had flag of USSR rather than Russia, etc.

It would just split and dilute the mentions of the Soviets/Russia during the USSR's existence. While it existed, Russia and the USSR were pretty much synonymous.

I don't think Russian SSR and the USSR were synonymous terms for anything but for informal colloquial usage.

The Russian SSR had only 51% of the population and 77% of the land of the Soviet Union.[1] Both the Belyrussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR were United Nations members states and constituent states of the Soviet Union.[2] After the breakup of the Soviet Union, some scholars have referred to Russian Federation as a rump state.[3]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republics_of_the_Soviet_Unio...

[2] https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/506/why-did-the-...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rump_state

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#58

Post by bunderbunder »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #38
nothrabannosir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

What percentage of Americans could confidently name one state of India or one province of China? Our education system somewhat talks about Europe, but most of the world is basically ignored.

Concrete example, for anyone who didn't get their primary education in the USA: In the school system I went to, "world history" really meant, "post-Renaissance European history." China and India never really entered the stage. But the East India Company did, which did make it necessary to at least acknowledge their existence in passing.

edited to add: That said, I get the GP's point about excessive self-flagellation, and agree that it's OK to cut people some slack for not having a super-precise grasp of the local geography in places they'll probably never go. When I see major cities that lie within just a few kilometers of US borders described as, e.g., "Toronto, Canada" instead of "Toronto, Ontario", though, I still wonder.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#59

Post by nothrabannosir »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #38
nothrabannosir wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

What percentage of Americans could confidently name one state of India or one province of China? Our education system somewhat talks about Europe, but most of the world is basically ignored.

India is not as important on the world stage and as relevant to as many other nations as the U.S.A. or China are. And China's provinces are not as independent and as relevant as America's states. China is much more centralized.

The states aren't just provinces. It's not happenstance that they are constantly talked about.

Hell, it's in the bloody name of the country.

Re: Countries that have preoccupied Americans the most since 1900

#60

Post by datenwolf »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #35
lordnacho wrote: post #24

What's interesting is if you did this for just about any other country, there would be a wall of star spangled banners. If you ever travel outside the US, you inevitably hear about what the US is doing, what they're discussing, who the important people are, etc. The reverse is not true: - Everyone outside the US knows the top US politicians. You even know what issues they are discussing, like gun control and healthca…

> You'll know the names of the states. How many other foreign countries do you know the subdivisions of I prefer to compare the USA with Europe as a whole, its member countries as states. In that light, I wager many Americans would know quite a few. Norway, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Ireland surely would make the majority? Maybe even Belgium. Are we still allowed to say UK? Americans love to chast…

> Norway

You do realize, that Norway is not a member of the EU. So in the context of Europe and the EU, it's more like Canada vs. USA.

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