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University of Oxford Is Older Than the Aztec Empire and Other Facts of History (2013)

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: University of Oxford Is Older Than the Aztec Empire and Other Facts of History (2013)

#21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish more Kiwis knew this.

Whats the inference here?

In New Zealand the Maori act as though they're some indigenous population who deserves reparations, however they were really more like a colonial people who lost to a more powerful colonial nation.

It's a little like the UK claiming the Falkland Islands. The British were the first to discover the islands and the first to inhabit them, however I wouldn't call them indigenous to the Falkland islands in the same way they might be indigenous to England. Certainly they wouldn't deserve reparations if Argentina someday captured the islands

Re: University of Oxford Is Older Than the Aztec Empire and Other Facts of History (2013)

#22
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds shocking because it's one sentence which delivers two surprises; Oxford is older than expected and the Aztec empire is more recent than expected.

No his point is that this is surprising because people have the wrong idea of what the Aztec empire is. It's like saying "the population of the City of London is only 8500 people!" - it's only surprising because it's misleading.

That's a great analogy, that's exactly what I was trying to say.
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