History and the state

An article about how history can be used or abused.

Jens Christian Boje Nørgaard 

Introduction
History is not a linear concept with a limited content, but a variable concept that is constantly changing in content. History as a science is governed by the surrounding cultural society and is thus constantly changing, new knowledge, new discoveries generate new dynamic understandings of historical contexts. Therefore, the subject area of ​​history is a very complex and often debated topic.

History should basically be objective knowledge about human behavior in a given culture in a given time frame. It is largely part of the humanities field of knowledge, but at the same time contains important social science elements. The goal is to explore events, development processes, motivations and causal relationships that have influenced humans in the past and present. This complexity requires that it is possible to debate and communicate on a healthy democratic basis.

The reason for dealing with history is that it arises from a societal need. This is undoubtedly the reason why there have been historians since the earliest human societies and long before the development of a modern science of history. Medicine men, singers, poets, saga writers have had a goal to preserve, retell stories about a society, a hero, a group, but with the human being as the central point. The historian is to society what memory is to the individual person. If it disappears, it is difficult to act even in a modern society, identity disappears.

Examples of use or abuse of history.
Many with an interest in history are familiar with examples of how history has been used and also abused by political leaders, parties and social groups. The aim of this article is to describe a few of the more well-known attempts to rewrite and adapt history with a specific intention. The article also contains examples based on personal contacts and sources.

 Falsification of history is the rewriting of history with the aim of presenting certain historical events or people in a particularly positive or negative way. Ancient times This has been known since ancient times and up to the present day. In ancient Rome, Tacitus wrote. (56 - 117 AD) historical works, one of the more famous is the main work "Germania" which contains a description of the peoples of the North, their society and way of life (Can be read on this website). 

The depiction of Germania is seen from the perspective of cultural, civilized Rome. But the work also contains an indirect criticism of the Roman Empire, in contrast to the freedom the republic had stood for. 

An example of characterizing the Germans' perspective to the Romans is this excerpt: If I must say what I myself think, I agree with those who hold that the Germanic tribes have not been infected by any marital connection with foreign peoples, but have remained a peculiar, perfectly pure tribe, which has no resemblance to others. 

Therefore, despite the large number of people, they all have the same external appearance, harsh blue eyes, fair, reddish hair and a large body that is only capable of running, but not at all possessing the same ability to endure toil or strenuous work, and they are not at all accustomed to enduring thirst or heat, but the sky and the soil have accustomed them to endure cold and hunger.

Saxo's "History of Denmark".
  If we go to Denmark in the Middle Ages, Saxo Grammaticus (1160 1208) wrote "History of Denmark" with the Latin name "Gesta Danorum". In the preface to the work, Saxo himself writes about the background to his work. It was Archbishop Absalon of Roskilde who wanted Danish history written down, exactly as the history of other countries was written down in his time.

This means that Bishop Absalon defined the content of the work. Actually, there were several goals in writing down the history of Denmark. One of the goals was to show the rest of Europe that Denmark stood as an old and well-consolidated kingdom. Like many other historians of the time, Saxo wanted to present Danish history as a Nordic version of the history of the Roman Empire, but also with inspiration from Christian works. Inspirations from antiquity are clearly visible in the work. Another goal was that the work should legitimize and consolidate the power-political situation in Denmark around the year 1200, Bishop Absalon controlled the Danish church, while the Hviderne family sat on the Danish throne with the Valdemars as kings. He was a skilled writer who put together a coherent and dramatic narrative. He mixed legends, myths and historical events to create a national history that gave the Danes a strong identity.

Germany in the 1930s.
Then we jump straight ahead in time. When the Nazis and thus Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, the whole society changed, and with it education and teaching. Historical science became part of ideological wheels and changed dramatically and sinisterly. The Nazi Party developed into masters of falsifying history. They used propaganda and lies to promote their ideology and justify their actions.

The most famous and sinister example of Nazi falsification of history is the claim that the Jews were responsible for the peace of Versailles in 1919 and Germany's economic problems in the 1930s. This was a lie that was used to justify the persecution and murder of millions of Jews.

The Nazi Party deliberately falsified history to promote their racist ideology. Everyone is aware of the Nazis' division of human races with different rights and values. They used this lie as a science to justify the invasion of other countries and the elimination of populations in order to promote Germany's economic and political power. History teaching focused on Germany's greatness and past "glory", and glorified militarism and war. Students were taught that Germany's defeat in World War I was due to betrayal and that the country was deprived of its rightful place as a great power. 

The development of history teaching in Germany influenced Denmark to a certain extent, where parts of the work of German historians were incorporated into the teaching at the country's educational institutions. The focus was directed towards the Nordic countries and ancient times. German-language history books were even translated into Danish. Parts of German understanding of history were under considerable pressure and developed into a representation based on mythology, legends, linguistics.
 

One of the more curious historical and archaeological investigations undertaken during the regime was when in 1938 the German Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler sent an expedition to Tibet. The purpose was to investigate a theory that the Germans originated from the Tibetan plateau and were part of a hypothetical "Aryan race". The Nazis were obsessed with the idea of ​​an Aryan master race and believed that Tibet was one of the possible places of origin for this race. The expedition was led by a German zoologist and consisted of several scientists. Their primary goal was to find evidence of racial connection between Tibetans and Germans. They collected a large amount of material, but the Nazis never succeeded in demonstrating a scientific connection between Germans and Tibetans. The data collected was instead used to support Nazi propaganda and their ideology of race.

The Soviet Union under Josef Stalin.
The same applied to the new political superpower, the Soviet Union, which after the bloody revolution in 1917 developed into a regime that tried with a heavy hand to develop a state based on the ideological work "Das Kapitel". When Joseph Stalin became General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922, the state developed into a massive monster of repression. The goal was the "Great Revolution" a total transformation of society. 

This led to major production and human disasters, the consequences of which were to cause enormous deaths, researchers estimate in the millions. Education and training were constantly changing. History writing under Stalin was heavily censored and was manipulated to serve the interests of the regime. A cult of Stalin emerged, who was described as the heroic leader, appointed by Lenin, who developed and saved the Soviet Union from external dangers. His mistakes and crimes were hushed up. Stalin plus the party dictated the truth in history and all writers, including historians, had to follow the party line and highlight successes in socialism and industrialization. 

Any resistance was eradicated and material from people who fell into disfavor was removed from history books. Even pictures of political opponents were censored away. Criticism, debate and alternative views were brutally suppressed. Historians who did not follow the state line experienced imprisonment or deportation to Siberia. The repressive historiography prevented critical debate about the past and made the population more susceptible to propaganda.

Before the war, Stalin's regime had downplayed Russia's imperial history, viewing it as reactionary and anti-revolutionary. But with the German invasion of 1941, Stalin changed course. He realized that he needed a stronger, more deeply rooted symbolism to unite the population against the enemy. By highlighting Peter the Great's struggle against foreign invasions, Stalin created a sense of historical continuity and unity that united the past,  and present in Russian identity.

After Stalin's death and during the 1960s, a lot of criticism and debate about Stalin's rule emerged in the Soviet Union and in Europe. During the 1970s, Western Europe experienced in some left-wing political groups that Stalin's policies were being re-evaluated in a positive narrative about the development in Soviet society and the approach to relations between the Soviet Union and Germany in the 1930s.

The history writing under Stalin gave a distorted picture of the past. It created confusion and made it difficult to understand the country's actual history. This again seems to be a development that is being repeated in Russia today with Putin as leader. From the 1930s and right up to the 1960s, the Danish world of history was primarily characterized by a national perspective and a growing interest in the construction of the Danish welfare state. 

Yet one can see an influence from the Soviet Union on a more limited, ideological level. Active communist groups in Denmark were ideologically linked to the Soviet Union. These groups worked to spread the Marxist-Leninist view of history, where history is considered a long class struggle. They tried strongly to influence young people and the public through their own publications and through articles.

The Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.
Time and again, we see that authoritarian regimes use history to maintain power by emphasizing the unique historical commonality of the countries and purging critical elements. A notorious authoritarian despot was Pol Pot 1925-1998, and he was the leader of the communist rebel group the Khmer Rouge, who was responsible for up to two million deaths in Cambodia during the bloody rule from 1975 to 1979.

After the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, history was used as an argument for Cambodia to be reborn as an agrarian society, which is why the Khmer Rouge forced people out of the cities and into the countryside, where many died of hunger. In reality, this action stemmed from a historical utopia about an earlier and better society based on small production units with a kind of subsistence economy. In this context, there were a few people among historiography in Denmark who defended the development in Cambodia based on the conflict between the great powers in Asia, primarily Vietnam.

Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Nicolae Ceaușescu from 1918 to 1989 was a brutal Romanian dictator who systematically persecuted dissenters through a repressive system of power. He had close ties to the Soviet Union and developed an education system very similar to the Soviet one, where the goal of history teaching was political unification.

Ceaușescu's wife Elena officially published several books and articles on chemistry, physics and history, used in Romania's education sector. Her historical articles were strongly nationalistic and emphasized the Ceaușescu couple's own role as dynamos in a new society. In other articles, Elena Ceaușescu wrote extensively about Romania's glorious past and introduced the concept of Dacianism. A theory that claimed that Romanians were direct descendants of the Dacians, an Indo-European tribe that in ancient times developed a state on the Black Sea.

The only problem with Elena's publications was that she did not have the necessary academic approach to write the professional texts herself, but behind the publications stood a number of teams that developed the material after referral.

China under Mao Zedong.
Mao Zedong's 1893 – 1976 came to power in Kira in 1949. He was chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment until his death in 1976. Under his rule, history teaching was completely politicized and centered on promoting communist ideology. Until then, history teaching in China had emphasized the internal conflicts between the imperial dynasties, as well as interpretations of the classical Chinese philosophers and historians.

After the revolution, history was to focus on highlighting Mao Zedong as the great leader and savior of China. The important themes were his role in the Chinese revolution and The Long March from South to North was heroized and almost made into a cult. Also among intellectuals in Western Europe, a cult status arose around Mao and Chinese culture.

History teaching was used to support Mao's idea of ​​the eternal class struggle. Feudal rulers, landlords and intellectuals were portrayed as enemies of the people, while peasants and workers were hailed as the true heroes of the revolution.

An idea that clearly made its mark during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. An understanding of society that also gained traction among young people in Europe, who viewed China with interest as a rational alternative to bourgeois culture and the problems that came with capitalism. However, this fascination primarily influenced the cultural debate, and a large number of works were published that looked very positively at developments in China.

Like other authoritarian regimes, China experienced periods or events that did not fit into the communist narrative being downplayed or completely removed from history teaching. This was often China's long tradition of Confucianism or descriptions of previous dynasties, which were absolutely not considered part of the revolution.

Yugoslavia 1945 to 1992.
History teaching in the former Yugoslavia 1945 - 1992 is also a complex and vulnerable topic that still reflects the political and ethnic diversity in the country. Josip B. Tito started as a leader of the Yugoslav resistance movement, and after World War II he became the country's president until his death in 1980. Tito led a country that in reality consisted of a federation of formerly independent states with a heavy hand.

Therefore, history teaching had a huge focus on telling about a common Yugoslav identity that transcended the various ethnic and religious divisions. Common heroes and events from the broad Yugoslav history were cultivated, namely World War II and the Yugoslav heroic struggle. The sovereign history of the individual states was not taken into account for fear of nationalist tendencies. Nationalism was suppressed by the central government, which instead tried to create a culture where the states could, to a very limited extent, cultivate and celebrate their cultural differences within the political union

Yugoslavia's close ties to the Soviet Union also developed history teaching in the direction of the socialist ideology, which was the official policy in Yugoslavia. This led to a focus on the struggles of the working class, and on criticism of capitalism and imperialism. When Tito died in 1980, growing ethnic nationalism led to uprisings among the many ethnicities in the Yugoslav states in the 1980s. There were violent regular wars between the individual republics, a situation that was further intensified after the fall of the Soviet Union. Today, the 6 states are independent and have their own constitutions.

South Africa in the 1990s.
A country where I myself have participated in the development of a new understanding of history is South Africa. After the abolition of apartheid laws in 1993 and democratic elections in 1994, there was a need to rewrite the prevailing narrative of history.

Until 1994, history teaching focused heavily on the Dutch establishment of a trading post in 1652, which later became Cape Town. Equally prominent in history teaching was the theme of Britain's establishment of trading posts along the east coast of South Africa and the conquest of the entire Cape region in 1806. By that time, approximately 18,000 Dutch and English had settled in the colony.

The indigenous population was only sporadically mentioned as a curious remnant of an old hunter-gatherer culture, in this case the San people and the Khoikhoi people. The Bantu tribes, who came from the north, reached South Africa in 1709, they were cattle farmers and displaced the indigenous peoples, but this was only sporadically mentioned in history. The violent battles between the Bantu tribes, including the Zulus, and the white colonists in the provinces of Natal and Transvaal were described in detail, precisely with the aim of creating fear of black majority rule and thus enabling the state to legitimize apartheid.

After the 1994 elections, new regulations were to be made for education at all levels. Locally and centrally, groups worked on a democratization of education that accommodated all ethnicities. History education underwent a significant change after the elections, with the goal now being to reflect the country's new democratic constitution and to correct the injustices of the past. 

The central themes in this transformation include combating the legacy of apartheid and exposing the crimes of apartheid at all levels. Another goal was to highlight the previously marginalized voices, namely the black, Indian, and colored populations, which were to be integrated into history to provide a more nuanced and inclusive picture of the past. There was to be a focus on the common history in order to strengthen the unity of society and avoid cultural conflicts. History teaching should emphasize events and people that unite the nation, such as the fight against apartheid and the celebration of democracy. It should be emphasized that tolerance and respect for diversity are important for the unity of the country.

The implementation of new curricula in schools across the country has been a challenge due to lack of resources, teacher training and divergent views on the interpretation of the past. The intentions were great, but political circumstances prevented positive developments.

Middle East.
The conflict between Israel and the Arab states has for years led to different and often unvarnished historical representations. It is right down to the small archaeological details that are presented as arguments for the right to possess an area. Much of the historical material is without documentation and prepared without an understanding of the source-critical approach, which is a standard tool for researchers in other parts of the world. Some representations are clearly based on a desired political agenda.

The written history of the Middle East goes back a long way in time and is very complex. It is characterized by large empires, religious movements and cultural exchanges. Understanding it requires in-depth knowledge of different cultures, languages ​​and historical periods. Some of the world's earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt and Persia, arose and developed here.

After the fall of these civilizations, the European great powers Greece and Rome gained influence through trade and later conquered areas in North Africa and the Middle East.

Like the rest of the then known world, Greek and Roman geographers, historians such as Ovid, Pomponius, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch described the Middle East including Judea, Palestine, where they referred to what is today the area between Lebanon and Egypt.

After a short Armenian rule (70-63 BC), the Romans took over the entire area around Palestine. They held the country for 700 years - until the year 638. The Jews, who had had their own state of Judea for 900 years with its center around Jerusalem, rebelled against Roman rule, but it was crushed. Jerusalem fell in the year 70 and the Jewish fortress of Masada fell in the year 73.

Most Jews were exiled from Palestine to various parts of the Roman Empire. The last Jewish revolt took place in the years 132-135, and some of the surviving Jews fled to Europe, others were forced to assimilate into the new societies. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the old Roman colonies in the Middle East disintegrated and in the 600s Islam gained ground through Arab expansion and oppression.
From there, bloody conflicts arose between Christians and Muslims in the area. The Crusades were the Christians' last attempt to reconquer the lost states and at the same time protect the European part of the Mediterranean from attack. They succeeded to a certain extent.

Historians' interpretation of the background to the Crusades has also created different interpretations/schools. One school believes that the Crusaders wanted to conquer geographical areas that belonged to the Arab population element, and that they thereby destroyed the material basis of Arab culture. 

Other schools believe that the starting point of the Crusades was a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and that the armies were to protect the pilgrims from attacks and assaults from Arab groups. Later, it developed so that the Crusades became more organized and had the purpose of liberating the Holy Land from Muslim occupation and securing the Christian possessions in the area.

A third interpretation, which is relatively new, sees the Crusades as a defense against continuous attacks by Muslims. With the goal of protecting the southern European countries that experienced continuous attacks and attempted invasions by the Arabs, the idea was to bring the conflict back to the areas that had been the starting point for the attacks.

An example of this is the attack on Vienna. In 1683, a large Ottoman army tried to conquer Europe, but one bloody battle after another near Vienna, where an alliance consisting of a union of Poland and Lithuania and the Holy Roman Empire drove the Ottoman army to flight. But the Ottoman Empire then tried with more success to conquer parts of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

When the organization Hamas based in Gaza launched a bloody attack on Israel in October 2023, it was the beginning of a fierce retaliation from the Israeli side. Israel invaded Gaza to force Hamas out of the area and secure the borders and their citizens. The war has escalated and there are many casualties.

But history is also involved in the conflict, through the question: who has the legal right to a geographical area and a delimitation of the term: “occupation”. The debate is also being conducted in European media, and it is striking that concrete historical facts are absent, also among media people and a large part is emotionally manipulated to accept an incorrect interpretation of the history of the area.

Poland 1960s.
In 1996I attended history classes at high school level in Poland several times, where one of the themes was the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and its significance for Poland's position of power. In addition, at that time the following subjects were mandatory: the unification of the country in the 14th century, the fight against the Teutonic Order, the wars against Sweden, Russia, the division of the country into three and not least Poland's resistance during World War II, Lech Walesa and the strikes in 1980 at the Gdansk shipyard. Istanbul 2006.

Turkey 2006.
10 years later I was in the fortunate position of being able to participate in a history course at a school in Istanbul. I was present over 3 days in a class, equivalent to a 10th grade in Denmark.

The teacher said that the subject focused on Turkey's national history and the class would work all week on the Battle of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli in 1915, where the British fleet attacked Turkey, after their decision to enter World War I on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
A battle where Turkey won a great victory, and England had to retreat to the Mediterranean after terrible losses.

USA 2024.
The latest US president Donald Trump is known as an unusual politician who does not use traditional diplomatic channels, but tries to advance his personal and political goals through a different approach. In a similar way, Trump tries to manage the entire economic, social and cultural conditions of the large country in detail, which creates a limited margin for the influence and assessments of professionals. Often, uncertainty for institutions, organizations and the education sector is what characterizes a state with a dominant central leadership.

On many fronts, the Trump administration is in the process of reorganizing the research environment and cultural institutions so that they fit into the political administration's perception of reality. This also applies to history, where the Trump administration is in the process of rewriting parts of US history. Many critics consider Trump's attempts to change history to be unjustified, dangerous and authoritarian. In March 2025, Trump stated that US history should be presented in a more positive light in the future than it is. 

According to him, the dissemination of history must not promote negative understandings, and writers and historians should instead be more positive towards the United States and ensure national pride in the goals that have been achieved in society. Cultural institutions were accused of promoting an irrelevant gender debate, which in turn creates division.

The artists, writers and historians affected are both shocked and furious. Works are censored and exhibitions are changed to fit a certain narrative perception. Many critics have pointed out that Trump's position is a direct attack on freedom of research and the neutral presentation of history. It draws threads to the control and censorship of authoritarian regimes.

But parts of the US population agree with the Trump administration's criticism of developments in the field of education and culture. The administration has thus introduced a number of measures to intervene against the anti-Semitism that university managements have not opposed. A large majority is also against the discrimination against men, whites and Asians that takes place in the name of diversity - brought about by the so-called DEI programs.

The crisis in educational institutions in the US clearly traces a trace to the crisis that many Western institutions are facing - also in Denmark. Decision-makers have let unscientific political theories guide research, so that free, independent research is threatened by a political agenda where the ideological prospect is more important than the actual content of the research. The free exchange of information is squeezed into political contexts where opponents are disavowed or discredited.

Europe 2024.
Somewhat surprisingly, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in March 2024 that aims to create a common historical awareness in Europe. The aim is to move teaching from the history of individual states to a broad-based European history. Integrated into the teaching will be themes around colonialism, imperialism, economic power, but also gender discrimination, structural inequalities, and the lack of rights of minorities, which can become part of a reference area for the history subject. The importance of embedding this in history teaching is considered so important that national curricula must be changed.

The adopted resolution concludes that the national core of the history of individual countries must be replaced by a broader common European history, where particular emphasis should be placed on the issue of guilt regarding colonies, slaves, etc.

The comments on the resolution are many, as there is no practice for parliament to try to control the curriculum and regulations of individual countries in detail. Joanna Williams, a British researcher in educational science (University of Kent), states that if the resolution becomes a reality, teaching will stigmatize the story of Europe's path to civilization and focus on the negative consequences of the European past. (Berlingske Tidende 30. March 2024). Furthermore, Joanna Williams states somewhat provocatively that young Europeans should be ashamed of their own country's history, instead of seeing the positive developments that each country has undergone.

The Parliament's resolution is a conscious political project, where national history must be downplayed in order to better accept a common European identity through history teaching. There must be no blockages to the development of an ever closer union, and here the national understanding or identity of the individual state can constitute an obstacle. The European Parliament does not have legislative competence in education, but the resolution is to support and supplement the efforts of individual states for a common identity, according to the proposals.

Denmark in recent times.
There have been countless debates about the interpretation of Danish history with themes dating back to ancient times and up to the present day. New sources, new research methods lead to new thinking and new results for dissemination. But it is also a decisive factor, as always, that the political currents and power relations are the background music for the presentation of history. The strength of historical research in Denmark is the professional tools from source criticism and the open critical debates that often help to dissect specific historical issues.

Conclusion
The above are very different examples of how history and the subject of history are used in a political context to promote a very specific cause. It happens every day in different places in the world and is far more widespread than many people think. It is not possible to avoid it, but as a user of historical works, you must be consciously critical. The original source material or documentation is rarely possible to analyze, even though the internet has made source access easier and faster.

The use of works and source criticism is very individual from country to country. Fictional works and series in various media can also contribute to untrue distorted historical representations, but excellent films have also been produced based on a historical representation. Conditions that promote interest in history and provide the historical perspective that many are looking for. But this must not dismantle an experiential storytelling, since history also contains aesthetic values, information, entertainment, perspective, analysis and debate.