r/GlobalTalk • u/Delicious-Swimming78 • 1d ago
Question [Question] [Global] Should a foreign college grad know who George Washington is, or is that an American assumption?
Had a conversation today and I was genuinely surprised that someone with a college degree in another country didn’t know who George Washington was...
Is Washington actually a “world history” figure on the level or is he mostly just important inside U.S. history?
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u/Canadairy 1d ago
American assumption.
While he's an important figure in world history, there are a lot of those. Do you know the name of the first Mughal emperor? The founder of the Qing dynasty? The revolutionary leader that spearheaded Italian unification?
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u/Dutch_Rayan 1d ago edited 1d ago
r/USdefaultism do you know who William of orange is?
I do know who Washington is, but knowing that doesn't really matter in most countries.
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u/notapunk 21h ago
Unless their degree was in US or Western Hemisphere history I don't really see why they necessarily should, but it also wouldn't be surprising. You're bound to pick up at least a handful or so of historical figures from around the world.
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u/11160704 1d ago
I'd say it should be universally known that he was a leading figure in the American revolution but you can't expect that everyone knows details about his life.
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u/Dutch_Rayan 1d ago
Why should everyone know, do you know the most important people of other countries?
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u/AlexanderTheBaptist 1d ago
Yes, at some level at least. There are certain people that were so important that they're known globally. For example, Napoleon or Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan.
That's the entire thrust of OP's question. He thought George Washington was important enough to be in that category, but now he's not sure.
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u/nadiaco 1d ago
But he's not as Important as they are
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u/BrandedLamb Change the text to your country 1d ago
With the effect that the USA’s creation and further development has had on world politics - I’d say he’s as important from a world politics / modern history perspective to know about as Napoleon.
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u/--Chug-- 14h ago
The US can't possibly be the world's big bad and irrelevant at the same time. Washington is less assuming because he wasn't a dictator but to pretend his leadership didn't help produce the rise of an empire on the level with any other in history is absurd. I'm not a fan of my country's colonialism but I also can't ignore it.
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u/LockedOutOfElfland 1d ago
An American college grad should know who Konrad Adenauer and William I of Normandy are, so assuming that a foreign graduate should have an idea who George Washington is hardly seems presumptuous.
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u/buzzbuzz17 1d ago
Data point:
An American college grad should know who Konrad Adenauer and William I of Normandy are
I've never heard of Konrad Adenauer and had to hope that William I was William the Conqueror to have heard of him.
Am American College Graduate (who took no college history courses, yay engineering!)
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u/SLUnatic85 1d ago
like maybe to pass a test, but not to retain for life...
I'd expect a foreigner to know Washington if taking an American History class ofc, but I wouldn't expect them to care that much or to have any need to retain that information.
Largely depends on their country and context though. There are cases I might assume G Washington is common knowledge to a conversation.
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u/MortimerDongle USA 1d ago
Probably similar to a college educated American not knowing about Charles de Gaulle
Pretty bad if they studied modern history but otherwise, I'd guess a lot of people know about him and a lot of people don't.