40 Common Historical 'Facts' That Are Actually Totally False

Rough, stone pyramids that look like staircases into the Egyptian sky are synonymous with the American view of Cairo, but the iconic structures once looked a whole lot different. Originally, they were covered with polished white limestone. And, you guessed it — the reflective limestone harnessed the sparkling power of the sun to give a magical glistening effect. Eventually, though, the Egyptians removed the shiny material for use in other construction projects. 

Swinging saloon doors that conceal boisterous clientele and pistols at dawn both spring to mind when you think of the American Frontier, but one of the most notorious shootouts should never have happened. The famous Wild West gunfight in Tombstone wasn't written in the cards. City law required all residents and passersby to hand their weapons over to the sheriff when they hit city limits. When these strict gun laws were ignored by three outlaws, the Marshals started shooting.

Nowadays in the U.S.A., we often see the Revolutionary War as one of history's great underdog stories: inexperienced and outnumbered colonists taking it to those red coats under the expert leadership of General George Washington. But there were 40,000 British soldiers tasked with keeping control of 2.5 million colonists. France also lent the Americans 300,000 troops.

In a gladiator fight, staying alive was the name of the game, and chiseled, zero-body-fat warriors couldn't take a stab wound like their heftier competitors. It makes sense — because a weighty fighter would have had more of a resistant cushion. And that's why gladiators would often pack on the pounds and duel with a gut. Where's the application form? 

Facts about WW2 aren't in short supply, but here's a detail that not everyone may know. The Third Reich didn't end the second Hitler took his own life on April 30, 1945. Afterwards, his successor, Karl Donitz, and a band of Nazis who didn't flee or surrender tried to continue the regime from a town called Flensburg. They ran the government like they weren't about to lose a war.

People studying classic literature sometimes pine for the days of Shakespearean eloquence — when English was poetic, spoken with intent, and not the cobbled-together, lazy version of the language we speak in modern times. Contrary to popular belief, Shakespeare didn't speak with a modern British accent, though. He actually spoke with what sounded like an Irish-Appalachian twang.

Cowboys are an invention of North Americans, not the Europeans. Despite what many might think, long before pilgrims touched down in Plymouth, Mexican vaqueros embodied all the traits and tropes of the modern-day cowboy, right down to the Stetson hats. As well as the classic gunslinger's headwear, the cattlemen also wore sombreros and top hats.

When Neil Armstrong took a giant leap for mankind, Earthlings glued to their TV screens couldn't help but marvel at what humans had just accomplished. But many Americans thought the Space Race was a huge waste of money. Why send guys to the moon when there was fighting in Vietnam and a Cold War with Russia?

People often equate this group to stories of super-Christian fighting machines waging a holy war across Europe. The Knights Templar's rise to prominence, however, did not begin with their fighting skills, but their banking expertise. To protect against bandits, they extended credit lines of sorts to pilgrims trekking to Jerusalem. Business savvy and religious — what's not to love?

If you try and conjure up a mental of the Buddha, we're betting the vision is something along the lines of a large, cheery guy. While even statues reflect this image, that's actually Budai (left), an enthusiastic Chinese monk who lived a few thousand years after Siddhartha Gautama (right), the actual Buddha and religious leader.

While history books often paint Vikings as ruthless tough guys covered in the blood of enemies as they bite into the legs of a freshly cooked elk, they were actually well-groomed people. Sure, they pillaged and fought, but they were hardcore groomers and carried combs when on the move. In fact, their combs were one of their most prized possessions. Apparently, they took the grooming tools everywhere, often decorating them or transporting them in protective cases to keep them safe.

Often seen wielding two sharp katanas, samurai were elite warriors in medieval Japan who have a reputation today of being both graceful and deadly on a battlefield. In truth, these ancient warriors would often draw on bows before swords, however. After all, samurai swords might be known for their length, but shooting someone from far away was still a lot safer than getting up close and personal.

While older records may not cover every instance or detail, historians have noted that the Old West only saw eight bank robberies in a 40-year period. Despite what movies tell us, outlaws robbing banks and hopping on to horseback with a sack of money was not a common occurrence. Ne'er-do-wells would more likely be taking part in low-key thievery or stretching their vigilante muscles.

While joking about Victorian-era Americans, the British circulated a rumor that the almost cartoonishly prudish society covered up its table legs because they were just too darn sexy. But that was just a joke. In truth, people of the time were not so sex and beauty adverse. In fact, Victorian women were so keen on looking their best that they often turned to deadly ingredients to do so. Yup, their makeup could kill them! Cosmetics of the day were made with things like lead, mercury, and arsenic.

Nearly every ancient war movie has an iconic scene where troops on horseback charge full-speed into a line of pike-bearing enemies. But being pretty intelligent animals, horses don't make a habit of sprinting at pointy objects, no matter how much their handler begs. Instead, charging warriors parked their trusty steeds and then finished the assault on foot.

The iconic photo of early 20th-century workers eating on the crossbeam of an unfinished skyscraper hundreds of feet above Manhattan was actually staged for a photoshoot. Yes, you read that right. Wanting to advertise the new GE building — known today as 30 Rockefeller Plaza or 30 Rock — an expert snapped a picture. An impressive scene nonetheless!

Any kid dressing up as a ninja for Halloween revels at the opportunity to wear the all-black, lightweight garb we often associate with the hired hands of feudal Japan. But ninjas were all about stealth, not uniforms. They wore whatever helped them blend in and get close to their target. If they were moving at night, they wore dark blue.

People often point to the burning of the Library of Alexandria as a great tragedy — the moment when so much knowledge was lost to the fires of anti-intellectuals. However, the library had been financially destitute for years before anyone set flame to it. Most scholars had already fled, and the collection withered away.

You've probably heard stories of her perfume. The gorgeous Elizabeth Taylor played her on the big screen. But all historical accounts, poems about, and drawings of Cleopatra indicate she wasn't the paralyzing beauty that prevails in the pop culture portrayals of the queen that we see today. That didn't make her any less of a seductress, though!

When Disney made her a princess, Pocahontas was drawn to meet the beauty standards of 20th-century Americans. But the actual 12-year-old Native was naked and bald when she met John Smith, as was customary for young children of her tribe. What's more, to start with, Pocahontas was actually just a nickname. Her real moniker? Well, accounts suggest it was Amonute or Matoaka in private.

Everyone who learned the poem of Paul Revere had it in their heads that he shouted "The British are coming!" However, he actually said, "The regulars are coming" because citizens of Massachusetts at the time still considered themselves British. Among other things, the poem also wrongly states that Revere was the only one trying to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the impending doom. In actual fact, he had two men riding with him on the rescue mission — William Dawes and Samuel Prescott. 

We all know that the Founding Fathers all signed the Declaration of Independence, right? Wrong! Well, not quite right, in any case. Although many portraits imply all the Founding Fathers made their marks at the same time, it was actually signed over the course of several months by all the men. Also Nicholas Cage never actually stole it, but hopefully, you already knew that!

Loads of kids are taught the Puritans were suffering religious persecution, and when they finally escaped to America, they preached religious freedom. However, they were actually incredibly closed-minded and banished people who didn't believe in the same things that they did. It's also worth noting, that Puritans and Pilgrims — although similar in their religious beliefs — are very much not the same. Take note!

Gather around the pumpkin pie because this one might surprise even the most patriotic out there. As we know, every year, millions of people celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. However, there's no proof that was when it occurred in history. When the celebration started, it was a three-day harvest festival that took place sometime in September or November.

During the Revolutionary War, it's a common belief the British grossly underestimated the colonists before they attacked. However, Britain didn't actually have such a confident outlook. In the end, they suffered a horrible defeat. The battling itself wasn't even the only thing soldiers had to worry about, either. It's been claimed that more troops died from disease rather than combat given the amount of cross-country travel going on.

One bizarre myth that some people believe — even though it's not necessarily written in textbooks — is that George Washington had wooden teeth. He did wear dentures, but they consisted of ivory, bits of metal, and teeth from deceased humans. Never have we felt more grateful for modern dentistry than now! Time to book that check-up...

Contrary to what many teachers tell their students about Europeans being the first group to traverse America's wilderness when they arrived, the Native Americans were there long before them, working the land for agriculture. And it was this knowledge of local farming that would ultimately go on to shape the diet of the nation. By passing on their agricultural techniques, foods such as maize, beans, and potatoes could be cultivated by both Native Americans and indigenous people alike.

The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1692 after several women in Salem, Massachusetts, were accused of witchcraft. However, unlike what movies and books would have us believe, few — if any — were burned at the stake. Although neither is a particularly pleasant fate, most so-called "witches" were actually executed by hanging.

While many people believe that when the Europeans touched down in the Americas they set up colonies completely separate from Native Americans, that just wasn't the case. In truth, reports show that it was actually quite common for settlements to include both groups. Some settlers would even pack up and leave their own colonies altogether.

Really, we should be celebrating a whole other date. Americans are proud to celebrate July fourth as the day the country declared independence from England, but it was actually two days earlier on July second. So why do celebrations take place on the fourth? Well, the first printing of the Declaration of Independence took place then. July second just doesn't have the same ring...

During battle, soldiers would often run out of ammunition, and it's a common belief they melted down cups and plates to make bullets. There's just one snag with that plan, however. You see, those standard-issue items actually contained pewter. The issue with pewter is that it was a much less effective material compared to lead. Back to the drawing board, then! 

Mirror mirror on the wall, what's the tax for using you? Well, perhaps not so much, actually. Many historians believed there was once a special tax on mirrors because they were shipped in small pieces as a way to avoid paying a costly fee for large panes. In truth, it was simply easier to transport smaller pieces. Presumably, no one told them back then the whole seven years bad luck thing.

Ever wondered why retailers spend so much time and effort crafting a catchy name when they could just use a picture instead? Well, turns out using images instead of words was once very much on trend. Shop signs that featured only pictures were once thought to cater to a largely illiterate settler population. However, research has proved that most people actually were literate, and pictures were just trendy.

The American Revolution is commonly thought of as a war between American colonies and Britain. While those groups were indeed at war, there were colonists on both sides, as well as other countries offering assistance. Despite being the name, the 'American' revolution was an international war, with clashes fought all over — including the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. 

Ask many Americans a simple historic question, “Who invented the light bulb?” and they’ll likely have a ready answer: Thomas Edison. There’s no doubt that Edison went on to become a prolific inventor. But did he really invent the light bulb? Well, the answer is no. Others had come before him, dating right back to Alessandro Volta’s illuminated wire in 1800. But none of the many who came up with prototypical light bulbs was anywhere near to producing something dependable that could be sold commercially. And that is what Edison did achieve with an 1880 patent.

Many women in the colonial era wore long skirts, which led some to believe it was forbidden for them to show their ankles. Although there were periods where that occurred, colonial times weren't one of them. The Victorian era, however, was an ankle-free zone. At the age of 16, girls were required to cover up those offensive ankles with dresses that reached the arch of their foot.

Wonky staircases in colonial times could have left you head over heels — literally. And that's because many staircases at the time had a top step that was shorter than the rest. Despite what you may think, this was not to alert homeowners of stumbling intruders — it was because staircases were built from the bottom up, leaving less wood for the top step. Ever heard of taking measurements before you start?

In colonial times, going to college or university wasn't really an option for most of society. The people back then took a much more hands-on approach to education. That's right: a huge part of colonial life centered around apprenticeships. However, they didn't all last 11 years like many of us have been led to believe. In fact, they varied from apprentice to apprentice, with some even ending at age 21 regardless of when they began.

On June 14, 1775, the Continental Army was formed. But despite common belief, their conditions weren't always quite as bad as the history books make out. It all depended on where they were stationed. You see, not all continental soldiers were starving and worn out as many people believe. Some battalions had substantial provisions and comfortable housing.

Even though there were a few instances of guerrilla warfare tactics being used used during the American Revolutionary War, a large proportion of the fighting happened the same way. Soldiers would face each other from across the battlefield and take turns shooting, which seems surprisingly civil considering the circumstances. 

Obviously, the U.S. became fully involved in World War II after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. But the conflict had actually started over two years earlier with Germany’s invasion of Poland. However, at that point the American government declined to join France and Britain in their declaration of war and so there was a period of nearly two years when the U.S. was officially neutral. But just how strictly was this observed? As early as September 1940, the Americans were sending military material and other supplies across the Atlantic to the British.

It’s a common misconception among many people that English was the first European language spoken in the United States. Let’s not forget that the Spanish language holds a strong position within the modern U.S. There are, after all, more than 50 million Spanish speakers in the country. Perhaps surprisingly to many, that means America has the second largest Spanish speaking population in the world after Mexico. And it turns out that Spanish was spoken in North America before English was. Possibly the earliest Spanish-speaking enclave was at St. Augustine in Florida – a settlement which dates back to 1565.

Chief Seattle, who lived from around 1786 to 1866, was a leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish Native American peoples who lived in what is now Washington State. The city of Seattle is named after this revered chief, and he’s well known today for some of his inspiring words about his tribal lands. These stirring sayings are credited with inspiring many who became dedicated environmentalists in the late 20th century. In 1854 Chief Seattle is said to have declaimed, “The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth. All things are connected – like the blood which unites one family. Mankind did not weave the web of life. We are but one strand within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” Invigorating words indeed, but sadly they were actually penned by scriptwriter Ted Perry for a 1972 movie.

It turns out that perhaps the best known “facts” about baseball’s dawn are simply wrong. It’s a widely held belief, for example, that the birth of the sport came in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York, and that its father was Abner Doubleday. So, let’s get this straight. Baseball was not invented in Cooperstown, and it was not created in 1839. Furthermore, Abner Doubleday didn’t only not devise the sport, he never pretended that he had. This myth was created by a committee in 1907 which was charged with discovering the story of baseball. In the event, it got its facts completely wrong. The truth is that references to baseball date back to the 17th century. What’s more, it’s probably a hybrid of the sport of cricket and the children’s pastime of rounders – both British pursuits.

Many believe the tale that the Liberty Bell cracked on July 4, 1776, the very day that the United States declared independence from her colonial British masters. The story goes that it was cracked on July 4, 1776 when someone sounded it too enthusiastically in celebration of independence – causing the damage. However, that tale actually originates from a short story called Fourth of July, 1776, which was written in 1847 by George Lippard. Somehow, this story came to be accepted as historical fact and even made its way into school text books. The bell was not rung to mark independence on July 4, 1776, and the date when it was actually damaged remains a mystery.

The Battle of the Alamo is one of the central tales that defines American identity. And the widely accepted story is that once inside the Alamo, the Mexicans proceeded to massacre all of those occupants who had not already died in the fighting. In fact, this account is partially true. All of the fighters inside the Alamo did indeed die at the hands of the Mexicans, who had been ordered not to take prisoners. But a collection of around a dozen women and children did survive; the Mexican attackers allowed them to escape with their lives.

The story of stars and stripes goes back to 1776 when General George Washington and two congress members visited the upholsterer Betsy Ross. He showed her a sketch of the new U.S. flag and Ross convinced the future president that the start should have five points rather than six. She pointed out that five-pointed stars were easier to cut and then proceeded to sew up the very first Stars and Stripes. In fact, the only evidence we have of this story comes from a descendant of Betty Ross and that only emerged a century later in 1876 – the centenary of American independence. The claims are based on a paper written by her grandson, William J. Canby, who asserted that he’d heard the story from an aunt. It seems that Ross may have suggested the five-point stars, but hard evidence that she truly made up the first Stars and Stripes is conspicuously lacking.

The story of the Wall Street deaths is undoubtedly poignant and tragic, but it’s not true. Well, some of it is; there’s no doubt that many bankers, stock traders and speculators lost fortunes. However, there was no wave of suicides. Records show, in fact, that there was actually a decline in suicides in October and November 1929 as compared to those months the previous year. As for people jumping from windows, there are only two attested cases in the relevant period. Nevertheless, the U.S. suicide rate in the ensuing Great Depression years did rise.

Generations of children have been taught that the very first Thanksgiving came in 1621 at the Pilgrims settlement at Plymouth in what is now the state of Massachusetts. No doubt that was the earliest such event marking a successful harvest at that particular location, but it wasn’t the first Thanksgiving in America. In fact, we have to turn the pages of history back to 1607 to find that.

Some believe that the White House was entirely built by slaves. It would be a bitter irony indeed if it had been exclusively slaves who had built the home of the presidents of the United States of America – the self-styled land of the free. But although there is some truth at the heart of this myth, it is inaccurate. In fact, although African-American slaves certainly played their part in the construction of the White House – which started in 1792 – the workforce was a mixed one. It included stone masons from Scotland, white laborers from the surrounding area and craftsmen from Virginia and Maryland. But the sorry truth is that although the men who toiled to build the White House were not all slaves, some certainly were.

The story that all too many believe claims that Benjamin Franklin campaigned to have the turkey declared as America’s national bird. But the tale is simply untrue. So how did the myth arise? It seems to originate from a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter in 1784. Franklin wrote, “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country.” Franklin goes on to explain that the bald eagle “is a bird of bad moral character” that steals the prey of other birds instead of hunting for itself. The turkey, on the other hand, was “a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” But although Franklin clearly preferred the turkey to the bald eagle, he never actually advocated that the tasty bird should become a U.S. symbol instead of the bald eagle.

It’s a common belief that unlike the European powers in their colonial eras, America has never grabbed the land of another nation by force of arms. But to believe that you have to ignore a rather major episode in the history of the U.S. We’re talking about the two-year Mexican-American War that started in 1846. Even before that war started, the U.S. had taken Texas, which had declared independence from Mexico in 1836 and was annexed by America in 1845. And that was the spark that ignited the conflict a year later. In the war, the U.S. Army captured Mexico City and forced a peace treaty on the Mexicans. The treaty gave the Americans the Mexican territories of New Mexico and California. It’s difficult to dress this event up as anything other than a forcible seizure of land from another country.

Looking at pictures of George Washington it seems obvious that the man wore a wig. Take a look at that hair. It surely could not have been the natural locks of the great man. The way that Washington’s coiffure curls up at the sides and hugs his skull across the top of his head is surely indisputable evidence that he wore a wig. To confirm the belief that Washington wore a wig, just pull a dollar bill out of your purse or wallet and examine Washington’s portrait. Obviously a wig, isn’t it? Well, no it’s not. George Washington categorically did not wear a wig. In his award-winning 2010 biography, Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow wrote, “Contrary to a common belief [Washington] never wore a wig.”

George Washington seems to be a man with a particular attraction for unfounded myths. This particular belief arose from the well-worn tale of the cherry tree. Parson Weems originally related the story in his biography of Washington, published not long after the president’s death. In Parson Weems’ account, a six-year-old Washington damages his father’s cherry tree and then confesses, “I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.” A charming story no doubt, but did Washington go through life without ever lying? The answer is no. Fighting the Revolutionary War, Washington was legendary for the clever deceptions he practised on his British enemies. You may feel that this dishonesty doesn’t tarnish the man’s reputation. But it certainly shows he was capable of lying for a cause he believed in.

As we know from our history lessons, the American Civil War between the southern and the northern states was fought on the issue of slavery. The North wanted to abolish the practise, but the South wanted to retain it. So it obviously must be true that people in the southern states owned slaves while those in the north did not. In fact, we have some hard figures about slavery in the north since there was a census in 1860 – the year before the outbreak of the Civil War. The census recorded the presence of 451,021 slaves in the states that went on to form the Union. So although the northern states fought for the abolition of slavery, a goal they achieved, there were certainly slave owners living in the Unionist states on the eve of the conflict.

It’s a widely held belief that aviator Charles Lindbergh was the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 – piloting his Spirit of St. Louis. Indeed, Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig prize for doing so. But you need to look at the details of the Orteig prize to identify the wrongheaded myth about Lindbergh’s undoubted achievement. The prize was specifically for a successful non-stop flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh was indeed the first pilot to do that. But two British men had flown non-stop across the Atlantic eight years earlier.

With good reason, we look back on the trench warfare of World War I with horror. Living conditions could barely be described as primitive. Men were crammed together in underground bunkers with little sanitation; they were often cold and frequently wet. Not to mention the fact that violent death was an ever-present threat. But although the war lasted for four years, no soldier spent that whole period in unbroken service on the front lines. In actual fact, a system of rotation was introduced. For most of the time, a combat unit would spend no more than ten days in a month in the trenches, and less time than that right on the front line.

It’s perhaps mostly British and French commentators that have accused the Americans of joining WWI too late to make any real difference to its outcome. But the assertion is not backed up by actual historical evidence. So said author Nick Lloyd, writing for the History Extra website. He contended that President Woodrow’s decision to lead his nation into war “was of enormous consequence.” Despite its ostensible neutrality until 1917 America had already provided vital material support to the British and French. But once the U.S. joined the war, it was the massive numbers of troops committed to battle on the Western Front that tipped the balance against the Germans.

World War I is best remembered for the horrifying scale of slaughter on the battlefields. So it comes as no surprise that many people believe that it must have seen the highest number of casualties of any conflict up until that time in history. But, it turns out that contention is another of the Great War myths. As British historian Dan Snow pointed out on the History Hit website, a hideously bloody war had been fought in China some 50 years earlier than WWI. The Taiping Rebellion lasted some 14 years and the fatality estimate for that conflict puts the number of deaths at between 20 and 30 million. By contrast, during the Great War a total of some 17 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives.

The memorable phrase “lions led by donkeys” actually came into wide usage long after the war’s end. So how fair is the phrase, which assumes that the British were led by incompetent and even cowardly generals? In truth, more than 200 British generals were killed, captured or wounded during the conflict. So perhaps they were not so cowardly! There’s another key piece of evidence that disputes the idea of a useless British military leadership. That’s the indisputable fact that the Germans were roundly defeated by 1918.

A stereotypical view of combat during WWI sees soldiers clambering out of their trenches into No Man’s Land during an attack. The result is that the infantrymen are mown down in their thousands by machine-gun fire. Although undoubtedly such weapons caused many casualties, they were not in fact the main source of death and wounding. What caused more casualties than any other single weapons system was artillery.

The best-known battlefields of WWI lay in the Western Front in Belgium and France. But that ignores the Eastern Front, where the Germans fought protracted battles with the Russians until the Russian Revolution of 1917 effectively ended that nation’s involvement in the conflict. But it’s all too easy to forget that the Great War raged in many other parts of the world, too. There was, for example, fighting in the Middle East. There were also battles around the Suez Canal in Egypt. Elsewhere in Africa, fighting broke out in Dar es Salaam in modern-day Tanzania, in Cameroon, and in Togo. Far as these lands were from the European theaters of war, they were still heavily impacted by the conflict. 

The idea that only white Europeans fought in the Great War could hardly be further from the truth. British and French authorities were not slow to use troops from every corner of the imperial territories. Soldiers came from India and the Caribbean to fight on the Western Front under the British flag. Some 1.3 million Indian soldiers served with the British during the war, and about 74,000 lost their lives. And the French used 500,000 African troops from their territories, most of whom fought in Europe. Then there were African-Americans who served on the Western Front, albeit in strictly segregated units and seldom on the front line. But the men of the Harlem Hell Fighters Regiment fought fiercely on the Western Front and were collectively awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

It’s true that French, British, and American early-20th-century attitudes towards women meant that they played no part in front-line combat. Yet that did not mean that they had no part to play in the war effort: far from it. The U.S. Army Nurse Corps and other groups such as the American Red Cross had more than 3,000 women working in hospitals in France during the war.

After the war, some claimed that Germany had never truly been defeated on the battlefield. The country only capitulated because it was on its knees economically, laid low by the highly effective British Royal Navy’s blockade. The sanctions had prevented essential imports of war materials and, crucially, food. But, in truth, Germany supplied some 75 percent of its nutritional needs domestically. So although there were undoubtedly shortages due to the blockade, these were not severe enough to cause defeat.

There’s a persistent myth that does the rounds claiming that British officers escaped the worst ravages of trench warfare on the Western Front. They were instead enjoying safe and comfortable billets well away from the brutal carnage of artillery and machine gun fire. But is there actually any truth to this? According to the evidence, the answer is a resounding ‘No’. 

There’s a potent legend that the British people were champing at the bit for a chance to fight the Germans in the summer of 1914. There’s even a term for this supposed phenomenon, “jingoism.” But how close to the truth is this idea of a British public spoiling for a fight to the point of irrationality? British historian Dr. Catriona Pennell takes a far more nuanced view. Writing on the History Extra website, Dr. Pennell pointed out that in fact when war broke out British people reacted “with a sense of shock and surprise” — that’s hardly an expression of jingoistic zeal.

There’s a commonly held belief that shell shock was not recognized as a genuine condition during WWI. But the truth is that many soldiers who cracked under the intolerable pressure of sustained combat and artillery bombardment were treated with some compassion as suffering from a mental breakdown. Yet others were charged with desertion, and even shot. Tragically, 346 British soldiers were executed during the war for either cowardice or abandoning their posts.

Much of the literature and many of the histories of WWI deal almost exclusively with the conflict on land. But there was also intensive fighting at sea. There were huge set-piece naval battles and there was also a bitter submarine war. As the History website pointed out, the three-day Battle of Jutland in the North Sea involved some 250 ships and 100,000 sailors.

In general, we think of WWI as a conflict where huge bodies of soldiers faced off against each other in either trench warfare or full-scale, sometimes suicidal, assaults. But it was not just men in uniform who faced death and destruction in the Great War. Many civilians also fell victim to the brutalities of the struggle. Historian Heather Jones freely admitted that we have no entirely dependable figures for the number of civilian casualties during WWI, but cited one estimate that said about 500,000 German civilians died from malnutrition during the war. Then there were 1 million Armenians deported from their homeland by the Ottoman Empire, many of whom perished. Those two examples alone indicate the scale of civilian fatalities.

It’s certainly true that the authorities had introduced new taxes, most notoriously on that most British of commodities: tea. But the tax story’s actually more complicated. For example, in 1764 a Sugar Act slashed the tax on molasses by 50 percent. But the legislation was still unpopular because it also included other measures. The fact was that the American colonists had often dealt with British taxes in a time-honored way.

It’s easy to think that in 1775 the good folks of the 13 rebellious colonies rose up as one to cast off the intolerable yoke of British imperialism. Easy, but completely wrong. True, there was a burst of enthusiasm at the start of the war. A force of more than 15,000 New England colonists rushed to besiege the British Army base at Boston. When the fighting dragged on, though, the realities of armed combat against well-disciplined and highly trained British troops became apparent. Some now thought it politic to stay in their farms and homesteads rather than face the dangers of war.

After the American colonists had won the war, there were those in Britain who claimed that defeat for the British had been an inevitability. But they were speaking with that great aid to judgment: 100 percent hindsight. In fact, historians have argued the exact opposite. The British forces could have emerged victorious from the conflict. So why didn’t they? When the British had the colonist fighters penned in on the Harlem Heights, they failed to press home their advantage. If they had, it’s entirely possible they could have snuffed out the armed rebellion there and then. 

One reading of history has it that Britain got itself into a war with American colonists more or less by accident. In other words, the colonial power blundered into conflict with its American subjects without proper forethought. The Smithsonian magazine points out that many believed that Britain’s “political leaders had failed to comprehend the gravity of the challenge.” The truth is that the British administration weighed up the option of using force against the colonists in January 1774. That was shortly after the Boston Tea Party protest and more than a year before hostilities started at the Battle of Lexington in April 1775. So Britain’s entry into the Revolutionary War was hardly a last-minute fling of the dice.

The rebels had two armed forces: the Continental Army and the militias. The former ran along the lines of a formal force while the latter were much more ad hoc. The militia system was actually based on a British model. It called for all able-bodied males aged 16 to 60 to serve as the occasion arose. During the war, as many as 200,000 colonists became militiamen, double the number of the Continental Army. There’s been a persistent claim, even in the U.S., that the militias were of little use in the field. While it’s true that the militiamen suffered some defeats, there were also occasions when they fought bravely and prevailed. For example, militia fighters played a key part at the 1781 Battle of Guilford Courthouse, which led to the British abandoning North Carolina altogether.

A strongly held view is that the defeat suffered by the British at Saratoga in 1777 led to the course of the war being set conclusively in favor of the American rebels. There’s no doubt that it was a disastrous moment for the British campaign. The heavy casualties in the months leading up to the Saratoga rout amounted to 1,300. Yet other later events can be identified as more important turning points. An obvious one came in the fall of 1781 at Yorktown, when the British General Cornwallis surrendered his 8,000-strong force to the rebels. As the Smithsonian points out, British prime minister Lord North greeted to the defeat with dismay, declaring, “Oh God, it is all over.”

The story goes that the colonists had one special grievance arising from the conduct of the British Army. That was the billeting of troops on private civilian households. It’s easy to see why that would be resented. Imagine being forced to provide lodgings in your home to a hostile enemy at gunpoint. But did that really happen? Largely, the answer is “no.” Accommodation for soldiers was certainly controversial, though, and the British authorities did face problems in housing the troops. So they attempted to insist that the local assemblies should pay for their lodging, a suggestion that didn’t go down well. And though the British were allowed to appropriate abandoned farm buildings, they didn’t have the authority to force private citizens to board soldiers in their homes. 

What caused the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773, when disgruntled colonists hurled crates of East India tea into Boston Harbor? The myth is that the demonstration was a reaction to the outrageous cost of the beverage, which was caused by the tax that the British had imposed on the commodity. So, the spark that eventually set off the revolutionary war was caused by over-taxed tea, or so the story goes. Yet tea was actually more expensive in Britain than it was in America at the time of the Boston Tea Party. In fact, the price of tea in America was lower thanks to a subsidy from the British designed to increase trade for the East India Company.

Many believe that the unfortunate Americans lived under the ruthlessly domineering jackboot of a heavy military presence. So that was another reason the colonists were compelled to rise against their despotic masters. In truth, though, for much of the time there was no standing British army in the colonies. The only armed forces were the colonists own militias. Troops were later sent from Britain to fight in the French & Indian War, which lasted for seven years from 1756. And some had been sent to America in the period just prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775. But for most of the colonial period, the British simply weren’t able to carry the cost of maintaining an army 3,000 miles away on the other side of the Atlantic.

Of course, it goes without saying that a patriotic British population was bitterly opposed to American independence. Or does it? In fact, many Britons took the view that it’d be better to allow the Americans the freedoms they wanted. Going to war to defend America’s colonial status was far from a universally popular proposition. In a 2018 article Time magazine cited the views of the businesspeople of Bristol, an important English port and trading city. They wrote to King George in 1775 begging him to make peace with the Americans. The merchants’ main concern was actually the lucrative transatlantic trade. And one British parliamentarian, Thomas Townsend, went as far as to declare that war against the colonists was “unjust in its Principle and ruinous in its consequences.”

It’s a firmly held belief that American farmers fired the first shot of the Revolutionary War. That myth has been firmly implanted in American minds by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Concord Hymn,” which mentions “the shot heard ’round the world” from the guns of “embattled farmers.” According to the National Constitution Center website, though, that tale is unlikely to be true. The Library of Congress website states that a more plausible version of who fired the first shots of the war arises from the Battle of Lexington. As 700 British troops turned up there at daybreak on April 19, 1775, they were met by 77 rebels. Gunfire was soon exchanged, but who actually fired the initial round is lost in the mists of time. So we just don’t know if it was the redcoats or the minutemen.

One version of Revolutionary War history has it that the rebels devastated the redcoats by firing on them from long range. They were able to accomplish this with their accurate rifles. The muskets used by the British Army, in contrast, only had a short effective range. This tactic, it’s said, gave the militias and the Continental Army an important advantage on the battlefield and in irregular warfare. But the stark realities of the battlefield meant that shooting the enemy from a distance was often not an option for the colonists. Close-quarter combat was not infrequent and the British were skilled in the use of the bayonet. And the truth is that many of the patriots were armed not with rifles but with the less accurate muskets.