Your nation's high and low point

In the study of history, it is easy to let biases enter into our thought.  We can often succumb to the dillusion that our homelands are infalliable and never do wrong.  In this post, I'm interested in hearing your opinions with regards to your own respective homelands.  What was your nation's finest hour?  What is your nation's darkest chapter?  To sum it up, what was the best and worst moment in your nation's history.

Originally posted by Aelfgifu I think my countries high and low are the very same thing.   In the Golden Age, late 15th and early 16th century, trade, modern economics, entrepeneurships and toleralnce towards others made us close to the riches and most prosperous nation on earth. This was the highlight.   The downside of it was, that much of that wealth was gained by ruthless colonialism, brutal slave-trade and agressive imperialism.

The highest point of Iceland is the �r�fa-J�kull [Hvannadalshn�kur] 2119 .

Originally posted by pinguin   The highest points? Perhaps the campain of Father Hurtado to help the poors and the ideas of Dr. Monckeberg to feed correctly all new born children in Chile. That changed my country.

I�m live in Brazil so we dont have many ancients high peaks and falls...most of ours greatest mistakes are recent...

I will list some of the mistakes:
1-slavery for so long time
2- When Fernando Collor freezed the accounts of millions of brazilians.
3-When we have our litle civil war in 1932
4-All the massacres, atrocities, accidents, corruption and crimes that make most of our recent history.

We don�t have many times that we acted as one as people (Put collor out of power was the one that I remenber ), but when we do most of time we get what we want.

We Brazilians are a great nation but we have a terrible habit of not caring that much about the future , just about the present.Our liders usually didnt did a great job either... Lilte by litle however things are changing and soon we will be able to show the world what we truly  can be^^

I least I hope so^^
C

Originally posted by Patch Originally posted by Aelfgifu I think my countries high and low are the very same thing.   In the Golden Age, late 15th and early 16th century, trade, modern economics, entrepeneurships and toleralnce towards others made us close to the riches and most prosperous nation on earth. This was the highlight.   The downside of it was, that much of that wealth was gained by ruthless colonialism, brutal slave-trade and agressive imperialism.   Were the Netherlands independant in the 15th and early 16th century?  I thought they were ruled by the Hapsburgs (HRE then Spain) until the late 16th century.

Mine had lot's of ups in the past. Heaps of downs as well.

I was under the impression that Heydar Aliev rather saved your country Kerimoglu...Elchibay was nothing but a dreamer. Shame he died and left all the power to his idiotic son.

Edited by mamikon - 25-Aug-2007 at 16:01

Originally posted by Claudio I�m live in Brazil so we dont have many ancients high peaks and falls...most of ours greatest mistakes are recent... I will list some of the mistakes: 1-slavery for so long time 2- When Fernando Collor freezed the accounts of millions of brazilians. 3-When we have our litle civil war in 1932 4-All the massacres, atrocities, accidents, corruption and crimes that make most of our recent history. ...

It's hard for me to think what the high and low points are in Canadian history..

Low--  -Genocide, or Divide and conquer of native peoples who live here--or when the native nations would side wholeheartedly with a colonial power, they would turn around and betray them whenever they were no longer needed
-The annexation of Manitoba in what is now Western Canada, when our first Prime Minister contrived a war and campaign of persecution against the peaceful M�tis people, to revive his sagging political fortunes.  Even in the 1960s there were cases of disposessed M�tis children starving to death on reservations, so you can see that the past never really disappears.
-Fighting in colonial wars like the Boer War, and WWI etc and being slaughtered in great numbers for the glory/advancement of the British Empire.  I think it's shameful that even today Canadian schoolchildren are taught that it was glorious for us to have helped exterminate the Afrikaners in south africa, or use poison gas against German soldiers in WWI--we are told that our soldiers were the most loyal and brave of all, surprising allies and foes alike with their fighting spirit. 
-Racial exclusion laws, the Chinese Head Tax, internment of Japanese Canadians during WWII,etc.
-Acting as a "good cop' to the US's "bad cop" at the UN, in Latin America,etc.  Canadian companies dealing in weapons, canadian mining companies being among the worst offenders in poor countries,etc.

High Points:
-Achieving a fairly stable multilingual country and ,since the 70s, allowing people into the country pretty much without any racial discrimination. (only economic and skills-based). 
-Doing some good work with the UN and other international institutions