A bit tangential, but I wonder if anyone else (in the US) discovered they had a big hole in their knowledge of the "old world" and its history?

I feel like I understand these pictures a bit better after learning some history

I discovered this hole recently, in my 40's ... I thought I had a good education, but I don't recall learning anything about Europe or Asia past some very cursory stuff in 8th grade. Like "Genghis Khan created the largest land empire", and that's about it

I feel like I didn't understand movies like "Gladiator" because I didn't know who any of the peoples are, but maybe you're not supposed to understand it, and are just watching the fights

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I have mentioned Fall of Civilizations of before, and the latest episode is nearly 7 hours on the Mongols!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFwMDuAnS4

One primary thing it impressed on me was the thousands of years of conflict between "settled peoples" and "nomads". I didn't realize that was such a huge theme lol

i.e. how steppe nomads rose and fell in cycles, over thousands of years, e.g. from the Xiongnu to the Huns to Tatars and Mongols - probably in accordance with weather

Regarding the Mongols, it's a bit crazy how they intersected with the Chinese, Persians, Arabs, Russians, and Europeans in such a short time period

And when their technological advantage eroded, all those civilizations basically "started" or started again

I think the geography was one of the big missing parts, and how that affects agriculture and the nomadic lifestyle

And how that gave them a devastating advantage in war (killing soldiers almost like killing animals)

But then that advantage disappeared, and over hundreds of years, they had to retreat into the most undesirable land.

I also find it interesting how easy it would have been to lose knowledge of all these peoples