What country has the LEAST BAD history? | JJ McCullough | History Teacher Reacts

Are there any countries that do NOT have a dark history? What country has the "least bad" history? Which countries have the darkest histories? What do these questions even mean? JJ McCullough gives his take on the countries with the least bad histories. Mr. Terry adds the historical context, gives his take, and has many questions for YOU the viewer!

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[MrTerry]

Which country has the "least bad" history? Who has the worst history?

[lobsters]

North Korea would absolutely claim they have a perfect history

[DFluent]

So as someone who was born and raised in the Caribbean Trinidad and Tobago (desendant of slaves)....British doesn't have influence in trinidad unlike Canada (where I currently reside) I think what he fails to account for is how new the countries are. Give any country time and their always would be something to account for. Also, we have a huge Indian population in trinidad as well who are decendants of indentured laborers.

[Quiet.Katie.]

My son is a history major. I am desperately trying to keep up with him, but his mind retains and connects the dots so much better than mine. Your videos are helping me immensely. Your laid back style and the way you point out little caveats, and add more context, makes me feel a little smarter. So, thank you so much 😊

[adam-obaseball]

There is a group of countries I was rather confused that JJ didn't bring up when I watched this video the first time: the South Pacific. Tonga, Vanuatu, Palau are examples in my eyes (more research needed on my part). I also think those are countries that answers your question at the beginning, countries built more on their indigenous population than people moving in.

[_.soymilk]

1:09 yeah Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples was and still is terrible but people outside of Canada usually don’t know, good thing people are talking about it more.
The program you mentioned were residential schools, federally-funded religious boarding “schools”. There was rampant abuse towards the children, sexual and otherwise, many deaths. It’s really bad. The last residential school closed in 1990s, not so long ago. Canada covers their shit up well

[castform]

As a finn, the WW2 stuff is a whole double edged sword. You have a great big enemy approaching from the east, a neutral party in the west, and a powerful expanding force in the south west. The south west force has a mutual enemy in the east, so you get 2 options: 1, struggle a bit and die in the process without allies, or 2, even the odds with the force in the south west. Then it becomes just an issue of smaller individuals, like those who would take part in the SS atrocities.

Anyway, on another topic. The dictatorship is an interesting one many people don't consider. In the left-right liberal-authoritarian compass the dictators line up at the top of authoritarian regardless of left-right. Following the US leadership circus, a whole bunch is firmly placing themselves way up in the top authoritarian edge.

[Labyrinth]

Every country and civilization that has ever existed has had war or conflict with their own people, neighbors, or enemies abroad. It’s a bit hypocritical when any group claims that they were victims of colonizers when they themselves came from ancestors that did the same exact thing in order for their civilization to even exist. How many of them do you think have ever existed and have been wiped out and never left a single trace?

[jadedaim]

As a Swede I can say that we were definitely not neutral towards Nazi Germany in WW2, politically we technically were yes. But in the end of the day the actions of Sweden during the war clearly suggests that we were not, people may have heard of the nomination of Hitler for the Nobel peace price and that was a nomination from a member of the Swedish parliament as satire cause he deemed the debate regarding Germany to be too pro Nazi. Also there was strong connections between the royal family in Sweden and highly ranked Nazi generals. Folke Bernadotte who is renowned for being a savior of Jews since he helped initiate the white bus campaigns to get out Swedish Jews from the concentration camps also after war said something along the lines of Heinrich Himmler being a great guy. I Do not have a source on this last detail, but I recall reading about a journalist in Sweden being sentenced to a smaller time in jail cause he wrote a article that was too critical of Hitler.

[novaboy]

I would have to say Atlantis. The only good country I can think of has to be a mystical one surrounded by dolphins and mermaids.

[alexandremuise]

24m ''are people good or bad?"

''The line between good and evil rests within the individual human heart.'' Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Also, lesson from the book Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning; anyone without exception is at risk of committing the worst atrocities, given the proper circumstances.

[tamiausten]

24:38 one Nigerian recently said" life is not hard (tough), people are just wicked" . That sums it up for me. I don't know what we did in the past that earned us our current president and the pit our currency value has fallen into.

[szariq]

One could argue about dictatorships, that were forced on other nations. On example I'm pretty sure civilians of European non-Soviet Union countries didn't want communism, which is quite proved by the fact, that in almost every decade there was a moment of unrest (like June of '56 or Prague spring).
I would also consider the history of moral leadership of civilians fighting the immorality. That is why Poland and Czechia are not that bad in history.
Of course we can't do some 4D chess stuff, where good events somehow decrease the weight of bad events, so every country has some burden to carry, however I could compare moral decisions to be a moment of strengthening a country, so that the burden it carries feels lighter.

[joshuawells]

To answer your question about nations of predominantly indigenous people, I recently saw a short that detailed a genealogical study that found a majority of Mexicans have indigenous ancestry, with Northern Mexico having the largest demographic of indigenous people. I imagine other nations in Latin America have a similar trend.

[JuhoPurola]

The issue with Sami people and Finland is a lot more complex than a modern state and indigenous people. The Sami and Finns originally came to the area of modern day Finland and northern Scandinavia around the same time, so the only big way Sami and modern Finns are different is that the culture of the Finns was violently erased by the Christian Sweden of centuries past. The Cultural genocide of the Sami is an extension of the same being already done to Finns. While still abhorrent, it is way different from the american understanding of similar issues.

[tjbjornson]

Good point about using the term as the person you are discussing with defines it. At that point he could call it "fargle bargle" instead of dictatorship, but he defined specifically as that form of government/rule so the definition is the same. Just because I think "fargle bargle" is a kind of warm cheese sauce means nothing.

[aurthurpendragon]

It always makes me facepalm whenever people try and claim that the descendants of people that did bad things like colonization need to feel "guilt" for what their ancestors did. It's absolutely ridiculous, and does nothing to help bring people together, all it does is make people depressed over something they had no part in. It's fine to feel bad about the past and to acknowledge it, but to say people have to take personal responsibility for something they had no part in is absurd.

Also, I'm a believer that morality is defined by time period and cultural expectations, so if there's a time period and/or culture where stuff like that is normalized, then it is not immoral.

[mr]

Really enjoy your videos and reactions. Big fan.

[Zy]

Sweden WAS strategically important to the Nazis in WWII. In fact, it was one of the reasons for the invasion of Norway. More precisely, one of the best iron ore deposits on Earth (still being mined to this day) is found in the far North of Sweden at Kiruna. Because the Baltic Sea tends to freeze in winter, the primary way of exporting the ore is to ship it by rail over the mountains to the Norwegian port of Narvik (which was one of the first targets of the invasion).

Regarding indigenous nations, I would look at some of the Pacific Island nations. And maybe North Sentinel Island (which is basically no-mans land).

[Suno-ta-sei]

Man i missed JJ. i don't know why i don't see his vids and shorts in my feed anymore 😢