Different countries' national tragedies (schools, law, estimated)

[kelsius]

What are considered the 'national tragedies' of each country? In Israel, it's the Holocaust, in America, 9/11, in Ireland, the Potato Famine. Armenia has the Armenian Genocide. Norway, the Utoya massacre.

By national tragedy I mean an event that changed and traumatized that nationality to such an extent that it became a permanent part of what being that nationality/ethnicity is about, and that evokes a lot of emotion and patriotic remembrance.

[LindavG]

For the Netherlands it's WW2 and the flood of 1953

(original footage)

[slowlane3]

Obviously the Rwandan genocide, the Haitian earthquake, the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by kelsius

What are considered the 'national tragedies' of each country? In Israel, it's the Holocaust, in America, 9/11, in Ireland, the Potato Famine. Armenia has the Armenian Genocide. Norway, the Utoya massacre.

By national tragedy I mean an event that changed and traumatized that nationality to such an extent that it became a permanent part of what being that nationality/ethnicity is about, and that evokes a lot of emotion and patriotic remembrance.

I would wonder if the Partition of Ireland by Britain might be considered by the Irish as a tragedy of importance equal to that of the Famine.

Al Nakba, the flight of refugees and the ethnic cleansing of other Palestinians from the newly declared state of Israel.

[BigCityDreamer]

In the U.S., it's the Civil War (1861-1865), Pearl Harbor (1941) and 9/11 (2001). More than 620,000 people died during the Civil War. The U.S. has not experienced anything like it before or since. It is well-remembered to this day.

[BIMBAM]

Canada has had many tragedies, but what truly defined us and scarred us as a people was the separatist movement in Quebec, from the October crisis and bombings of the early seventies to the Independence referendums in 1980 and 1995. While the result of both referendums was that Quebec voted not to separate, those three decades effected the Canadian psyche in a similar way that the civil war effected the American one and The Troubles effected Ireland. I think a great victory for us is that we dealt with it through law and democracy and except for the very early years of the FLQ it's been a remarkably bloodless ideological conflict. So it was a tragedy in the sense of it's social impact on Quebec and Canada (too complicated to cite specifics as to the many different effects), but we never let it bubble up into a civil war. It traumatized us in many ways and there's still alot of bad blood, but it's not like Tibet/China thing, Quebec was founding member of the federation and while Anglo/Franco relations are strained we're essentially much closer than a foreign eye might imagine at first glance, like feuding family members.

The residential schools was the tragedy with the most lasting effect on our Aboriginal societies because it destroyed family life and led to all kinds of dysfunction. This too was an ongoing social process that was destructive. While we had big wars like the Red River rebellions of the 19th century, modern Canada hasn't been big on sudden society changing moments, just long processes of social change and sometimes things happen in government that reflect those changes.

[paull805]

In Scotland in my lifetime it would be the Dunblane massacre, the ages of the victims made it all the more horrifying.

Dunblane school massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In history it has got to be the world wars where about 1.2 million Brits were killed. The 2nd world war killed 2.5% of the worlds population, astonishing.

World War I casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World War II casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[erasure]

Originally Posted by paull805

In Scotland in my lifetime it would be the Dunblane massacre, the ages of the victims made it all the more horrifying.

Dunblane school massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In history it has got to be the world wars where about 1.2 million Brits were killed. The 2nd world war killed 2.5% of the worlds population, astonishing.

World War I casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World War II casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yeah, for Russians - WWII I would think, definitely. With over 20 million people dead, huge ( and intended) civilian casualties - it reinforced their distrust towards the West, as in "nothing good can come from there for us."
The most recent event - the nineties - only reinforced this sentiment.

[NightBazaar]

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. Death toll estimated between 184,000 to as many as 280,000. The bodies of many who perished have never been recovered, so an accurate count is impossible.

There's also the more recent earthquake/tsunami of Japan. Almost 16,000 confirmed dead.

[Sagitarrius48]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

In the U.S., it's the Civil War (1861-1865), Pearl Harbor (1941) and 9/11 (2001). More than 620,000 people died during the Civil War. The U.S. has not experienced anything like it before or since. It is well-remembered to this day.

Yes, but all of this is really "small potatoes" compared to the rest of the world.