New US finance minister - can he even handwrite?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Actually you've only been around that long on paper.

The French have been around since the Roman Empire. No, wait, they like to say their revolution changed everything, yet it was based on ours.

The Germans have been around just as long. No, wait, there's really only been a Germany since 1870.

The Brits have been around forever, but they've changed governments so many times that they're really not much older than we are, if at all.

In fact, no European government or way of life is really all that old. In fact, my ancestors are mostly English, with some German thrown in, and we can trace the family name back to the 400s. How do I compare in all this?

955 - Battle on the Lechfeld near Augsburg. First time that kingdoms and small dukedoms under the leadership of Otto I. united against the shared enemy, the Hungarians, who raided "German" territories and plundered them. This is seen as the birth date of a German identity.

962 - first German king was crowned in Rome and declared first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation.

The point is this, Steve. The formal nations called "Germany", "France" or "England" were just a late, if not the last step in a log process of identity forming. The feeling of being one people, one cultural entity of shared origin and history, is much older. And it is more important than a formality.

And the Brits, who "were around since ever", the Anglosaxons - well, there was a time when there were Angles and Saxons, and no Anglosaxons... And then formed up the socalled English... And the socalled Normans... The French intermezzo..., Great Britain is relatively late compared to all that - and still, the foundation of its heritage lies much longer back in time than just since the first Union Jack was raised.