Mythologization of history
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Mythologization of history
Mythologization of history is an effort to attribute to a current nation or state the attributes of some more glorious time, particularly when stronger leaders than the supposedly weak ones of the present held dominion over a greater expanse of territory or possessed more independence than the weak ones of the time. At worst such an attempts includes racist doctrines, including those that underpinned the expansionist efforts of nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and militarist Japan that culminated in World War II.
Some reconstitutions of independent states which had lain under foreign domination have a rational basis; such countries as Greece, Poland, Ireland, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Czech Republic have a continuous heritage of culture through some often-bleak era of nearly-colonial rule by foreign powers. No myth is necessary for the reconstitution of such a state. Where a myth appears is when someone seeks to restore some empire irrespective of the national or religious realities that make such a restoration implausible. The empire of Alexander the Great, Roman Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Caliphate, the European colonial empires of most of the rest of the world, and even the Soviet Union are gone forever because any voluntary basis for their re-establishment no longer exists.