Why Do We Study History?

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Why do we study history? To arouse and develop interest in the past -Know more about the past by asking questions about how and why things began and developed - e.g. Why did the Chinese build the Great Wall? Why did the Egyptians build the Great Pyramid? How did Hong Kong develop from a small & unimportant place to an international centre of trade, industry & finance? -To appreciate and learn from the achievements and great works of art, architecture, literature & music e.g. paintings by Leonardo da Vinci poems of Li Bai music of Chopin and Beethoven Taj Mahal in India To understand the present -To understand our world better - To learn from our past mistakes, e.g. WW1 & WW2 and try to avoid WW3 - Perhaps to make the world a better place to live in To develop a sense of belonging -Through the study of history, we find out who we are, where we came from and how we developed our identity (e.g. from British overseas subjects to Chinese citizens of HKSAR) => a sense of belonging to our city & country -We then know what we can do to make our community a better place to live in -We will be proud of the successes of our forefathers love our motherland To understand people -We will not laugh at foreigners because of their ‘strange’ customs, language and clothing, but by studying history we learn why they are different from us -History helps us understand people from all over the world and to live in peace with them -By studying the lives of important men & women in history, we understand their achievements and mistakes: e.g Christopher Columbus, Florence Nightingale, Hitler etc. To prepare for adult life Knowing more about our local history and society can help us prepare for adult life & become good citizens -We learn

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