Heritage

Contentsassessment points for peace education based on heritage39tlTeaching limitationInformation about the past is not always historically correct or fully available. 1 Onthe contrary, the stories that people, or even books, tell are often slanted. It is thereforeimportant to pay attention to the reliability of the sources. Think about who thesource was, and where and why the information was recorded.Language can also be misleading: be sure to use the right word in the right place!‘Germany’ and ‘England’ were not involved in the battles of the First World War. Theparties involved were the German Empire and the British Empire (including theirformer colonies in Africa and Asia).Many problems are associated with the process of updating history. This does notmean, however, that historical projects should avoid current relevance. Perhaps themost important message of any historical project is that history does not offer unequivocaland ready-made answers. In this regard, we must certainly not forget therole of propaganda and biased information. History is often the story written by thewinner. In this context, the contribution of underwater archaeology can be decisive,and can illustrate this distortion of factual sources.tt Teaching tipThe LusitaniaOne of the worst sea disasters, and the disaster with perhaps the greatest historicalinfluence in the First World War, was the sinking of RMS Lusitania, which is oftencited as the second most well-known shipwrecks after the Titanic. The Lusitania wasa British ocean liner that was briefly the world’s biggest ship. At the outbreak of warin 1914, it was used as an armed cruiser, but proved unsuitable and was allowed toresume passenger services on the condition that it carried government cargoes.The German Empire had declared the seas around Great Britain, which then stillincluded Ireland, to be an unrestricted war zone, and passengers in the US had beenspecifically warned not to sail aboard the Lusitania. The German embassy in Washingtoneven distributed a notice warning passengers that the ship was to enter a war zone.1 For a more detailed example, go to Annex II (Underwater Cultural Heritage from the First World War)– The endangered heritage of Jutland – project on submarines by Innes McCartney.