Americans, are your middle ages England's middle ages?

[Feirefiz]

One thing that I have noticed from time to time is that often Americans seem to choose England's past as their own. Obviously there are ties to Britain in America's history. Yet sometimes it seems remarkable to an outsider. Although of course British colonies formed the nucleus of the country and the common language emphasizes the connection, only a fraction of current American's ancestors were actually British.

If you are thinking of the middle ages it seems only natural that the local version shapes that image. Of course certain aspects are shared across country borders. On the other hand peculiarities of countries other than the one you consider the default are associated with those places more than the period. For example in my case, the Reconquista is a Spanish thing, not an integral part of my personal concept of the middle ages.

Americans, when you think of the middle ages, do you think of the English version? Did the medieval world change in 1066? Is Richard the Lionheart more part of your past than Frederick Babarossa? In Agincourt, which side was your guys? (And if you think that's because the longbowmen make for such great protodemocratic glurge, why not Arnold Winkelried?)

[Taumpy]

Yes, for me they are. Some of my ancestors are from the British isles (though they were Scots, not English), but I don't think that's why. In school whenever the middle ages were covered, it was mostly centered around England's history with them, as you say, portrayed as "the good guys".

That might be changing now, I don't know.

[The Original An Gadaí]

I attended a History class at my gf's college and it covered the Black Death. I was somewhat annoyed that the lecturer didn't seem to distinguish between different regions when talking about it. I think it was just presumed by her and the students that it was England they were talking about.

[What Exit?]

England does dominate but for what it is worth, Italy or I should say the various petty kingdoms and city-states of Italy dominate the Renaissance. Our heritage is English in nature despite being a huge melting pot. The 13 colonies broke away from England and then for the last 100 years England has been our greatest ally and vice-versa and I doubt any other two nations in history have been as close and worked as well together.

So our case-law, our teaching and of course our language is all tied to the colonies' English roots and our deep friendship with England keeps the ties close I believe.

[OtakuLoki]

Yes, English history is seen to be the father of American History. Obviously this is a simplification of the reality, but as What Exit? says, it's a simplification that has a lot of accuracy behind it. In addition to the linguistic heritage the OP mentioned, there's the legal traditions which while changed from those the UK share the same roots. Then consider how much of American philosophy has it's roots in Protestant thinking, esp. filtered through either the New England Calvinists, or through the traditions of the Episcopal Church. Whatever a modern American's background, I think that most of them all accept the idea that the individual has to make his or her final choice about what morality will be for them. This is obviously a concept that shook all of Europe, but the way it got filtered here was through the lens of the English experience.

Even when dealing with peoples who were trying to escape the UK.

It's also worth noting that for all the American lip-service towards being pro-immigration, there's been a very strong, and often ugly, current of xenophobia through American culture. More often than not the standard for what was norm was WASP - and distinctly English WASPness. The pressures on the Germanic immigrants of the first decades of this nation were powerful. For example the first time there was a movement to choose an official language for the US, it was in reaction to the great numbers of Germanic immigrants who were coming over with little to no fluency in English. The story about Mrs. O'Leary's cow starting the Great Chicago Fire is often pointed to as being part of the general slurs, at the time, on Irish immigrants. La Casa Nostra gained a lot of influence here in the states because the WASP powers that were were making things so rough on the many Italian immigrants they had to set up self-help societies. This is one of the roots for why so many Americans, today, have such mixed views of organized crime: While such gangs were predators, they often also served as protectors for their people who couldn't get a fair shake from the authorities.

Historically, with mass immigration waves, assimilation didn't really begin until the second generation started socializing with the majority culture in the schools. There, the combination of normal teen desires to fit in, and the official stigma for being different would often combine to bend the immigrant cultures until they could present a safely WASP image to the rest of American society.