Making Sense of History
This meme above is a humorous commentary on British colonialism. The joke in the meme implies that during the 18th and 19th centuries, the British Empire expanded so aggressively that no matter where you were in the world, relaxing peacefully on your beach, sooner or later, “the British” would arrive to colonize your land.
In other words, the cloud shaped like Britain symbolizes the sudden and often unwelcome arrival of British imperial power looming overhead.
More about the process:
This meme humorously compares modern internet debates with prehistoric human behaviour.
Top text:
The meme above is a joke about the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which existed in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1861.
So why was it called the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies when there is clearly only 1 Sicily?
This is because Britain had such a vast empire, many modern countries celebrate their independence from British rule. There are so many of these independence days that, statistically, one occurs roughly once a week.
See the following map:
From the charts creator:
Breakdown:
Here’s the deal:
The meme above is sort of meta meme about how France is often portrayed as losing wars and battles rather than winning them.
One of the more memorable ones was the early 2000s Google Bomb for French Miliary Victories.
See below:
The meme humorously criticizes how European colonial powers divided up Africa during the late 19th century, particularly during the Berlin Conference (1884–1885), with little regard for the continent’s ethnic, cultural, or linguistic diversity.
Heres’ the text: