Why do Britons visiting the United States know so little about the Battle of San Jacinto?

Question

Just wondering.

Answer 1

If it makes you feel any better, we've all heard of the Alamo.

Answer 2

I lived in Texas for the past year and San Jacinto was just a street name to me

Answer 3

Mind if I answer your question with another question:

Why do Americans visiting the Netherlands know so little about the Battle of Nieuwpoort?

You can't expect visitors to know every historical detail of your own country.

Answer 4

I don't understand why Britons would have anything to do with it, since it was a part of the Mexican-American War over Texas. The battle lasted all of 19 minutes. In that short time, 9 Americans were killed, while hundreds of Mexicans were killed or captured.

This battle was effectively the end of the battle over Texas because the next day, Santa Anna was captured.

Answer 5

Why would you expect them to know anything anout it?

Outside of Texas, it is a relatively minor historical event.  Be honest, would you put it on a list of the top one hundred American history events, or even two hundred?  

"Why do Britons visiting the United States know so little about the Battle of Fallen Timbers?"   This is the equivalent of your question, set in a different geographical area.  Sounds ridiculous right?  Then again, they're more likely to have heard of Fallen TImbers because it at least has a direct connection to Briton's colonialism.  Which makes your question a magnitude further away from being common knowledge than this one.

Answer 6

Why should they know a lot about it? We're talking about a battle that is part of US history, and more specifically Texan history. How much does the average American visiting England know about the Battle of Hastings? Probably about as much as the average Briton visiting the US. It's not like we're taught very much here in the US about the history of other countries outside of college courses we may elect to take. I don't see why it should be any different for folks in other countries concerning our history. We certainly aren't the most important country on the face of this Earth (in fact I don't see any country fitting that bill) so there is absolutely no reason that our history should be mandatory for people from around the world to know.

Answer 7

It's probably because, unless I took an American History course in university, I wouldn't have heard of it. I studied North American history in grades 7 and 8 -- most of which had to do with 18th and 19th century battles between my country and what is now one of our closest friends.

So I do know about the Battle of Queenston Heights, which many people don't. In fact, my parents made a point of making sure that I visited most of the historic battle sites in Canada.

Answer 8

wow, I am a bit of a history buff and I know next to nothing about that particular battle so I wouldn't expect Brits to know about it either!  lol

Answer 9

I would't expect them to. Most Americans have probably never heard of it either.