How common are the following activities historically?
score:4
This happened in Turkey, as part of a deliberate attempt to replace old names:
Approximately 12,000 village names that are non-Turkish, understood to originate from non-Turkish roots, and identified as causing confusion have been examined and replaced with Turkish names, and put into effect by the Substitution Committee for Foreign Names functioning at the Directorate General for Provincial Governments in our Ministry.[27]
Note that this is after a period where many older names had already been changed by the Ottomans from the Greek. (Constantinople -> Istanbul), though in a less organized why. And of course some of these cities were also renamed when the Romans acquired them in the first place.
"Mass" renaming usually happens in the context of military conquest, as in what the Ottomans, the Romans, or the exchange of German names for Polish names as @luiz mentions, but as the Turkish example shows, the Indian changes for political reasons are not unique. Usually when this happens, it's the result of an indigenous population taking over from a "foreign" minority, for instance, as in South Africa. This may be exhibited in the names becoming more aligned with the ethnic majority, or they may just be the removal of names seen as representing foreign oppressors.
Note that the the change of individual names for political reasons is incredibly common, from Constantine renaming a city after himself, through the shoguns rebranding Edo as Tokyo, to the revolving door name of what is now St. Petersburg. At the lower level, this sort of thing happens endlessly. In the US, there's currently a debate about the names of schools, and a couple decades before that the US saw a wave of streets renamed for Martin Luther King Jr..
So yes, renaming things for political reasons is as old as politics.
Upvote:2
When German territory was given to Poland at the end of WWII, many names changed.
http://polandpoland.com/names_german_polish.html
I had a German colleague whose grandma was born in these lands (Silesia), and she was expelled to Germany after the war. After the iron curtain fell, she went back there to visit her old farm... Buildings, roads, and all names were gone - small rivers, cities, no place mark or road sign had any sense to her. The only things she could recognize were some landscapes and trees - she even found a tree nearby where her brother had a tire swing as a child.
The Polish people were cooperative and she could tour her old farm, even if no building from her time is left standing.
Similar issues in the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, wiki lists german, russian and polish names:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inhabited_localities_in_Kaliningrad_Oblast
More post
- 📝 Why did Europe not see Roman-era numbers of men participating in battles until the 17th century?
- 📝 Why did the communist party lose in Telangana in India's first general elections?
- 📝 Did British soldiers in WWI on the Western Front get paid in foreign currency?
- 📝 How low on ammunition were the Germans at Stalingrad when they surrendered?
- 📝 Why did the United States want to "make Europe prosperous once more" with the Marshall Plan?
- 📝 How can one reliably date a carved stone item or structure?
- 📝 Did American colonists object to the protections of Catholicism in the Quebec Act?
- 📝 How was security on the Silk Road between China and the West maintained?
- 📝 Who was the first monarch?
- 📝 How were siege ladders used to attack medieval castle walls?
- 📝 Where can I find the earliest surviving versions of Herodotus's Histories?
- 📝 What flag are the men in these photos flying?
- 📝 Why wasn't awareness of Australia more widespread in pre-colonial Asia?
- 📝 Was California's request for a Mexico border fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River acted upon?
- 📝 Was the Dargah Shrine at Ajmer built over a Hindu temple?
- 📝 Why did some regions end their prehistory much before others?
- 📝 When did banishment/exile cease to be enforceable, if it ever was?
- 📝 Why did the German army execute so few soldiers in World War I compared to most other armies?
- 📝 What type of provisions would seafarers use in the mid 19th century?
- 📝 How did native Hawaiians achieve such a high literacy rate prior to the 1850s?
- 📝 Who was the first Renaissance cartographer to include rich content in their maps that went beyond spatial points, borders, and location names?
- 📝 Did the Carthaginians have the option of sending Hannibal to Sicily?
- 📝 What oath did medical students take in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945?
- 📝 How did steppe-nomad military tactics change in response to widespread firearms in the 18th/19th centuries?
- 📝 How many languages did Zhang Shenfu speak?
- 📝 How much did cannon cost in 1410?
- 📝 What is the reason for the modern prominence of the Confederate battle flag, as opposed to some other Confederate flag?
- 📝 Was pie crust originally meant for throwing away in England?
- 📝 What factors made Austria adhere to "Diplomacy through marriage" doctrine?
- 📝 Where did Hannibal cross the Pyrenees?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How common are the following activities historically?
- 📝 How historically accurate are the subplots about poison gas and false flag assassinations in Babylon Berlin?
- 📝 How historically accurate are the Assassin's Creed games?
- 📝 How would a king's servants prove that they are on a task given by the king?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 How common was smoking in first half of the 20th century?
- 📝 How common was marriage between nobles and peasants in the Middle Ages?
- 📝 How common are major cities not built by abundant water?
- 📝 How long, historically speaking, did it take to tally and report the vote?
- 📝 How common was it for people to live 80+ years in the 17th century?
- 📝 How common was it for un-documented ships to bring settlers to the American colonies 1700-1750
- 📝 How many pens were used by MacArthur to end the final chapter of World War II and where are they now?
- 📝 How were the day-to-day activities of the French Resistance financed?
- 📝 How common was decimation in the Roman army?
- 📝 How common are historical instances of mercenary armies reversing and attacking their employing country?
- 📝 How common were horses at the beginning of the 20th century?
- 📝 How common was it for Americans to visit Europe in the late 19th century?
- 📝 How common was drug abuse and related deaths in the USA during the conservative 1950s?
- 📝 How common was the German desire for revenge for the humiliation of 1918 armistice?
- 📝 How historically accurate was the Queen's trip to Ghana portrayed in Episode 8 of The Crown?
- 📝 How common was gun ownership by Londoners in the early 20th century?
- 📝 How did currency exchange work in the Middle Ages, especially if the coins are not recognized?
- 📝 Are there any hypotheses on how the Dorset people disappeared?
- 📝 Are the following 5 tenets of historical record examination considered complete today?
- 📝 How true to the originals are Che Guevara's published diaries?
- 📝 In Montgomery, Alabama, how common was it to be arrested for sitting in the incorrect section of the bus?
- 📝 How historically accurate was the movie "Charlie Wilson's War"?
- 📝 How common were professional musicians before the advent of recorded music?
- 📝 What is the origin of how people are arranged in Mass/Worship Service?
- 📝 How common among Abolitionists was the goal of complete civil equality for Blacks?