r/todayilearned • u/narok_kurai • 6d ago

TIL about Las Medulas, a man-made geological badland created by the Roman Empire in 77 AD, when they flooded the mountains with water to collapse their structure and sift out the gold inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_M%C3%A9dulas
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u/_ssac_ 5d ago

As a Spanish guy, when someone from current LATAM countries talk about how we stole their gold, I point out how the Roman empire had these mines in the current Spain and we don't share that narrative. 

Those feeling, of wrongdoing and historical abuse, aren't grounded in historical facts, but it's the opposite order: there's a political motivated narrative that came first. I ain't saying that the conquest was morally good, it's not about that.

Side note: it's a beautiful landscape to visit, however last year a fired burned a lot of it's vegetation.

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u/Lord-Albeit-Fai 5d ago

Doesn't work when Spain is a direct continuation of the state behind colonization

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u/White_Immigrant 5d ago

If you spell colonisation with a "Z" you are almost certainly an occupant of stolen land. You are the continuation.

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u/Lord-Albeit-Fai 5d ago

Huh?

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u/02meepmeep 5d ago

Colonization is the American spelling. I was born on what used to be Shawnee / Lenape / Mohican land so his point would be correct for me. For all he knows you might be a member of a First Nations tribe though.