I'm pretty sure that most of the underlying things you've been talking about are functions of how a society worked during one or more periods of stress, Rex. So maybe we could also look at points of stress and points of change? I'll have a nose around - I'm patchy on a multitude of areas, so maybe I'll find something.

Hmm... Rex, the idea of "religion is bad" is probably a combination of factors, so I suggest we look into that particular prejudice as well.

and @ Raven - clarified.

I think you'll find that a lot of them repeat. For example, the Romans thought that the Britons were "primitive" and "stupid" because they didn't have the same military technology, and the Romans wanted to conquer them anyway. Eventually, the Britons set out building their own empire, and encountered many other civilizations, considering them to be "primitive" and "stupid" and many other variations on the same theme, because they had military technology that didn't work so well against them, and they wanted to take over. History repeats itself a lot, even though there are both common and individual factors in every situation.

Never said it was simple, Rex. Just pointing out that, functionally, for every single factor that is unique to a certain group/time/place/culture, you're going to get a handful that can be boiled down to the basic mistakes of mankind.

I know you've already got romans and american and brittish history people, so I'll do some sniffing around the rest of the "ancient" world. I'll also take the conquistadores and the mesoamericans.

Okay, so i decided to do Australia in the 70s. Because changes in social attitudes are easier to analyse than static social values, at least for me.

So, in the 70s most of Australia became more understanding of people of different genders, sexualities, nations and races. The idea of gender equality was present in Australia since before Federation (1901). More from a progression of the assimilation of cultures of the post-WWII immigrants than anything else, the average Australian also became less racist. This effect was compounded during the Vietnam War. A large number of Australians protested the war, and coming off this event the country began to view the British Monarchy as unnecessary and an impediment on Australian democracy. This led to the first wave of Republicanism in Australia.

So, basically tolerance was heightened because of events in the states (African American Rights Movement and Feminist Movement). It also was given a boost because of it's past strength in Australian culture, which could be traced back to the children of the convicts.

And the public opinion of imperialism was quite suddenly changed. Losing a war seems to have the effect of hating whatever establishment lost.

@ Rex: Mostly what I've got is a) conflict between groups under the control of those vast empires of the Aztec and Inca and b) what happened when spanish conquistadores encountered such groups, then c) spanish colonizing of mexico and everything (besides brazil, obviously) to the south.
Specific? I actually have to look up dates and stuff to make sure that things were happening at the times that I think they were happening.

[quote="US_of_Alaska"]Longpost. [quote]
That's a good way to break it down. I've got a class system coming from imperialism too, so I'm starting to think that it's one of the commonalities. (Though there are other class systems in other times that don't necessarily stem from imperialism...) I need to go home and get my books, though.