My grandmother loved to tell the story of how the Ompompanoosuc River, in Vermont, got its name.

A European explorer came to the area and found a young girl, asking the name of the river. The young Native girl, desperate to get medical help for her father, I believe the local chief, but she didn't really understand English. She knew the explorer was English, though, so she cried out "ompampanoosuc" -- "My papa is sick!" The traveler didn't catch on, though, so it's been immortalized as Ompompanoosuc.

Canada was named because when the locals were asked the name of the place the explorers landed, they replied with the local name -- "The Village". This became the name for all of the land in the northern third or so of the continent, instead of the more accurate few square kilometers (or miles), and possibly even less than that, ignoring the vast multitude of different cultures, people, and languages in the new (to Europeans) place.

And I think this is part of the answer. In today's pop culture, the US is king. The Barbary Slave Trade (BST) didn't impact US culture. Sure, it impacted European and likely African and even Western Asian society, with effects still felt today, but the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST) affected North America, South America, and Africa. Combined with the TAST captive numbering 10 times what the BST trafficked, it makes it a larger impact. Add in also that many textbooks are written in North America by North American publishers, and the topics are going to focus on New World events, particularly US History.

I also checked, and Greece's population is estimated to be about 10 million. The US is approximately 333 million. New York City alone is approximately 8.8 million. Canada has approximately 39 million, Mexico 129 million, and Brazil 217 million. And local impact is always larger than something from further away. Plus, over 13 years of schooling for students in the US and Canada, there's approximately 15,000 hours of school (180 days per year, 13 years, from about 5 (Kindergarten) through 18 (12th grade). That time has to be divided between reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and other curriculum requirements.

Let's say approximately 750 of those hours are spent learning about world history, which is what the BST falls under for anyone in North or South America. Those 750 hours needs to cover all of history, from the stirrings of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the other early civilisations, through to at least post World War II, though that still leaves about 50 years of history untouched. That's approximately 6,000+ years of events covering 7 continents, because we do need to understand how North and South America fit into these, and we reall6only cover our own country in the rest of our history classes, not even really our neighbors. So there are many, many, many events that are left out that still have a major impact on society daily, even centuries later.we don't spend much time talking about Australia's colonization, about the changing political landscape of Europe beyond the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Crusades, and the World Wars. We barely touch on the Moors and Islamic spread through Europe, much less Africa and Asia. There is so much of history that gets culled out of what's taught because it's impossible to include everything. Greek history essentially covers Ancient Greece, through about Alexander, until the Romans dominated the Mediterranean.

I am someone who enjoys learning, including on my own. I've spent a lot of time watching history documentaries, and what I can find generally covers about the same content as the basic school curriculum covers. Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, snippets of China, snippets of other cultures, but mostly small and not well made. Lots of World War II, lots of the aggressive parts of history. But to understand anything else, there's just not much content for teachers to use to teach about things like BST, and tough choices about what not to teach to include BST, if their local curriculum mandates even allow the flexibility.

It's been said that history is written by the winners, and at this point in time, culturally, that's the US. Hopefully, it becomes more balanced in years to come, but the choices of what to cull to make room become even harder.

(And for reference, I grew up in New England, moved to Indianapolis for about 16 years, and have since moved to Canada.)