Submitted 1 day ago by 
Grumpus_Maximus@thelemmy.club to historymemes@piefed.social
https://thelemmy.club/pictrs/image/17619815-2b50-4c15-82f2-7b78e9642d8b.jpeg
Explanation For Those Wondering: This is likely in reference to an Ottoman donation during the Irish Potato famine. The Ottomans donated a significant amount of money to famine relief. However, so the story goes, the British government was embarrassed that the amount the Ottoman Sultan initially proposed to send was greater than the amount sent by Queen Victoria, and so quietly asked the Ottomans to reduce it by a significant percentage.
Whether the story is true is another question entirely.
V believable.
Honestly, it wouldn’t be entirely out of left field. The British monarchy at that time was much more limited in its resources (despite still being fabulously wealthy) than the Ottoman monarchy, which effectively held total autocratic control of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, the Ottoman Sultan’s donation would have been, effectively, that of him and his government, whereas the donation of Queen Victoria would have been of the British royal family, but not that of the British government (which did contribute significant, if still vastly insufficient, relief).
Thus, the original donation would have been embarrassing to Queen Victoria (and thus the British government), but because her finances were largely separate from that of her Empire, rather than because she cared less.
Of course, the evidence for this is very thin on the ground, but it’s not implausible.
Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
At this point, PugJesus is responsible for about 50% of my history education.
PugJesus@piefed.social 4 hours ago
Just spreading a little trivia around! 🙏
Remember_the_tooth@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
You spread joy, my friend