The Importance of Monuments Essay Example

Monuments have been used since the beginning of human history. While the style and type of monuments have changed over time and location, their function has remained similar throughout time, and across the globe. They are typically used to honor someone or something, but monuments have more effects than merely honor. Monuments without proper education about who they honor or what they symbolize are harmful to the political world as people blindly follow monuments’ messages without knowing the story behind them.

Rulers and governmental leaders use monuments to show their reign and legitimize power. Christopher S. Mackay, PhD in Classical Philology, Harvard University, weighs in on the importance of monuments in the Roman Empire, typically built and restored by the emperor, in his article: “Clearly, the erection of a public monument in commemoration of oneself during one's lifetime was a very high form of gloria and played a major role in acquiring a permanent mystique for oneself” (167). In Ancient Rome, emperors created monuments honoring war heroes along with themselves to display their political power and get the subjects of their rule to agree with their political motives. This is similar to the use of monuments in Egypt, purported in an article by Klaus Kreiser, researcher from the German Archeological Institute in Istanbul. “It goes without saying that the Egyptian rulers wanted to express the shift in political power in their own way and that public sculpture was part of this immortalization of the new Egyptian dynasty” (106). These rulers used monuments to legitimize the reign of their dynasty. In both locations and time periods, rulers used monuments to constitute their rule.

Rulers used monuments for the same purpose in other instances as well. Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, associate professor of art history at the University of California, Davis, discusses the use of monuments by the Mamluks, Turkic slaves that gained control over Egypt and Syria, to validate their rule over the Arab regions: “Only in the Mamluk state, however, did the former slaves command an empire, and their journey from the most wrenching abjection to the height of power is one of Islamic history's most intriguing episodes” (375). Richard Drayton, historian and Professor of Imperial History at King's College London, also writes about this issue. When colonizing Barbados, the English instituted a monument to show their political rule to the Barbadians and adopted the region as “Little England” (656). Watenpaugh concludes that the Mamluks used monuments to show to the Arabs that their rule was legitimate, and that they should remain in power. This is similar to the English use of monuments in Barbados to show England's reign described by Drayton. Both of these articles show an outside power coming in and reigning over another location and validating their reign through monuments.

Monuments are very commonly used in the instances of war, and are often used to honor war heroes, but many of these “heroes” were not heroic to everyone. Gill Abousnnouga, from University of Glamorgan, and David Machin, from Cardiff University, articulate the use of British monuments in WWI era to show their opposition to the communist regimes of the time: “(Historians) see the construction of monuments around Britain as a core part of the deliberate attempt by the authorities to consolidate the idea of nationhood, unity, and the meaning of the war, in the face of the communist threat” (140). The British government used these monuments to rally the nation together in support of the war to defeat the communist powers, viewed as a threat by the government. Joy Giguere, Professor at Pennsylvania State University, supports this claim made by Abousnnouga and Machin: “As far as most Americans are concerned, national identity has always been infused by a love of the military, reverence for its leaders and for such symbols as the flag, and an enthusiasm to proclaim these sentiments in granite and bronze” (131). Giguere asserts that monuments are necessary to harbor national identity and pride in the nation, and the removal of war monuments will prohibit the harboring of the nation’s people under a common interest. However, many claim that certain monuments are much more harmful than good, and that they were created ignoring the fact that many of the people society is honoring with monuments stood for and did terrible things. One example of this is the monument of General Robert Edward Lee described in an article by Nuala Johnson, Geographer from the Queen's University Belfast: “In the commemorative statue of Lee, for instance, he was depicted as an American hero who fought out of loyalty to his home state.” (55). Johnson argues that the honoring of war “heroes” such as Lee, who fought to keep slavery, without educating people about the harm they caused to the African slave population in the United States, is harmful as people viewing these statues remain uneducated about these instances and unaware of the issues with giving honor to their names.

Monuments serve as reminders to people to actions done by governments and events that have occurred in the past. The complexity of the issue around the removal of statues is presented in an article by Peter Kabachnik, researcher at City University of New York, Alexi Gugushvili, researcher at University of Oslo, and Ana Kirvalidze, Professor of Sociology at Ilia State University. The article describes a Soviet monument of Stalin in Gori, Georgia. Many people wish to remove the statue as it honors Stalin, but others hold that it is important to keep up as to not erase a part of the nation’s history, and the political instances their nation faced, despite the negative connotations (264). The removal gives people a sense of governmental freedom and pride in their own country, while getting rid of a reminder of the suppressive governments they were under in the past. However, many argue that the suppression of history is also problematic, and that monuments like this one should be kept to remember and educate people about negative parts of history as well. The other side of this issue is presented in an article by Ying Fan, from Sichuan University: “The Monument to the Martyrs is the only lasting symbol celebrating those who sacrificed themselves to the movement: ‘The events of Railway Protection show their bravery, while the monument remembers their efforts’” (20). Ying concludes that monuments are important as they prevent the forgetting of political events that have occured in the past. Moreover, Karen Kipphoff, Professor of Fine Arts at National College of Arts, Bergen, Norway, agrees with Kabachnik, Gugushvili, and Kirvalidze’s theory about the role of monuments. Kipphoff focuses on the role of monuments in societies where there have been dramatic political changes over time, such as in Bucharest, Romania: “Caught between the former Soviet empire, the now dominant West, and the quagmire of the Balkans, the city is being forced to develop another style of renovation in accordance with the local political and financial framework” (89). Kipphoff remains that the removal of old monuments is necessary in order to form a new national identity and culture surrounding the issues important to Romanians, not whatever foreign power had control over Romania in the past. 

While many monuments serve great purposes, such as the remembrance of certain occurrences and acting as a unifying force, the inadequate education about who the monuments are depicting or the event they are showing is more harmful than beneficial. Without educating people, they will blindly follow the political message behind monuments without knowing anything about it, which causes the government to gain more power and control over the people and their rulings to be legitimate. In addition, people will unrightfully show honor to those who fought for terrible things during their lifetimes. While monuments have served the same purpose since the beginning of history, it is time to change this purpose to one that can benefit and educate all of society.