To paraphrase an old saw:
A European thinks 100 miles is a long way.
An American, Australian or Canadian thinks 100 years is a long time.
Really makes me feel for other country's students, "Okay class we're on chapter 20 of the third history book."
Doesn't make a difference. Still need to learn everyone's history, regardless of wether its Bono (Ivory Coast), Papal States, Hindu Kush or Srivijaya. A short national history doesn't preclude a requirement to study history itself.
"Class, welcome to World History, but mostly about America." This is how it works out in the U.S., anyway...
We get one semester that is mostly a survey up until the discovery of america, then 4 weeks on everything
up until the American Revolution, then the rest of the class is devoted to everything since then, with anything
that had american involvement getting significantly more coverage then anything that didn't have American
involvement. Actually, other then a couple minor protests like the Boxer Rebellion(hah! It didn't even get a full page!),
and something called the "Boehr War" and stuff involving some guy named "Napoleon", and a small portion of WW1,
nothing happened after 1776 of any note that the U.S. did not have a significant involvement in. With regards to
WW1, for example, the portion of the war before the U.S arrived got 1 Class day, while after U.S. arrived got the
rest of the week(2 Class Days)...(Oh....did I mention this was my college World History? My Highschool World History
was even more focused on how importantthe U.S. was...only 1/4 was devoted to pre-1776 history)