It’s easy to shrug off the rising craze of Tik Tok as another social media trend for a new generation. After all Gen Zers have taken to the app in the same ways that Millenials quickly obsessed over apps like SnapChat and Instagram. But the fun social media video app which has launched millions of videos showing users lip-syncing and performing comedy and talent videos is proving itself as a platform that’s ready to cross generations. Even ones that are hundreds of years apart. 

Recently, a fun trend being shared by Tik Tok teens online has been reiterating moments in history through a more light-hearted lense. From moments in history that explore the Atlantic slave trade to U.S. history teens on TikTok are lighting up the app with facts and lessons.

Colonization Of The Continent of Africa, 1400s

Taking some of the more tragic moments in our world history and simplifying them for their audiences, are generally the usual approach to most of these videos. We love the way this Tik Tok in particular calls out the involvement of Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal in the colonization of the continent of Africa in the 1400s.

European Age Of Exploration/ Invasion, 1405 – present

This clever Tik Tok teen used music and editing to describe the invasion of the Americas and the destruction of the Indigenous populations in the area. There’s no doubt that the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and continent of Africa brought various diseases including smallpox, the bubonic plague, cholera, chickenpox, and the common cold. While at times the spread of these diseases were by mistake, it wasn’t always accidental. At the Siege of Fort Pitt in 1763,  the British gave items as gifts to Indigenous people that had come from a smallpox infirmary in hopes of spreading the diseases to tribes.

Henry VIII Has His Marriage T Catherine of Aragon Annulled In Favor of Anne Boleyn, 1533

This hilarious Tik Tok pretty accurately conveys the drama that went down when the King of England decided he wanted to make his mistress his wife. Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon didn’t see what she had coming when she married her second husband Henry VIII. The young queen. Though she’d been married to the king for 24 years, he had their marriage annulled. 

Reign of Catherine The Great of Russia, 1762-1796

This Tik Tok portraying the life of and reign of Catherine The Great of Russia truly does cut the story down pretty quickly, but we have to acknowledge who fun and sweet it is.

The Boston Tea Party, 1773

This hilarious reiteration of the Boston Tea Party of 1773 will make your side split. The infamous moment in U.S. history is accurately captured, though with extreme brevity, in this Tik Tok clip that shares how the British attempted to help the East India Company from its debts by putting taxes on tea sent to the U…

The Boston Tea Party AGAIN because these teens love 1773

It seems the Boston Tea Party actually tends to be kind of a thing in the world of Tik tok. 

Election of U.S president William McKinley, 1896

Ah the election of U.S. President William McKinley. This fun portrayal of his election ends up ultimately being a great reminder of the fact that corruption has effected our elections for decades and its not just Trump.

German Occupation Of Belgium, 1914

It’s pretty hilarious how this Tik tok user was able to take an iconic moment in reality television to use it to portray an actual reality in World History. Of course, the  German occupation of Belgium was much more destructive than it was catty, which this Tik Tok tends to imply.

The Establishment Of The League Of Nations, 1919

We also love how accurately this Tik Tok user portrays a defining moment in U.S. allyship and support. 

Attack On Pearl Harbor, 1941

And of course, this moment perfectly portrays how a massive flub affected the way in which the U.S. entered World War II.

Porvenir is a Spanish word. If you break it down, por venir literally means to come, and the translation is the future. It’s also the name of what used to be a tiny town in Texas located right next to the Rio Grande on the border. The village of Porvenir in Texas, which is a town no more, had roots that reflect the brutal and deadly colonization that this country was built on. 

“Porvenir, Texas” is a new documentary on PBS that brings to light the massacre that happened on the border more than 100 years ago. 

As the tense immigration crisis continues in this country today, the documentary “Porvenir, Texas” shows how this struggle has been part of our history since the inception of the United States of America. 

The story of the massacre cannot be told before discussing the war between the U.S. and Mexico. While the U.S. continued to expand in the southwest through its war with Mexico, the battle to live and remain in the country affected the most vulnerable people who weren’t part of the war at all. They were Mexicans who lived in Texas and along the border before it was ever part of the United States. However, after Mexico lost Texas to the United States, those living in Texas, became Americans overnight. That didn’t please the incoming residents — white people looking to make the country their home. 

The documentary exposes the brutal killing of 15 Mexican men — some who were American as well — which the U.S. tried to hide from history. 

With the expansion of the U.S. throughout its new state of Texas, white ranchers staked their claim in areas that were owned by Mexican-Americans. Like gentrification today, Texas was also gentrified during the Wild West, which meant Mexicans, who were now Americans, were displaced because of higher taxes. 

With the revolution still going on in the Mexican border and new white ranchers taking over land, racial tensions were high. White people were told that all Mexicans were “bandits” and Mexican-Americans were in fear for their lives thinking they could be killed based on the color of their skin.

White people were killing Mexican-Americans outright with no consequences, and the film shows graphic images of that. 

Here’s a summary of that fateful violent night as reported by NBC News: “In the early morning hours of Jan. 28, 1918, a group of ranchers, Texas Rangers, and U.S. Army cavalry soldiers entered the village and rousted the residents from their beds. They led away 15 unarmed men and boys of Mexican descent to a nearby bluff, where they shot and killed them. These victims ranged in age from 16 to 72, and some were American citizens. The town’s women and children fled across the border to Mexico for safety. The next day, the perpetrators returned and burned the village to the ground. Porvenir ceased to exist.”

We have no idea how many other Mexican-Americans were killed with such brutality during this period because there’s no record of it. The only reason the story of Porvenir can be told today is because of two men that documented what happened. 

Harry Warren was a white teacher that worked with some of the community in Porvenir and wrote about what happened that night. He also was a witness to the bodies.  José Tomás (“J.T.”) Canales, who was a state legislator at the time, launched an investigation against the Rangers, and his depositions and testimony have been preserved as well. 

“There were many cases like Porvenir, where the initial response from the state was to try to fabricate what really took place,” Monica Muñoz Martinez, an assistant professor at Brown University and the founding member of the public history project Refusing To Forget, told NBC News. “It was not unusual for the state to try to justify such acts, by criminalizing the victims. Residents of Porvenir were described at times as squatters or bandits. None of this is true.”

Christina Fernandez Shapter produced the film and spoke about the importance of making sure these stories are never forgotten. 

“I am Mexican American myself, I am from Texas, my family has been here for generations,” she told NBC News. “And I know we all have stories in our families, sometimes of land being taken from us or other injustices.”

Here’s a clip of the film.

Click here to watch the entire documentary. 

READ: This Exhibition Told The Stories Of Mexicans And Mexican-Americans Who Were Illegally Deported In The ’20s And ’30s