Let’s think about thought: who invented what ideas? The French revolution followed whose philosophy? The American revolution came first (by 14 years) and was based largely on French Englightenment ideas, those same ideas now seen as so typically ‘American’.

The French revolution, on the other hand, followed a good deal of British-born pragmatist thinking: the greatest good for the greatest number, ideas which never sparked such rebellion in Britain itself.

But, the most important part of this comparison is that the two events relied on a similar blend of those philosophical tendencies, though each would be proclaimed a unique event whose ideas are to this day claimed as uniquely national treasures. It is perhaps the style and degree of devotion to those ideas that is most truly unique to each ease.

Ancient Greek philosophy came back to Europe, ending the ‘Dark Ages’ and leading eventually to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment (major rebirths of western philosophical, artistic and scientific undertaking) after scholars in the Caliphate of Al-Andalus translated texts from the great library of Alexandria, which were among the 400,000 volumes at the library of Córdoba (at a time when no other library in Europe had more than 400 volumes).

Again, food is a good example: chicken vindaloo, commonly perceived as an Indian invention, and in fact a common dish in Indian cuisine, was actually brought to India by the Portuguese, when Goa was a Portuguese colony. Vinha d’alho in Portuguese referred to the dish being bathed in a heavy dressing of garlic. Goans added local spices, but the dish was not stringly a traditional Indian development.

Is the frankfurter typically American, or, as it’s name suggests, is it actually a style of sausage typical of Frankfurt? Or is it Viennese? The hamburger has its origins in Hamburg and the doughnut in Berlin.

The ‘Danish’ is maybe more typical of New York nowadays than of European pastry shops, but is nevertheless European. Yet the Danish refer to it as wienerbrød, suggesting a Viennese origin.

Tofu which is nearly universally associated with Japan comes from soya, the vast majority of which is grown in two countries: Brazil and the United States.

It’s amazing with what frequency we come to believe that something originating in one place is really an “invention” of another place, and instructive to see how often there’s a degree of truth in that, though it’s ultimately another story altogether.

Take for instance the necktie, often cited as typically British, and worn across the world, it is thought to have been an invention of the Croatian military in the time of Napoleon, who brought it back to France, where it became fashionable.

Or, Belgian chocolate: chocolate, as such, originates in Aztec Mexico. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés was the first European to taste it, spiced with hot peppers and to him revolting, but took it back to Spain where Catalán monks added sugar, also discovered overseas, making the sort of sweet chocolate now teased into refinement in other places.

There’s the question of who invented the Lindsor Tort: is it a Scottish invention, or strictly Viennese as is widely believed? Italian silk? Silk was brought to Italy from China by Marco Polo, along the famed Silk Road that linked the far east with western Europe.

France is famed for its croissants, but there’s the problem of a story about Hungarians baking croissant-shaped rolls (‘kifli’) to commemorate the Turkish siege of Buda (1686); similar stories exist about celebrating Polish victory over the Turks at the battle of Vienna (1683), where Viennese bakers allegedly heard Turkish tunneling in the middle of the night and warned the Polish forces.