History belongs to hosts of peoples.  Monuments can only capture moments of interpretation which usually only reflect the interpretation of a handful of the cultures involved.  Sometimes a statue is a tool of oppression, sometimes it is a challenge to the powers that be, sometimes it's just a marker along the way that a "community" has traveled.  Most of the time a monument is all of those things and more.  Sometimes the community that built a Monument moves on and the monument is there ripe for new interpretation by a new community--which may have no interest in the complex mechanism of interpretation.