history

The Top 5 History Stories of the Year

1. The Origin of War Tourism

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have visited the scars left by the First World War along the French-Belgian Front. But war tourism is not a new phenomenon. In the spring of 1919, as the first inhabitants of the devastated border area returned, tourists were already following in their wake.
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2. How a Small Dutch Island Lay at the Cradle of the United States of America

St. Eustatius, popularly known as ‘Statia’, is now a little known island in the Dutch Antilles, but it played an important role in America’s War of Independence.
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3. The Dutch Colonies in Film

White verandas, gently swaying palm trees, indigenous nannies playing with Dutch children in the grass, white men in spotless white uniforms and exotic landscapes. This is a prime example of the image many Dutch people have of the overseas territories during the colonial occupation. But where do these images come from?
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4. Boers and Creoloid: The Legacy of Dutch Migration to South Africa

It is well known that many South Africans can trace their roots back to the Low Countries and that the Afrikaans language is closely related to Dutch, but how is it that a land so far away and different in so many ways has such close links to the Low Countries?
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5. When the First Queen of England Came from Flanders

Few Flemish women have played such a major role in political history and are nearly forgotten today as Matilda of Flanders. As the wife of William the Conqueror, she became the first queen of England as the result of the Norman Conquest.
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• colonialism
• Matilda of Flanders
• South Africa
• St. Eustatius
• war tourism
• WWI