history
History of the Netherlands
Our Colonial Legacy
Migration, the Other Way Around
![C Stichting de Bethune Marke C Stichting de Bethune Marke](https://the-low-countries.com/uploads/_article415x300/c-Stichting-de-Bethune-Marke.jpg)
From Dresses to Dollar Bills: Texture Connects Past and Present of Flemish Flax
At the Texture Museum in Kortrijk, you can take an original look at how the flax industry once brought prosperity to the Leie region and what innovative opportunities the plant offers today.
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From First Salute to Future400: Commemorating Four Centuries of Dutch-American Friendship
The founding of New York is often celebrated, but establishing the exact founding date and the part the Dutch played in its history is more complicated than it seems. Historian Jaap Jacobs delves into the city's past and wonders how New York's Dutch history and Dutch-American friendship should be commemorated in 2024 and beyond.
400 Years of Dutch-American Stories
![Zielenvisserij Zielenvisserij](https://the-low-countries.com/uploads/_article415x300/zielenvisserij_2024-05-21-140347_nnnm.jpg)
The Battle for Belief. How the Protestant Reformation Shaped the Dutch Republic
In her book 'Reformation in the Low Countries', American historian Christine Kooi delves into how politicians and Protestants came together in a revolt against the Catholic Habsburg rulers, thus laying the foundation for the Dutch Republic.
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Revolutionary Ripples. How Thomas Jefferson's Ideals Ended Up In The Dutch Constitution
The American Revolution had a significant impact on the Dutch Republic. Not least thanks to Thomas Jefferson, who passed on his political ideals to Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp, the drafter of the Dutch constitution.
History of the Netherlands
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Jazzing Up the Netherlands. How American Mass Culture Shook Up Dutch Society
In the Roaring Twenties, bourgeois Holland was awakened by a new musical wind from the West: jazz!
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The Dutch And Flemish Canon: Stuck Within National Frameworks
Comparing the Flemish Canon to the Canon of the Netherlands, historian Rolf Falter concludes that both canons are a collection of standalone stories, whereby contemporary political sensibilities and a quite nationalistic approach have influenced the selection of the subjects.
Our Colonial Legacy
![4 Jurk van Betty Appelboom met op de borst een Jodenster 4 Jurk van Betty Appelboom met op de borst een Jodenster](https://the-low-countries.com/uploads/_article415x300/4_Jurk-van-Betty-Appelboom-met-op-de-borst-een-Jodenster.jpg)
New Holocaust Museum Shows The Persecution Of Jews In Its True Colours
What can the National Holocaust Museum say that has not been said before by dozens of other Dutch museums and memorial sites concerning the history and the persecution of the Jews?
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From Harlotry To Sex Work: How The Low Countries Deal With Prostitution
Today, prostitution has been legalised in the Netherlands and decriminalised in Belgium, but the normalisation of ‘sex for money’ is far from a reality.
Migration, the Other Way Around
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Sex In The Cinema? Censorship In The Netherlands, Deleted Scenes In Belgium
The Netherlands was long considered more progressive in cinema than Belgium. Surprisingly enough, film censorship was more robust in the Netherlands than in Belgium.
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The Ambiguous View Of Sexuality In The Low Countries
Since 1945 The Netherlands and Belgium have often been frontrunners on the world stage when it comes to sexuality. But a certain sense of unease has always lingered and seems to be growing these days.
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Mass Murder On Manhattan: The Bloody Legacy Of Dutch Settlers
On 25 February 1643, two massacres on and around Manhattan Island ignited a war between Dutch settlers and Native Americans that would last for years.
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#25 - Pheasant Fealty
After the Treaty of Arras in 1435, the international policies of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, had to overcome several hurdles if he was to achieve his aim of obtaining as much territory and autonomy as he could.
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The Struggle For Political Participation Is Never Over
Wim Blockmans' book 'The Voice of the People?' could be useful in dealing with today's 'crisis of democracy' and in tackling the unease caused by political stagnation.
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American And Dutch Feminists Fought Side By Side For World Peace And Women's Suffrage
Social activism and the struggle for women’s suffrage in the early twentieth century brought together women from countries around the world, including Jane Addams from the United States and Aletta Jacobs from the Netherlands.
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Antwerp's Expunged Protestant Past
Two Antwerp monks were burned at the stake five hundred years ago because of their Lutheran beliefs. Their deaths remind us of a piece of the faded religious past of the Low Countries.
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Simon Gronowski's Great Escape from the 20th Nazi Convoy
92-year-old Holocaust survivor Simon Gronowski talks about his spectacular escape from a deportation train to Auschwitz, why he befriended the son of Flemish Nazi supporters, and reminds us why we should remain vigilant against political extremism.
![Keizerkarel V Keizerkarel V](https://the-low-countries.com/uploads/_article415x300/keizerkarelV.png)
The Vanished Birthplace of Emperor Charles V
Although Charles V was born in Ghent, few things in the city refer to him, except for the Prinsenhof.
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Our Top History Stories of the Year
Join us in bidding goodbye to 2023 with some of the most surprising stories we have published this year about the history of Flanders and the Netherlands.
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Sojourner Truth: How the Enslaved Woman of a Dutch-New York Family Became an Icon of America’s Black Liberation Movement
Few people know that the first African-American woman to be honoured with a bust in the US Capitol was a native speaker of Dutch.
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Reformation in the Low Countries: Religious and Political Turmoil in the Sixteenth Century
In a special episode of The Low Countries Radio, we talk to Christine Kooi, professor of European History, about the turbulent Protest and Catholic Reformations in the Low Countries of the sixteenth century.