Dutch History

Between 1500 and 1800, the North Sea region overtook the Mediterranean as the most dynamic part of the world. At its core, the Anglo-Dutch relationship intertwined close alliance and fierce antagonism to intense creative effect. But a precondition for the Industrial Revolution was also the establishment in British North America of a unique type of colony - for the settlement of people and culture, rather than the extraction of things.

In The Dutch Moment, Wim Klooster shows how the Dutch built and eventually lost an Atlantic empire that stretched from the homeland in the United Provinces to the Hudson River and from Brazil and the Caribbean to the African Gold Coast. The fleets and armies that fought for the Dutch in the decades-long war against Spain included numerous foreigners, largely drawn from countries in northwestern Europe. Likewise, many settlers of Dutch colonies were born in other parts of Europe or the New World.

May 10, 1940. The Netherlands was swarming with Third Reich troops. In seven days it's entirely occupied by Nazi Germany. Joining a small resistance cell in the Dutch city of Haarlem were three teenage girls: Hannie Schaft, and sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, who would soon band together to form a singular female underground squad.

Simon Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama recreates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators.

Once valued at close to seven trillion dollars by today’s standards, the Dutch East India Company, formed in 1602, became the world’s first multinational corporation. In the nearly 200-year reign of their empire at sea, the Dutch East India Company amassed unfathomable fortunes, laid the foundation of the modern globalized world, and built monopolies that controlled the economy of the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and the East Indies.

George Macartney's disastrous 1793 mission to China plays a central role in the prevailing narrative of modern Sino-European relations. Summarily dismissed by the Qing court, Macartney failed in nearly all of his objectives, perhaps setting the stage for the Opium Wars of the 19th century and the mistrust that still marks the relationship today. The Last Embassy tells the story of the Dutch mission of 1795, bringing to light a dramatic but little-known episode that transforms our understanding of the history of China and the West.

Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. According to her son, Luca Dotti, "The war made my mother who she was."

During the 17th century, the Netherlands, despite having only 1.5 million people in 1600, became a global maritime and trading power. By contrast, France at the time had 20 million people, Spain had eight million, and England had five million. Nevertheless, Amsterdam became one of the most important urban centers in the world and the location of the world’s first stock market, and Dutch merchant ships and pirates plied the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean.

De jaren van de Nederlandse Opstand (1566-1648) waren één van de belangrijkste periode in de Nederlandse Geschiedenis. Zonder die opstand zou de staat Nederland er immers nooit gekomen zijn. De Opstand en de tachtig oorlogsjaren die er op volgden laten zich lezen als een spannend verhaal: met echte helden en schurken, vol onbedoelde wendingen en met onverwachte uitkomsten. Ook na bijna 450 jaar geschiedschrijving blijven er belangrijke vragen. Waarom was de uitkomst zo onverwacht? Waarom vielen de Nederlanden uit elkaar? En waarom duurde het conflict zo lang?

Find out how the people of this country fought against nature to cultivate land below sea level. Discover how they survived wars, invasions, and natural disasters and developed a trading nation that would become the envy of Europe. Uncover the truth behind bloody battles fought between medieval royalty, warlords, and rebellious guilds of Dutch workers, all of which shaped the country we know today.

The Dutch, through the directors of the West India Company, purchased Manhattan Island in 1625. They had come to the New World as traders, not expecting to assume responsibility as the sovereign possessor of a conquered New Netherland. They did not intend to make war on the native peoples around Manhattan Island, but they did; they did not intend to help destroy native cultures, but they did; they intended to be overseas the tolerant, pluralistic, and antimilitaristic people they thought themselves to be - and in so many respects were - at home, but they were not.

In zijn hoorcollege neemt Herman Beliën ons op geheel eigen wijze mee door de geschiedenis van het ontstaan van Nederland als eenheidsstaat. In twaalf hoofdstukken maakt hij korte metten met bestaande opvattingen over onze 'tolerantie', de mythen rond de onafhankelijkheidsstrijd tijdens de Tachtigjarige Oorlog en de historische invloed van Nederland in Europa en de rest van de wereld. Een uiterst scherpe en onderhoudende terugblik op de staat- en natievorming van de Nederlanden door de eeuwen heen.

"Soldaat van Oranje" is een van de beroemdste boeken over de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema (1917-2007) beschrijft hierin zijn persoonlijke belevenissen tijdens de bezetting en ten tijde van de bevrijding. "De Soldaat van Oranje" vertelt hoe hij als jongeman in 1941 de oversteek naar Engeland waagt, in Londen in allerlei intriges verwikkeld raakt, kennismaakt met de geheime diensten, nachtelijke landingen uitvoert in Scheveningen en als RAF-piloot meedoet aan een luchtaanval op Berlijn.

Long before Australia started to be considered one of the best places in the world to live, it was thought to be completely unlivable. In the 15th century, the European race to claim land began. Despite the fact that Australia was a large landmass, no nation believed it was worth colonizing. The land was claimed by the Netherlands. However, little exploration happened there. Many countries actually believed it to be uninhabitable. However, the Aboriginal populations had already been thriving on the land for millennia.

This is the astonishing true story of three teenage Dutch girls, Hannie Schaft and sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, that has inspired many throughout the world. When Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in World War II, these girls took up arms against the enemy by seducing high-ranking Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them. They provided Jewish children with safe houses and gathered vital intelligence for the resistance.

This is a great package of several titles in one book. The topics are all related to the history of the Netherlands.

Perhaps the most famous – or as many would put it, infamous – of these naval corporations was the Dutch East India Company, also known as VOC. Established around the beginning of the 17th century, this nautical behemoth of a corporation was determined to squeeze everyone else out of the market. Vested with the power to wage war and exterminate any who dared stand in their way, the rest of the world stood by as the unstoppable force took over the whole of international maritime trade.

Wat is onze plaats binnen de geschiedenis van de mensheid, van het leven op aarde, van onze planeet, het zonnestelsel en het gehele heelal? Waarom zouden we ons moeten interesseren voor deze geschiedenis op grote schaal, van de Big Bang tot het heden? In zijn college beantwoordt Maarten van Rossem deze en andere vragen en geeft hij een overzicht van ons alomvattende verleden.

This three-in-one audiobook includes three books on the captivating history of India. The first book covers the history of India from the ancient times to the modern era. The second book focuses on the East India Company, and the third book is about the Dutch East India Company. Learn more about India with this audiobook.

The Netherlands has a history that dates far back, even before Roman times. Let’s take a look at what happened during the times of the Romans. After the fall of the Roman Empire, or during it, we slowly see a transition into different cultures, habits, and beliefs, which inaugurated, at the time, the Medieval centuries, or the Middle Ages. Let’s explore what happened to the Netherlands area during that time as well.