1.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
2.
Dutch Golden Age
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The Dutch Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military, and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterized by the Eighty Years War which ended in 1648, the Golden Age continued in peacetime during the Dutch Republic until the end of the century. The Netherlandss transition from a possession of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1590s to the foremost maritime, in 1568, the Seven Provinces that later signed the Union of Utrecht started a rebellion against Philip II of Spain that led to the Eighty Years War. Antwerp fell on August 17,1585 after a siege, the United Provinces fought on until the Twelve Years Truce, which did not end the hostilities. Under the terms of the surrender of Antwerp in 1585, the Protestant population were given four years to settle their affairs before leaving the city, similar arrangements were made in other places. Protestants were especially well-represented among the craftsmen and rich merchants of the port cities of Bruges, Ghent. More moved to the north between 1585 and 1630 than Catholics moved in the direction, although there were also many of these. Many of those moving north settled in Amsterdam, transforming what was a port into one of the most important ports. The Pilgrim Fathers also spent time there before their voyage to the New World, Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke contribute part of the Dutch ascendancy to its Calvinistic ethic, which promoted thrift and education. This contributed to the lowest interest rates and the highest literacy rates in Europe, several other factors also contributed to the flowering of trade, industry, the arts and the sciences in the Netherlands during this time. A necessary condition was a supply of energy from windmills and from peat. The invention of the sawmill enabled the construction of a massive fleet of ships for worldwide trading. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company was founded and it was the first-ever multinational corporation, financed by shares that established the first modern stock exchange. This company received a Dutch monopoly on Asian trade and would keep this for two centuries and it became the worlds largest commercial enterprise of the 17th century. Spices were imported in bulk and brought huge profits, due to the efforts and risks involved and this is remembered to this day in the Dutch word peperduur, meaning something is very expensive, reflecting the prices of spices at the time. To finance the trade within the region, the Bank of Amsterdam was established in 1609. According to Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke, geography favored the Dutch Republic and they write, The foundations were laid by taking advantage of location, midway between the Bay of Biscay and the Baltic. The Dutch share of European shipping tonnage was enormous, well over half during most of the period of their ascendancy, from here the Dutch traded between China and Japan and paid tribute to the Shogun
3.
Ferdinand Bol
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Ferdinand Bol was a Dutch artist, etcher, and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandts influence, like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, the street Ferdinand Bolstraat in Amsterdam was named after Bol, as was FEBO, a chain of Dutch walk-up restaurants. Ferdinand was born in Dordrecht as the son of a surgeon, after 1630 he studied with Rembrandt, living in his house in Sint Antoniesbreestraat, then a fashionable street and area for painters, jewellers, architects, and many Flemish and Jewish immigrants. In 1641 Bol started his own studio, around this time, Bol was a popular and successful painter. His palette had lightened, his figures possessed greater elegance, Bol delivered four paintings for the two mansions of the brothers Trip, originally also from Dordrecht. Bols first wife died in 1660, in 1669 Bol married for the second time to Anna van Erckel, widow of the treasurer of the Admiralty, and apparently retired from painting at that point in his life. In 1672 the couple moved to Keizersgracht 672, then a newly designed part of the city, Bol served as a governor in a Home for Lepers. Bol died a few weeks after his wife, on Herengracht, where his son, probably his best known painting is a portrait of Elisabeth Bas, the wife of the naval officer Joachim Swartenhondt and an innkeeper near the Dam square. This and many other of his paintings would in the 19th century be falsely attributed to Rembrandt, Ferdinand Bol page at the Rijksmuseums web site with the famous portrait of Elisabeth Bas. Works and literature at PubHist Portrait of a gentlemen Two paintings by Bol for the townhall, click verder to see the second one Ferdinand Bol
4.
Utrecht
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Utrecht is the capital and most populous city in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the corner of the Randstad conurbation and is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of 330,772 in 2014. Utrechts ancient city centre features many buildings and structures several dating as far back as the High Middle Ages and it has been the religious centre of the Netherlands since the 8th century. It lost the status of prince-bishopric but remains the religious center in the country. Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands until the Dutch Golden Age, Utrecht is host to Utrecht University, the largest university in the Netherlands, as well as several other institutions of higher education. Due to its position within the country, it is an important transport hub for both rail and road transport. It has the second highest number of events in the Netherlands. In 2012, Lonely Planet included Utrecht in the top 10 of the world’s unsung places, a series of such fortresses was built after the Roman emperor Claudius decided the empire should not expand north. To consolidate the border the limes Germanicus defense line was constructed along the branch of the river Rhine. These fortresses were designed to house a cohort of about 500 Roman soldiers, near the fort settlements would grow housing artisans, traders and soldiers wives and children. In Roman times, the name of the Utrecht fortress was simply Traiectum, Traiectum became Dutch Trecht, with the U from Old Dutch uut added to distinguish U-trecht from Maas-tricht. In 11th-century official documents it was Latinized as Ultra Traiectum, around the year 200, the wooden walls of the fortification were replaced by sturdier tuff stone walls, remnants of which are still to be found below the buildings around Dom Square. From the middle of the 3rd century Germanic tribes regularly invaded the Roman territories, around 275 the Romans could no longer maintain the northern border and Utrecht was abandoned. Little is known about the next period 270–650, Utrecht is first spoken of again several centuries after the Romans left. Under the influence of the realms of the Franks, during Dagobert Is reign in the 7th century. In ongoing border conflicts with the Frisians this first church was destroyed, by the mid-7th century, English and Irish missionaries set out to convert the Frisians. The pope appointed their leader, Willibrordus, bishop of the Frisians, the tenure of Willibrordus is generally considered to be the beginning of the Bishopric of Utrecht. In 723, the Frankish leader Charles Martel bestowed the fortress in Utrecht, from then on Utrecht became one of the most influential seats of power for the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands
5.
Deventer
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Deventer is a municipality and city in the Salland region of the Dutch province of Overijssel. Deventer is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, in 2005 the municipality of Bathmen was merged with Deventer as part of a national effort to reduce bureaucracy in the country. Deventer was probably founded around 768 by the English missionary Lebuinus and it was immediately rebuilt and fortified with an earthen wall. Deventer received city rights in 956, after which fortifications were built or replaced by stone walls around the city for defense. Between 1000 and 1500, Deventer grew to be a trade city because of its harbour on the river IJssel. The city eventually joined the Hanseatic League, Deventer is the birthplace of Geert Groote and home to his Brethren of the Common Life, a school of religious thought that influenced Thomas a Kempis and Erasmus in later times. Together with Haarlem it was among the first cities to have printing presses, from around 1300, it also housed a Latin School, which became internationally renowned, and remained in service in changing forms until 1971. Its most famous pupil was the scholar Desiderius Erasmus, who was born in 1466, between 1500 and 1800, the mass of water flowing through the IJssel decreased, decreasing the importance of Deventers harbour. The competition with trade centres in Holland, as well as the war between 1568 and 1648, brought a decline in the citys economy. In the 18th century, the industry came to Deventer. East of the town, so-called oer, riversand containing iron, was found as early as 900, from this material, ore was produced and brought to town. The main road of the villages Okkenbroek, Lettele and Schalkhaar is still named Oerdijk, in the 19th century, Deventer became an industrial town. Bicycles, carpets, tins and cans for food and drinks, cigars, foundry and heavy machinery, some of these industries are still thriving today, such as beds and accessories and publishing The citys trade and industry is still of some importance. The city is host to a factory producing central heating systems, as well as Wolters Kluwer, the Deventer honey cake, produced in Deventer for over 500 years, is still manufactured locally and sold all over the Netherlands and beyond. Deventer has seen few military engagements throughout its history, although it was a garrison city of the Dutch cavalry. The industrial area and harbour were bombed heavily during World War II, the city centre has been largely spared, thus offering a view that has remained largely unchanged for the past few centuries. The female Jewish poet and writer Etty Hillesum lived in Deventer during the war before being deported to Auschwitz, in Schalkhaar, a village only 2 km northeast of the city centre, barracks were used by the German occupying forces to train Nazi policemen. The compound is now a centre for asylum seekers, Deventer has been somewhat popular with the film industry
6.
Gerard ter Borch
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Gerard ter Borch, also known as Gerard Terburg, was a Dutch genre painter who lived in the Dutch Golden Age. Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic and he received an excellent education from his father Gerard ter Borch the Elder, also an artist, and developed his talent very early. The inscription on a study of a head proves that Ter Borch was at Amsterdam in 1632, duysters influence can be traced in a picture bearing the date 1638, in the lonides Bequest. In 1634 he studied under Pieter de Molijn in Haarlem, a record of this Haarlem period is the Consultation at the Berlin Gallery. In 1635 he was in London, and subsequently he travelled in Germany, France, Spain and his sister Gesina also became a painter. It is certain that he was in Rome in 1641, when he painted the portraits on copper of Jan Six, A Young Lady. He seems to have resided for a time in Haarlem, but he settled in Deventer. He died at Deventer in 1681, Ter Borch is a significant painter of genre subjects. He is known for his rendering of texture in draperies, for example in The Letter and in The Gallant Conversation, Ter Borchs works are comparatively rare, about eighty have been catalogued. Six of these are at the Hermitage, six at the Berlin Museum, five at the Louvre, four at the Dresden Museum, a pair of portraits are located at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D. C. highlighted in 2010 by Blake Gopnik. The artists painting The Suitors Visit, c,1658, oil on canvas,80 x 75 cm in the Andrew W. Mellon Collection, was used on the cover of Marilyn Stokstads second edition of Art History. Gerard ter Borchs paintings This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ter Borch. Gerard Terburg et sa famille, by Emile Michel Der künstlerische Entwickelungsgang des C
7.
Rampjaar
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In Dutch history, the year 1672 was known as the rampjaar, the disaster year. The invading armies quickly defeated the Dutch States Army and conquered part of the Republic, a famous Dutch saying coined that year describes the Dutch people redeloos, its government radeloos, and the country reddeloos, irrational, desperate, and beyond rescue, respectively. Despite the initial shock and successful invasion of the eastern Dutch Republic, the English were defeated by the navy under Michiel de Ruyter in 1674, resulting in the Treaty of Westminster and eventually leading to the Glorious Revolution. The French were pushed back with the help of the Spanish forces in the Spanish Netherlands, the conflict eventually ended with the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678-9. These tensions had escalated in 1650 when William II, Prince of Orange had tried to conquer Amsterdam, after negotiations he succeeded in removing a number of his adversaries from office. When William died from smallpox later that year, the party came back into power. Johan de Witt was appointed Grand Pensionary of Holland and led the States of Holland, to appease the Orangists, and because of their own business interests, the Dutch Regents tried to keep the peace within Europe. When the Republic fought for its independence from Spain, it had allied with France, in 1648, as part of the Peace of Westphalia, the Republic made peace with Austria and Spain. France had only made peace with Austria and continued fighting Spain until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, a condition of that peace was that Louis XIV would marry Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV of Spain. Maria Theresa would also renounce her share of the inheritance in exchange for a large dowry, the dowry, however, was never paid by the Spanish. During the 1650s and 1660s the existing tensions between Dutch trade interests and English trade interests grew, the First Anglo-Dutch War was fought between the republics, resulting in a victory for the English. Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord Protector of England at that time, an English attempt to take over Dutch trade and colonies led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. After the previous war Johan de Witt had supervised the expansion, First Münster and then England were forced to make peace. While France had helped to put pressure on England and Münster they had not committed a major part of their army or fleet, after the death of Philip IV, Louis XIV claimed part of the inheritance for his wife. According to local law in parts of the Spanish Netherlands daughters of a marriage took precedence before the sons of a later marriage. The way Louis XIV explained this, Maria Theresa, daughter of the first marriage of Philip IV, should inherit the Spanish Netherlands because Philips son and this went against the interests of the Dutch Republic, who preferred having a weak state as their neighbour to the south. Because of this, Johan de Witt allied with the defeated English and Sweden, in secret clauses of the treaty they agreed to use force if Louis XIV would not come to terms with Spain. France made peace with Spain, but because the secret clauses of the Triple Alliance were soon made public, Louis XIV felt insulted by the perfidious Dutch, immediately after the peace agreement, France took steps to isolate the Republic
8.
Amsterdam Museum
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The Amsterdam Museum, until 2011 called the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, is a museum about the history of Amsterdam. Since 1975, it is located in the old city orphanage between Kalverstraat and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, the museum opened in 1926 in the Waag, one of Amsterdams 15th-century city gates. It has been located since 1975 in a building that was constructed in 1580 as Amsterdams municipal orphanage. The building was extended by Hendrick and his son Pieter de Keyser, the orphanage operated in this building until 1960. The museum exhibits items related to the history of Amsterdam. As of 2011, the museum manages 70,000 objects kept in various buildings, of those, approximately 25,000 have been photographed and are available to the public online. This includes all objects that were already free of copyright. The museum has on display paintings, models, archeological findings, photographs, but also less likely items such as a carillon, a Witkar
9.
Arnold Houbraken
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Arnold Houbraken was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of artists from the Dutch Golden Age. Houbraken was sent first to learn threadtwisting from Johannes de Haan, after two years he then studied art with Willem van Drielenburch, who he was with during the rampjaar, the year 1672. He then studied 9 months with Jacobus Leveck and finally, four years with Samuel van Hoogstraten, in 1685 he married Sara Sasbout, and around 1709 he moved from Dordrecht to Amsterdam. Arnold Houbraken painted mythological and religious paintings, portraits and landscapes and his first attempt at an instructive manual for artists was his Emblem book, Inhoud van t Sieraad der Afbeelding, which was meant as a guide of possible painting themes. His registered pupils were Matthijs Balen, Johan Graham, and his son Jacob and his son Jacobus Houbraken was an engraver of portraits and book illustrations, including books by his father. His daughter Antonina Houbraken also became an engraver for an Amsterdam publisher and his daughter Christina Houbraken was also an artist. Arnold Houbrakens books sold well during the entire 18th century. Jacob Campo Weyerman published his version in serial form that was published as a complete set in 1769. Houbrakens engravings of the artists are in cases the only surviving portraits of these people. The first to make a sequel to Houbrakens work was Johan van Gool in 1750-51. Houbraken was very careful to check and double check his sources, excepting those cases where the artist died quite young, or whose oeuvre was lost during various wars, very few artists were included in the Schouburg who do not hang in international museums today. The first modern art historian to publish an update of his work was Adriaan van der Willigen, since then he has remained a valuable resource for art historians. The Schouburgh is part of the Basic Library of the dbnl which contains the 1000 most important works in Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to today
10.
Biografisch Portaal
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The Biografisch Portaal is an initiative based at the Huygens Institute for Dutch History in The Hague, with the aim of making biographical texts of the Netherlands more accessible. As of 2011, only information about deceased people is included. The system used is based on the standards of the Text Encoding Initiative, access to the Biografisch Portaal is available free through a web-based interface. The project is an undertaking by ten scientific and cultural bodies in the Netherlands with the Huygens Institute as main contact. In February 2012, a new project was started called BiographyNed to build a tool for use with the Biografisch Portaal that will link biographies to events in time. The main goal of the project is to formulate ‘the boundaries of the Netherlands’. List of Dutch people Official website
