Acta Historiae Neerlandicae : Studies on the History of the Netherlands X

Until recently, a pronounced Hollando-centric bias dominated the teaching of history in the Netherlands, especially at primary-school level. The emphasis was placed solely on historical developments in the province of Holland, and events in the other provinces were mentioned only in so far as they were of importance for the history of Holland. This bias can be seen most clearly in the treatment of the history of the middle ages -a period when Holland was but one of the many sovereign territories, originally no more important or powerful than its neighbours, and when its development was largely autonomous. Thus today's older generation of Netherlanders often had to learn all the counts of Holland off by heart. They were told colourful stories about bold Thierry III, who defeated the army sent by the emperor to present him from setting up a toll on the Merwede; about Florence V, friend of townsman and peasant, who was murdered by the nobility; and about the party-strife of the late middle ages, known to us as the wars of the Hoeks and Kabeljauws. But the history of other provinces, such as Gelderland, Brabant, Friesland, and the bishopric of Utrecht, was condemned largely to obscurity. This partiality has often annoyed the inhabitants of the remaining provinces. Their reaction has been one of an often rather chauvinistic concentration on their own provincial history, which largely explains the growth of a variety of regional-historical associations.! But educational fashions changed after the Second World War. In the schools today emphasis is no longer placed either on the political history of Holland during the middle ages, or indeed on the political history \* This article is a slightly modified version of H. Front Matter....Pages i-v Holland’s Advance....Pages 1-19 Poverty in Flanders and Brabant from the Fourteenth to the Mid-Sixteenth Century: Sources and Problems....Pages 20-57 Prices and Wages as Development Variables: A Comparison between England and the Southern Netherlands, 1400–1700....Pages 58-78 An Inquiry into the Behaviour of Wages in the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands, 1580–1800....Pages 79-97 Poverty in Amsterdam at the Close of the Eighteenth Century....Pages 98-116 Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp in America, 1783–1784....Pages 117-142 Some Remarks on the Cultivation System in Java....Pages 143-162 The Mutiny on Board De Zeven Provincien: Reactions and Repercussions in the Netherlands....Pages 163-174 Dutch Jews in a Segmented Society....Pages 175-194 Survey of Recent Historical Works on Belgium and the Netherlands Published in Dutch....Pages 195-254 Back Matter....Pages 255-255