Grammar of Difference. General Education in the Netherlands and Java, 1800-1940

This contribution compares developments in school enrolment and public investments in primary education in the Netherlands and its most important colony in the 19th century: the Netherlands East Indies, more specifically the island of Java. Despite being part of the same Empire, conditions in both regions were very different, with the metropole having already quite high enrolment rates from the beginning of the period studied (the early 19th century) compared to very low school attendance in the colony. For long, the colonial government left indigenous education in Java to religious and private initiatives, whereas primary schooling in the Netherlands was increasingly financed and regulated. Rising interest for public schooling in the colony, including some government investment in the first decades of the 20th century did lead to some changes, but these were insufficient to prevent Dutch and Javanese children from experiencing a fundamentally different educational upbringing

Sekse in de koloniale geschiedschrijving.: Jan Bremans Kolonialisme en racisme gelezen door een genderbril

Jan Bremans nieuwste bundel geeft een prachtig inzicht in het belang van het bestuderen klasse en ras in de Nederlandse en Belgische koloniale geschiedenis. Dit besprekingsartikel betoogt echter dat Breman er goed aan had gedaan nóg een analytische categorie in zijn werk te betrekken: sekse/gender. Aan de hand van drie voorbeelden uit ons koloniale en postkoloniale verleden wordt duidelijk gemaakt hoezeer het toepassen van een genderblik het begrip over historisch en hedendaags racisme kan verrijken

Projeto Trilha dos Hollandeses. De geschiedenis van een soldatenpad en zijn bruggetje

[No abstract available

Twee Zeeuwse forten. Van der Dussen en Ghijsseling, de forten van twee Zeeuwse kooplieden op Brasielsche kust

In the seventeenth century European expansion extended to foreign coasts all over the world. From icy seas to palm-shaded beaches discoveries were made, settlements arose and military actions were undertaken, when necessary - and obviously this always seemed to be the case. The Dutch followed the trend of the times, exploring the Asian, African and American continents, even as far as Antarctic and Australian regions. After the rise and fall of a handful of private companies, the East India Company for trade and commerce in the Far East (VOC, 1602) and the West India Company for the same purpose in the Americas (WIC, 1621) were founded. By that time important aims were the defense of the Republic's international position during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and their own Eighty Years' War with Spain (1568-1648). In their battle against Portugal as part of the Spanish crown and a strong Roman Catholic ally opposing the revolting Calvinist Low Countries, the Dutch invaded the Northeast of Brazil in 1630, after a badly prepared adventure, which did not even last a year, in Sao Salvador da Bahia in 1624. If this rich sugar country could be conquered, this would greatly damage the Iberian nations. And in fact, the successfully accomplished invasion by the Dutch admiral Lonck and commander Van Waerdenburgh in Pernambuco near the capital Olinda turned out to be the start of a large strategic and economic power. Establishing their position, the Dutch built a fair amount of fortresses and military constructions all along the coast of 'Dutch Brazil'. In 1999 the Archaeological Identification Mission, consisting of drs O.F. Hefting and the author, reported to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences, on the then discovered remains of twelve locations, among which those of Fort van der Dussen and Fort Ghijsseling. This article deals with the history of these two fortresses, erected by two merchants from the Province of Zeeland, in the fertile region of sugar plantations and orchards south of Recife. The Chamber of Zeeland with Middelburg was considered to be the most powerful in the board of the WIC, after the Chamber of the City of Amsterdam. Although nowadays there is not much left of these fortresses, a visit to the original places appeals to the historian's imagination. By archaeological research a lot of the remains can still be found and conserved for later generations

Twee Zeeuwse forten. Van der Dussen en Ghijsseling, de forten van twee Zeeuwse kooplieden op Brasielsche kust

In the seventeenth century European expansion extended to foreign coasts all over the world. From icy seas to palm-shaded beaches discoveries were made, settlements arose and military actions were undertaken, when necessary - and obviously this always seemed to be the case. The Dutch followed the trend of the times, exploring the Asian, African and American continents, even as far as Antarctic and Australian regions. After the rise and fall of a handful of private companies, the East India Company for trade and commerce in the Far East (VOC, 1602) and the West India Company for the same purpose in the Americas (WIC, 1621) were founded. By that time important aims were the defense of the Republic's international position during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and their own Eighty Years' War with Spain (1568-1648). In their battle against Portugal as part of the Spanish crown and a strong Roman Catholic ally opposing the revolting Calvinist Low Countries, the Dutch invaded the Northeast of Brazil in 1630, after a badly prepared adventure, which did not even last a year, in Sao Salvador da Bahia in 1624. If this rich sugar country could be conquered, this would greatly damage the Iberian nations. And in fact, the successfully accomplished invasion by the Dutch admiral Lonck and commander Van Waerdenburgh in Pernambuco near the capital Olinda turned out to be the start of a large strategic and economic power. Establishing their position, the Dutch built a fair amount of fortresses and military constructions all along the coast of 'Dutch Brazil'. In 1999 the Archaeological Identification Mission, consisting of drs O.F. Hefting and the author, reported to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences, on the then discovered remains of twelve locations, among which those of Fort van der Dussen and Fort Ghijsseling. This article deals with the history of these two fortresses, erected by two merchants from the Province of Zeeland, in the fertile region of sugar plantations and orchards south of Recife. The Chamber of Zeeland with Middelburg was considered to be the most powerful in the board of the WIC, after the Chamber of the City of Amsterdam. Although nowadays there is not much left of these fortresses, a visit to the original places appeals to the historian's imagination. By archaeological research a lot of the remains can still be found and conserved for later generations

Fortificaties in Hollantsch Brasil

To study the past, military buildings are as good a historic source as churches. Both types of architecture have been engineered a more permanent material than most of the contemporary houses. Thus to the colonial-historian fortifications possess a wealth of material on the history of military science, the history of architecture, on style and social economic history. After the Dutch invaded Pernambuco in february 1630 they adapted the Portuguese fortifications and started to build new forts to consolidate the acquired possessions. Available plans of these forts demonstrate well thoughtout schemes. As authority on the field of the highly influential Italian theories on fortifications the Dutch fortress engineer Simon Stevin adapted these theories to Dutch circumstances and needs. In the colonized regions fortress engineers from this School of Stevin were put to work by the Dutch West-lndian Company. Stones and suitable materials were imported from the Netherlands. No specific manuals have come down to us on form, strategic projection or materials but there exists a writing of Simon Stevin from 1594 with designs of the early Dutch-Brazilian fortifications, which can be reduced after the material as mentioned in this manual. Another source is the diary of the German mercenary Ambrosius Richshoffer, who signed on in Amsterdam in 1629. The most spectacular example of Dutch forts in Brasil was the pentagon In face of the devil. After a thorough restoration the fort at present houses the townmuseum of Recife with a varied selection of documents on the Dutch period (1630-1654). Fort Triangle was built on a shallow between the island António Vaz, the isthmus and the continent and played an important role during the siege of Recife in 1645. Fort De Bruyn was built in 1630 on the site of a small Portuguese entrenchment to the east of Recife. This square fort has been restored drastically by the Portuguese. Fort Orange (1633), situated on the island of Itamaraca, was designed and carried out by Pieter van Bueren, Andreas Drewisch and perhaps by Cristóvao Alvares. The square plan has been laid out in conformity with the classic Italian notion of a fort, which still was valid in the 17th century. This fort stands out by a remarkabie doublé entrance. This system after Caernavon (1283) has been introduced in Europe by the knights of the Cross. In 1645 the forts on Itamaraca were strengthened thoroughly. Fort Ernestus, built around a Franciscan monastery, this way was converted into a real fort directed against attacks from the interior. Thus in 1654 there were 39 forts and entrenchments along the Dutch-Brazilian coastal strip. This implies the importance of the Brazilian colony. The downfall of the region to the Dutch West-lndian Company is caused by the fact that military spending was too high with respect to the desired income. The form of the forts built by the Dutch outside of Europe often was pentagonal. In the ecclesiastical, military and civil architecture from the fifteenth and sixteenth century the pentagon carried a mystic meaning and was a symbol of the imperfection of man compared to God, who was symbolized with the numbers 7 and 8. In the 17th century the vision on the function of the fort was much more pragmatic and the number of bastions reduced from five to four. Still, in the habit of name-giving, calling forts after important places, beloved persons or dignitaries an element of symbolism remained connected with forts and fortifications