Series
history
history
Derek Blyth
2 min reading time
The Façade Stones of Amsterdam
Get to know Amsterdam and its inhabitants through its carved façade stones decorating the canalside houses.
history
Géry Leloutre
8 min reading time
Brusselisation, Both an Urban Phenomenon and a Historical Milestone
The post-war transformation of Brussels was a traumatising experience for a large proportion of its population.
Series
History of the Netherlands
history
Marnix Verplancke
6 min reading time
Voyage Around the World on Sandals
On the eve of the First World War, three Dutch friends believed they could make the world a better place by walking around the globe and propagating socialism in Esperanto.
history
Xavier Tricot
7 min reading time
James Joyce’s Summer Holiday in Ostend
Belgium’s largest coastal town has its own unique connection to the Irish author.
Series
Our Colonial Legacy
history
Ian Mundell
6 min reading time
Polydore De Keyser, the Flemish Hotelier Who Became Lord Mayor of London
De Keyser was a celebrity in Britain and in his native Belgium. He once owned the biggest hotel in London.
history
Lotte Jensen
4 min reading time
Famines Are Part of Our Living Past
The impending famine caused by the war in Ukraine recalls previous famines: in Ireland, in Ukraine itself, but also in the Low Countries.
Series
Migration, the Other Way Around
history
Republic of Amsterdam Radio
23 min reading time
Duke Philip the Bold and the Looter’s Rule
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, initiated a dynasty that would change the Low Countries forever.
history
Lotte Jensen
4 min reading time
Benefit Campaigns for Ukraine Fit Into a Historical Tradition
Charity has a long tradition in the Netherlands and the actions for Ukraine show many parallels to past events.
Series
Going for Gold
history
Republic of Amsterdam Radio
14 min reading time
The Fishy History of Dutch Herring
Eating herring is a Dutch tradition. This silvery, slimy fish is even part of their national identity, thanks to a myth about a humble herring fisherman.
history
Johan Wambacq
9 min reading time
Jacob Kats, a Forgotten Fighter and Pioneer of Brussels Socialism
He was admired by Rosa Luxemburg and visited by Bakunin, Marx and Engels, yet almost no one knows his name today. Nevertheless, Jacob Kats was one of the founders of socialism in the turbulent nineteenth century.
history
Derek Blyth
2 min reading time
When Einstein Stayed on the Belgian Coast
The pretty beach town of De Haan in West Flanders is dotted with reminders of its most famous visitor.
history
Sean Barton
4 min reading time
Hidden Slavery Story Translated Into English for First Time
'Quaco – My Life in Slavery', the first major graphic novel about the Dutch history of slavery, is now available in English, thanks to modern languages students at the University of Sheffield.
history
Birger Stichelbaut
10 min reading time
How Missing Soldiers Regain Their Identity
An exhibition at the In Flanders Fields Museum shows how missing soldiers of the First World War have got their identity back thanks to archaeological and historical research.
history
Ron Santing
3 min reading time
Water as a Historical Timeline
A floating exhibition tells the story of a 200-year-old Belgo-Dutch canal Zuid-Willemsvaart.
history
Republic of Amsterdam Radio
13 min reading time
The Fury of the Frisian Freedom Fighters
When the counts of Holland wanted to break the autonomy of Friesland, they incurred the wrath of the Frisian freedom fighters.
history
Hans Cools
6 min reading time
Hugo Grotius, Patriarch of International Law
He is best known as "the man who escaped from prison in a chest of books". But thanks to a new biography, we know that the seventeenth-century scholar was much more than that.
history
Ian Mundell
8 min reading time
Ballooning Over Bullets, and Other Escapes From the Siege of Paris
When Paris was besieged by Prussian troops in 1870, the French used hot air balloons to transport mail and people across enemy lines. They also landed in Belgium and the Netherlands.
history
Derek Blyth
2 min reading time
The Zeeland Slavery Monument: Sober Reminder of an Inhuman Trade
It is still something of a guilty secret, but Middelburg grew prosperous from the slave trade.
history
Republic of Amsterdam Radio
15 min reading time
The Joys of Succession in Brabant
When John III, Duke of Brabant, died in 1355 without male heirs, his three daughters and their husbands claimed the inheritance with violence.
history
Paul M. M. Doolan
9 min reading time
How Dutch Historians Unremembered Decolonization
Irish historian Paul Doolan claims that for many decades, Dutch historians have inadequately investigated the decolonization of Indonesia.
