A Quick Guide to the History of the Netherlands

2024 By justmovingaround in History Tags: Belgium, Discoveries, History Guides by Country, Netherlands

When traveling, especially when we are focused on a lot of sightseeing, it’s worth getting acquainted with the history of the country to understand what we see. Below a quick overview on the history of the Netherlands or in English the Low Countries.

The Early and Middle Ages

In ancient times, the area now known as the Netherlands was part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The northern territories remained largely outside Roman control. They were inhabited by various Germanic tribes. As the Roman Empire declined, the region experienced significant political fragmentation and waves of migration. The vacuum left by the Romans was filled by the Merovingian-ruled Frankish Kingdom, integrating the Netherlands into their territories. Missionaries like Saint Willibrord and Saint Boniface played crucial roles in converting the local pagan tribes to Christianity, laying the foundation for a unified cultural and religious identity.

A mural Charlemagne and Einhard by Georg Sturm that can be seen at the West side of the Great Hall of Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

The Habsburg Rule and the Emergence of the Dutch Republic

When Charles V abdicated in 1556, his son Philip II inherited the Spanish crown and the Netherlands. Philip II’s reign marked the beginning of a difficult and oppressive period for the Dutch. His centralised and authoritarian approach clashed with the relatively autonomous and pluralistic traditions of the Low Countries. Philip II was a staunch Catholic and sought to enforce religious uniformity across his empire. The introduction of the Spanish Inquisition aimed to root out Protestantism, which was rapidly gaining followers. The Inquisition’s brutal methods, including torture and execution, sparked widespread fear and resentment marking a dark period in the history of the Netherlands.

In addition to religious oppression, Philip II’s heavy taxation and centralised control over local affairs exacerbated tensions. The wealth generated by Dutch trade and commerce was increasingly diverted to support Spain’s wars and imperial ambitions, leading to economic hardships in the Netherlands. The nobility and merchant class, who had traditionally enjoyed a degree of self-governance, found their privileges under threat. In 1568, this discontent ignited the Dutch Revolt, marking the start of a prolonged struggle for independence. The northern provinces rebelled against Spanish rule, leading to the Eighty Years’ War. In 1581, the northern provinces declared independence, leading to the formation of the Dutch Republic. By the end of the 1580s, however, Spanish control was largely re-established in the southern provinces (forming the so-called Spanish Netherlands). These southern regions remained under Habsburg rule and staunchly Catholic, contrasting sharply with the Protestant-dominated northern provinces.

This division resulted in significant socio-economic shifts. The mass migration of skilled labour and merchants from the south to the north fuelled the economic rise of cities like Amsterdam, transforming them into major commercial hubs. Meanwhile, southern cities like Antwerp experienced economic decline as they lost their economic vitality. The consolidation of Spanish control in the southern provinces and the independence of the northern provinces led to the emergence of two distinct entities. The Southern Netherlands, under Habsburg rule, retained its Catholic identity, while the northern Dutch Republic thrived as a centre of Protestantism and trade. This division laid the foundation for the modern distinction between the Netherlands and Belgium.

Trade, Crafts, Discoveries, Colonialism and the Golden Age

During the Middle Ages, the Netherlands developed several key sources of wealth that contributed to its economic growth and prosperity. The regions of Flanders and Holland, had fertile soil ideal for agriculture. This allowed for the production of various crops, including grains, vegetables, and flax. The production of dairy products, especially cheese and butter, became a significant source of income, as well. Flanders became renowned for its wool and cloth production. The region imported raw wool from England and produced high-quality textiles that were exported across Europe. The development of sophisticated weaving techniques and the establishment of guilds helped to enhance the quality and reputation of Dutch textiles. The herring fishery was a crucial industry for the Dutch economy. Innovations in fishing techniques and preservation, such as gutting and brining herring at sea, allowed Dutch fishermen to dominate the North Sea herring trade. The coastal and inland waters also provided other fish varieties, contributing to the local diet and trade.

The prosperity from trade and commerce led to the development of early banking and financial systems. Cities like Bruges and Antwerp became financial hubs where merchants could secure loans and conduct business. Craft and merchant guilds played a vital role in regulating trade, maintaining quality standards, and protecting the interests of their members. These organizations helped to foster economic stability and growth throughout the history of the Netherlands.

Bruges, the Beurse, history of the Netherlands

The restored Van der Beurse family house in Bruges that replaced the original Three Purses tavern, where the first usances of echange trading had been developed.

Decline and Transformation

The 18th century marked a period of relative decline in the history of the Netherlands. The nation’s economic and naval power waned as rival powers, particularly Britain and France, rose to prominence. Internal political struggles and external conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish Succession and the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, further weakened the Dutch Republic.

The late 18th century saw the rise of revolutionary sentiments across Europe. In 1795, inspired by the French Revolution, the Batavian Republic was established, replacing the Dutch Republic. However, this new republic soon fell under French influence, leading to the incorporation of the Netherlands into the Napoleonic Empire. The period of French control brought significant administrative and social reforms. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the Congress of Vienna established the Kingdom of the Netherlands, uniting the northern and southern provinces. King William I sought to modernise the country, promoting industrialisation and infrastructure development. However, tensions between the Dutch-speaking north and the French-speaking south led to the Belgian Revolution in 1830, resulting in the independence of Belgium.

Belgium Brussels Patria Monument, history of the Netherlands

A relief depicting the Belgian revolution on the Patria monument in Brussels, Belgium.

Christchurch. Bringing England there did not work fully …

2020 By justmovingaround in History Tags: Architecture, Discoveries, Historic Towns and Cities, New Zealand

It is already some time that we been to New Zealand. We saw beautiful nature and breath-taking landscapes. We visited the Hobbiton movie set. We took a walk on a glacier. But somehow, we neglected the historical heritage of this country.

Of course, we knew about Maori. Who wouldn’t? It is common knowledge about New Zealand. But, only by sheer accidents, we realized NZ is also about the discoveries and the first settlers. Kind of obvious. But we missed it when planning our trip.

Graves of the first settlers in a fallen cemetery near the Golden Bay, Southern Island.

People posing as first settlers in a photo studio in Arrowtown, near Queenstown.

Once, we saw an old fallen cemetery with graves of the first settlers. The gravestones were true storytellers. We could have read when those people came to New Zealand, how they lived and when they died. Another time looking for a doctor, we took a side road to Arrowtown, a small city considered a historical one. It was looking a bit as American western-like. And in Christchurch, we saw typical English historical architecture. A kind of a revival Gothic and Victorian style. But you did not feel like in England. Besides some modern glass and metal buildings, they were surrounded by low buildings that, at first sight, you would describe as colonial style. Unforgettable mixture.

On one side of the street, you see an English building in revival Gothic made of grey stone like you would see in England and on the other side you see low buildings with siding walls. And suddenly you realize the place you are in is called Canterbury like Canterbury in England and that Christchurch is not about Church of Christ, but it is an original name of a traditional college in Oxford.

THE MAORI AND THE MUSKET WARS

NZ was traditionally inhabited by Maori. But they are not indigenous to the islands. They came to New Zealand in the 14th century from Polynesia. Through years they developed their own culture. They were not homogenous folk. They used to live in smaller or bigger tribes, some of them quiet and peaceful, and some engaging in conflict and warfare. Their life changed with the emergence of Western traders and whalers who sold them guns. They exchanged guns for produce but also for land. It was still before the regular colonization of the country began. Maori warriors who put their hands on guns raided Maori who still used traditional weapons. You could imagine what the outcome was. Some of the smaller or peaceful tribes came to extinction. This period is called the Musket Wars in New Zealand history books.

LAND ACQUISITION AND THE BRITISH RULE

So, the first who settled in New Zealand were traders and missionaries who cheaply bought land directly from the Maori. The New Zealand Company appeared on the horizon. As Maori never before sold land but rather conquered it, the acquisition process was not entirely clear to them. Some entrepreneurs under the New Zealand Company launched the regular colonization process of the New Zealand islands. They organized trips for English, ready to start their lives in a new country. For most of those who looked for a better life in NZ, this was a one-way ticket. But some of the sponsors we’re not interested in those who could afford their own land. They were interested in cheap labor building the new economy for them. For some settlers, a new life truly began. For some, it was a lifelong disappointment … Altogether out of 400,000 first colonists, 100,000 left New Zealand in later years.

Around 1840 the British Government decided to take stronger action. In fact, the English Crown treated New Zealand as their own from the late XVIIIth century, with the Maori having no idea about it. Consequently, an agreement between the English Crown and Maori chiefs from the North Island was signed (Treaty of Waitangi, 1840). The English called this agreement a sovereignty agreement. But there was a discrepancy between the English version of the document and the Maori text. For the Maori, the agreement was just about administering lands. The result was New Zealand Wars over land issues with regular English troops emerging on the islands. The land was taken from the Maori and no longer bought. The colonization was no longer to stop. The Maori impoverished and were pushed to the edge of New Zealand society. It took more than 120 years before some contractual clauses of the Treaty of Waitangi were respected.

ORGANIZED COLONIZATION

Christchurch was one of the first regular English colonial settlements in New Zealand. In fact, this is the oldest city established by the English in New Zealand (from 1856). The first European settlers came to the area around 1840. The colonization process was officially and legally organized by Canterbury Association and sponsored by the Church of England.

The Canterbury Association bought land from New Zealand Company and yet resold it at a higher price to colonists reserving the margin for public infrastructure. The first 800 colonists arrived around 1850 on four ships with a mission to build a city around a cathedral and a college.

Christ’s College was established already as the first colonist arrived. It was and is an Anglican school for boys. It has its seat in a grey stone Gothic-revival complex of buildings neighboring the Canterbury Museum. For the first couple of years after the arrival of the early colonists, the College was localized in some barracks and wooden buildings. The first of the stone buildings called Big School was completed in 1863, followed by the Chapel in 1867. The works on the Christchurch Cathedral begun in December 1964. The Cathedral was completed years later in 1904.

Christ’s College students in their uniforms. You feel like in England. It was not possible to enter the internal yard but it can be well seen on the Google street view. You really can have the feeling you are in Oxford or Cambridge in England.

Due to two massive earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, some parts of the college and most of the Cathedral was damaged. The spire and the parts of the cathedral tower were destroyed. In 2012 a decision was made to demolish the remainder of the tower. The aftershocks continued to destabilize the building. The reconstructions of the Cathedral were postponed fore years, with the first revival works to begin this year.

The damaged Christchurch Cathedral. The fencing was already disassembled in preparation for the reconstruction works.

A view through the fence. You can clearly see the missing tower.

The spire carefully held in the Earthquake museum. In the photo, you can see the damaged tower before it was ultimately demolished.

THE MELT OF STYLES

In Christchurch the new or modern mixes with the old or traditional. The old might be not older than 150-160 years as the settlement was established in 1850. Bringing England to New Zealand did not work fully here. It is nothing like the European historical cities with architectural oversight. The styles change rapidly. Only several revival-Gothic buildings remain you of the English heritage. Below some pictures of the unusual architectural melt in Christchurch made within a short walk area. What you do not see in pictures is that after the earthquakes, the city center is a major construction area.

A revival Gothic building in the Christchurch old city center. One of many built this style. What you cannot see on the picture on the other side of the street there are small wooden houses covered with siding. You can see them below on separate pictures.

The modern building of the Christchurch Art Gallery, not that far from the building on the first photo.

Just two other houses vis a vis revival Gothic Arts Centre.

An old barrack, still in the very city center of Christchurch.

Yet another one seemingly historical building, but different style.

New Regent Street, still the Christchurch city center.

A tribute to Queen Victoria, on a tower close to the Christchurch city center.

Three buildings, three different styles …

The red brick construction still looking like a small palace building with corinthian columns. The building is located just to the right side of the revival Gothic cathedral.

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Christchurch. Bringing England there did not work fully …

Milford Sound. Cook Missed It Twice

2020 By justmovingaround in History, NEW ZEALAND Tags: Discoveries, Historical Figures, New Zealand

During the great age of exploration, European navigators searched the southern oceans for unknown lands. Among them was James Cook, who became the first to chart New Zealand’s coastline in detail. Yet despite the precision of his voyage, he missed one of the region’s most dramatic features – the hidden fjord of Milford Sound. Why? The answer lies in optical illusion, cautious seamanship, and a landscape designed to deceive even the most skilled explorers.

Imagine sailing through unfamiliar waters, tasked with discovering lands no one from your world has ever seen. The coastline stretches endlessly ahead – sharp ridges rising steeply from the sea, blanketed in deep green forests, their flanks lost in mist. The mountains are beautiful, almost unreal, but there’s little comfort in beauty when danger may lie just below the surface. We keep our course at a safe distance. The coast is rocky, the sea restless, and the maps – if they exist – are vague at best. One submerged reef or a sudden gust of wind could end the voyage in a moment. So we watch from afar, searching for a bay or inlet that offers safe anchorage, somewhere we might land, chart, explore. What we don’t see – what none of us see – is the narrow gap in the cliffs we’ve just passed. Hidden in shadow, its entrance veiled by the overlapping ridges, it doesn’t look like a passage at all. But it is. Just beyond that curve, a deep fjord cuts nearly 14 kilometers inland – a vast, sheltered channel that no European has ever set eyes upon. We sail on, unaware. A discovery missed not by ignorance or incompetence, but by caution, distance, and the sheer trickery of the landscape. And I can’t help but wonder – had we turned in, had we looked more closely – what might we have found?

During the Age of Discovery – spanning roughly from the 15th to the 18th century – European powers – chiefly Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France and Great Britain – competed fiercely for access to new lands, trade routes and untapped wealth. Oceans, once seen as vast and perilous barriers, began to be viewed instead as highways leading to uncharted territories. It was in this context that expeditions turned their attention to the southern part of the globe – an area long believed to conceal a massive landmass balancing the known continents of the Northern Hemisphere. This hypothetical continent was referred to as Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown southern land.

In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, sailing under the commission of the Dutch East India Company, set off from Indonesia on a voyage southeast in search of this fabled continent. During the journey, he became the first European to reach the coasts of what is now Tasmania, and shortly after, New Zealand. However, Tasman had no clear understanding of the scale or geographic nature of what he had found. He did not fully explore the islands – instead, he skirted part of the coastline and recorded an encounter with the indigenous Māori, which he perceived as hostile. This encounter discouraged further exploration and prompted a swift departure. He also did not give New Zealand its modern name – that came later, from Dutch cartographers.

Abel Tasman (1603–1659) was a Dutch seafarer and explorer working for the Dutch East India Company during the height of the Netherlands’ maritime expansion. He was the first European to reach the coasts of Tasmania, New Zealand and parts of the South Pacific – including Tonga and Fiji. Tasman’s voyages were driven largely by commercial and strategic goals rather than scientific inquiry. Though he charted important new territory, he rarely went ashore or engaged deeply with local populations. His cautious approach and limited interaction meant that his discoveries were often only partial – but they marked a turning point in European knowledge of the southern oceans.

More than a century later, in 1768, James Cook, a British naval officer and skilled cartographer, embarked on a new expedition to the southern seas. His mission was both scientific and strategic. The official objective was to observe the transit of Venus from the island of Tahiti – a rare astronomical event that would help scientists calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun with greater precision. At the same time, Cook had secret orders to explore unknown territories in the South Pacific that might serve as future British colonies. Like the Dutch before them, the British hoped to discover a vast southern continent – possibly rich in resources or located in a strategically advantageous position relative to Asia.

James Cook (1728–1779) was a British naval officer, cartographer and explorer whose voyages redefined European understanding of the Pacific. Over three expeditions, he charted the coastlines of New Zealand, Australia and numerous Pacific islands with remarkable accuracy. Unlike many of his predecessors, Cook’s missions combined imperial ambition with scientific investigation – his ships carried astronomers, botanists and artists, and gathered detailed information about the lands and peoples they encountered. Though he ultimately died during a conflict in Hawaiʻi, Cook left behind an extraordinary legacy as a disciplined navigator and a central figure of the Enlightenment-era exploration.

James Cook was actually the second European to discover New Zealand after Abel Tasman. He was, however, the one who meticulously cartographed the New Zealand coastline. He also confirmed that New Zealand was not the big continent that was expected to be found in the Southern Hemisphere. He cartographed New Zealand’s 2,400-mile coastline during his first Pacific journey, spending five months, between October 1769 and March 1770, circumnavigating the New Zealand islands.

The two main islands of New Zealand, separated by Cook Strait and bordered to the west by the Tasman Sea – both named after European explorers whose Pacific voyages helped place this remote land on Western maps in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Cook approached New Zealand from the East after he finished a scientific mission of observing the Venus transit across the Sun from Tahiti, in the Pacific Ocean. First, he sailed around the North Island from the North and continued alongside the western coastline of the South Island, heading South. Further, he sailed alongside the East coastline of the South Island and left through a strait separating the two islands, which was later named after him as Cook Strait, heading later to Australia (that time called New Holland) through the waters of the Tasman Sea. The channel between the islands, which he discovered, was named after him as the James Cook strait. A couple of weeks earlier, he also found another strait between the South Island and another island (Stewart Island) located to its South. For military and other strategic reasons, he did not include it in the official maps he drew.

Although very precise in their work, Cook and his sailors missed the southwest entrance to the South Island through a fjord now known as Milford Sound – and they missed it twice.

Even if you are quite close to its entrance (from the Tasman Sea separating New Zealand from Australia), the high mountainsides of the fjord optically overlap, so you would not say that there is a water passage between the mountains that leads 15 km deep into the island. You can clearly see that optical distortion from the tourist ships that sail today alongside the Milford Sound there and back (compare photos below). Cook was afraid to sail too close to the coastline because the rocky shores were dangerous for his ship in unpredictable wind conditions. From away, it was hence impossible for his crew to spot the passage. The passage was, however, well known and used by the native Māori people, who had mastered its tidal patterns and coastal navigation long before European arrival. The first Western sailor who entered the Milford Sound was John Grono, a Welsh sealer, in the early 19th century.

The strait on approach from the Tasman Sea. You can see one mountain formation beyond another. The photo even got two-dimensional. In fact, between the first mountain and the second one, there is one of the Milford Sound narrow straits, but the actual entry into the Southern Island is behind a curve that turns left. From the sea, it seems to be just a bay. The sailors of the Cook expedition missed it several times as they were looking for a safe and practical entry point into the Southern Island approaching New Zealand from the West.

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About MILFORD SOUND

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