Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 128, Issue 1, 2015

‘When the people unanimously shouted long live Orange!’ Orangism in the year of the Peace of Aachen, 1748

This article investigates the way popular Orangism took shape around 1748 in the Dutch Republic. It concentrates on three anthologies commemorating the Peace Treaty of Münster (1648) and celebrating the signing of the Peace Treaty of Aachen. In these volumes, filled with occasional poetry, the recently appointed stadtholder William IV is celebrated abundantly, as is the history of the nation. The anthologies can be used to explore how an invention of tradition was created from an Orangist point of view. It was shaped around three recurring themes: revolt and liberation, divine providence, and the return of a golden age. Authors argued that these features were inextricably linked to the presence of stadtholders, in the past and in the present. This canonical view of the nation’s history was not seriously challenged during these years, as anti-Orangist voices constituted a minority in the public representation of the history of the nation.

Experts, experiments, and the fight against rinderpest in the Austrian Netherlands, 1769-1785

When rinderpest broke out in the Austrian Netherlands in 1769, a policy of eradication was instituted in which koeimeesters – local lay veterinary healers – played a pivotal role. They continued to be relied upon despite criticism by academic doctors and the failure of experiments in which cures were attempted. This is explained by the construction of disease and expertise by both koeimeesters and doctors: since both groups saw disease as a matter of imbalance and corruption in the humours, necessitating an individual program of purgative and purifying remedies, neither was able to satisfy state demands for a quick and simple treatment. Nevertheless, the koeimeesters’ ability to diagnose the illness, as well as their presence throughout the countryside, meant that government elites continued to rely on these lay healers and their judgement in the execution of policy.

Urban nature under tension. Dissension over a new policy domain in nineteenth-century Antwerp

Research on urban green space is usually limited to those types of greenery with an official character. Unofficial green spaces, such as fallows between buildings or near ramparts, are harder to study, as are the varied uses of (un)official green spaces. This article analyses the multi-layered negotiations among politicians, citizens, civil servants, specialists, and even the press in the greening of nineteenth-century Antwerp. A series of debates fuelled the need for a special administration for this new sphere of the public domain. Moreover, regulations were issued in order to enforce proper behaviour. Testimonials suggest how common people actually experienced their surroundings, revealing many official attempts as naive. While the authorities tried to extend their power, the expectations about urban nature also shifted: a strictly utilitarian perspective was followed by a rather aesthetic view, which in turn was challenged by concerns of both an ecological and recreational nature.

The April-May strikes of 1943: importance and significance reconsidered

The reimprisonment of all Dutch prisoners of war by the German occupier in the spring of 1943 provoked a considerable number of protest strikes throughout the country, which afterwards became known as the April-May Strikes. In contrast with other strikes under German occupation, these have been largely neglected in Dutch war historiography. The only monograph on the April-May Strikes, written by sociologist Pieter Jan Bouman, dates from 1950. The objective of this article, therefore, is to offer a reassessment of the importance and nature of the April-May Strikes. The first step is critically to discuss existing historiography on the topic (Bouman’s work in particular, in view of its lasting impact) in order to reveal its ideological bias. In the second part this critical reading of existing literature is confronted with new sources in order to formulate new questions and hypotheses about the April-May Strikes.

Historical violence in real time. The representation of World War II in first person shooter games

In the past decade, historical games, and first person shooters about World War II in particular, have ranked among the best-selling titles worldwide. Part of their success is their ability to recreate a historical atmosphere, allowing players to experience historical battles in real time. However, many questions can be asked about the historical dimension of these games, as they offer specific ways of representing the past. I examine this dimension by looking at some of the best-selling titles on the market, analysing them from the perspective of Public History. Starting from Kingsepp’s concept of ‘immersive historicity’, I analyse the narrative components of these shooters and their audio-visual design, using concepts from narratology, semiotics, and game design. Some of the main conclusions are that developers offer players a historical ‘embedded’ narrative and rely strongly on audio-visual stereotypes to create a historical atmosphere.

Dutch colonial memory and universal human rights. The case of ‘Rawagede’

This article asks what relationship exists between the Dutch ‘coping with the colonial past’ (‘omgang met het koloniale verleden’) and the German Vergangenheitsbewältigung – which is focussed on the Holocaust. It asks especially what role human rights play in both the German and Dutch cases, connecting recent theories of German Vergangenheitsbewältigung to the Dutch attempt at coping with the colonial past, particularly the Dutch massacre of the male population of the Indonesian village of Rawagede in 1947. The article focusses on the relationship between historical time and legal time and on the ways in which ‘the past’ and ‘the present’ are distinguished. Its conclusion is that the Dutch state subscribes to a variant of coping with the colonial past in which neither human rights nor historical truth play a role comparable to the German Vergangenheitsbewältigung.