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Dutch Exploration

Tracing Dutch footprints, Vol 2

Dutch traders built Fort Anping then known as Fort Zeelandia


Tags: Dutch Exploration Genealogy HistoryFormer Dutch parliamentarian and cabinet minister Embert van Middelkoop taught the Dutch Second Chamber an important history lesson when he urged them to consider how Dutch colonial history was viewed by many abroad as a positive interaction between ...

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Polar explorer Aarnout Castel an Alaska Pioneer

Connected Far North Coastal Villages With Freight Service


Tags: Dutch Exploration Immigration HistoryVlissingen's connection with Alaska! It is true, the history of the LowLands has an amazing global scope to it, be it by trading corporations such as the VOC and the WIC, by smaller trading partners, by explorers and adventurers, and immigrants. The ...

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Windmill Archives launches Facebook group

Focus on Dutch immigration and settlement


Tags: Dutch Exploration Immigration Features World War II Genealogy History

The story of Dutch immigration to Canada and the United States and the settlement of these pioneers in both countries is wide-ranging and extremely fascinating. Since its start in 1970, The Windmill Archives has collected much material on these subjects.

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Anthropologist Ten Kate made memorable journey in 1880’s U.S.

Dutch artist son fascinated by Indian culture


Tags: Dutch Exploration

SAN DIEGO, California - The anthropological journey to Baja California in 1882 and 1883 by Herman ten Kate was the culmination of many years of adolescent fascination with American Native culture and legend. The scholarly son of a painter by the same name, Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate wrote about his exploits and findings in his 1886 book Travels and Discoveries in North America.

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Insinger elected MLA soon after arrival in North West Territories

Two books detail aspects of early Dutch-Canadian emigrant history


Tags: Dutch Exploration

Little is known about the early history of Dutch emigration to Canada. There were firsts and first experiences, but no one bothered to write home about it: the good or the bad news. Historian Jan Krijff, a Dutch emigrant who returned to the Netherlands, made inquiries regarding this subject, and discovered some very interesting evidence which he guided into print. Indeed, in the final decade of the 19th century, two brothers did write home about it the move to Canada, and their impressions were also rushed into print.

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Five children perished in 1942 Markham, Ontario tragedy

Fire decimated family of ‘Flying Dutchman’ Nick Schouten


Tags: Dutch Exploration

MARKHAM, Ontario - The date of the tragic fire of Saturday, February 7, 1942, in which five of his six children perished, was literally seared in the mind of Markham's Dutch-born flower grower Nick Schouten. Separated from the emotional support of his family in the Netherlands because of World War Two, the event continued to affect the life of the Warmond-born man until the very end.

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Emden safe haven for 16th-century Dutch refugees

German town benefited greatly


Tags: Dutch Exploration

Introduction

The sixteenth century saw fundamental changes taking place in Europe. The established political order, the alliance between church and state, was challenged intensely in many regions. This was especially the case in the Dutch provinces where Emperor Charles V just had consolidated his control over the remaining independent provinces (1). At the same time, the reform-minded attitude of many leaders in these provinces troubled the emperor and his servants, Cardinal Granville among them. They responded to this situation with heavy-handed measures by calling in the much-feared Inquisition. Nowhere else in his realm was the Inquisition policy of Emperor Charles V carried out as rigorously as in his Dutch territories. Between 1523 and 1566, Charles' edicts resulted in the execution of some 1,300 Dutchmen for their sympathy or support of what became popularly known as 'the new religion.' By 1546, Lutheranism in the Dutch provinces was virtually wiped out, while remnants of Calvinist and Anabaptist groups only met secretly in small gatherings. Some Lowlanders recanted their beliefs under threat of death, but many more quietly moved to a safe haven out of reach of zealous inquisitors. While German border states (2) were among the destinations of fleeing Dutchmen, English coastal towns (3) were especially popular havens to inhabitants of Flanders, Holland and Zeeland. However the German county of East Friesland, notably the town of Emden, was the most prominent refuge of them all.

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Struggle for Dutch language influenced by armed conflicts

Returning soldiers push Americanization of Dutch community


Tags: Dutch Exploration

The history of the Dutch language and press - books and newspapers - in North America rarely merits more than a short chapter in a scholarly book or is at most a sidebar in a lengthy article on Dutch language and culture. This is truly amazing, considering the fact that 377 years ago explorer Henry Hudson, although himself an Englishman, laid claim to the New World on behalf of his employers in the Netherlands. When the Dutch colonized New Netherland, now known as the Hudson Valley and Long Island in the State of New York, they naturally introduced their language. While there is no broad-based body of knowledge about the Dutch colonial period - it lasted for less than fifty years - the New Netherland Project headed by Charles Gehring has been busy transcribing otherwise inaccessible (written in old Dutch) seventeenth-century civic records. The Project literally unwraps early American history which was not recorded in what is now the majority's language. The Dutch colonial settlers followed their own language, customs and religion, and were numerically strong enough to influence those around them. These contributions notwithstanding, the Dutch language and with it the press went into a slow decline.

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Baron van Dedem outfoxed opponents of his canal-digging plans

Founder of Eastern Dutch peat colony of Dedemsvaart


Tags: Dutch Exploration

Introduction

June 1991, it was two hundred years ago that Gerrit Willem van Marle took receipt of Ten Wolde's land survey he had ordered for a largely uninhabited area to the east of his hometown of Zwolle, the capital city of Overijssel. Mr. Van Marle had plenty of time on his hands, since recently he had been ousted from the city's council by the Orange Party. An heir to the significant landholdings of his father B. van Marle Hsn, he thought it wise to develop his family's peat bogs which lay beyond the dirt road between places called Ommerschans and Avereest. However, Van Marle died at age 47, before he had an opportunity to put a spade into soggy soil. Someone else was to realize his dreams and visions. Meet Gerrit Willem's son-in-law, Mr. Willem Jan Baron van Dedem, the founder of Dedemsvaart. The well-to-do families of Van Marle and Van Dedem both owned substantial peat bog holdings and farms in the north-east region on Overijssel. It is thought that they purchased common grazing grounds, then known as 'markelanden,' at times when the free-holders, the farmers were not able to pay their taxes. Once they were on the slippery road of economic decline, the farmers are thought to have been forced into selling their individual properties as well, becoming lease holders on their own places.

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Siamese king sent diplomats to ‘King’ Maurits at The Hague

VOC manned country’s only foreign trading post


Tags: Dutch Exploration

Thailand: home of the free;

Thailand: the only country in southeast Asia that never was taken over by an European nation. For almost 160 years, kings - of the country then also known as Siam - maintained trade relations with the Dutch United East Indies Company ‘de Verenigde Oost Indische Compagnie’ (VOC) and at one time called ‘Stadtholder’ Maurits ‘King’ of the United Seven Provinces. The relationship between the two countries was so friendly, that a Siamese delegation travelled aboard a Dutch merchantman to The Hague for a visit. Thais wanting to study their own history will find a rich depository of archives in Amsterdam but need to know 17th-century Dutch to access it.Dutch merchants were not the first to discover Siam which then included much of today’s Malaysia. As far back as 1518, Siamese kings considered the Portuguese their allies and sold them rice and spices, commodities these Iberians monopolized. When merchants from Holland and Zeeland entered Siamese waters, the king of Siam began to trade with them, and soon the alliance shifted to the Dutch. From 1608 to 1767, short interruptions notwithstanding, Dutch traders were the only foreigners with a trading post in Siam. The post was located in the capital Ayutthaya, a town on an island in the river Chao Phraya, further inland from present-day Bangkok. The VOC highly valued the post, even though it barely generated a profit for the company.

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Natives and high surfs kept Tasman from leaving footprints

Groningen-born sailor discovered Tasmania, New Zealand and Australia


Tags: Dutch Exploration

Just recently, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands called on New Zealand for an official visit. Her journey ‘down under’ lasted just a few days, meriting scant attention in the island nation’s press. She quickly returned to her own country to resume her daily responsibilities there. During the New Zealand-visit of Queen Beatrix, the seventeenth-century Dutch explorer Abel Tasman received renewed attention for having been the first Dutchman (and European) to set foot on New Zealand’s soil. Tasman’s visit 350 years earlier was also of short duration, and the natives were far from friendly to their unexpected guests.

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Forgotten shoebox in attic contains important diaries

Dutch explorer Schuver ‘rediscovered’


Tags: Dutch Exploration

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands - Curiosity by a British anthropologist has led to the discovery of diaries, letters and other notes written by 19th century Dutch adventurer and explorer J.M. Schuver. The documents were found by a distant relative of Schuver in a proverbial old shoe box in an attic of his home.

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Decimated Dutch merchant fleet returned home 400 years ago

First East Indies mission’s bittersweet results start of global trade


Tags: Dutch Exploration

AMSTERDAM - On August 14, 1597 the remnants of a Dutch merchant flotilla that had set sail for the East Indies twenty eight months earlier, returned to Amsterdam in a lamentable condition. Its decimated crew - only 89 of the original 249 men survived the ordeal - was unable to moor the three remaining ships and had to be assisted by people ashore. Although the flotilla returned with only a small amount of cargo, it was evident that trade with the East Indies - then largely controlled by the hostile Portuguese - was quite possible. Those who sailed after the first expedition confirmed it beyond doubt. The first foray into the still unknown East Indies and enemy territory extracted a steep price from its Dutch sponsors but also helped lay the foundation of the Dutch Republic as a global seafaring and trading power.

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Neglected explorer finally acknowledged by hometown

Shipwrecked, Hendrick Hamel escaped captors to write history of unknown country


Tags: Dutch Exploration

GORINCHEM, the Netherlands - Far-away, contemporary South Korea for decades has been celebrating 17th century Dutch sailor Hendrick Hamel’s importance to the history of that country. Hamel’s hometown only recently acknowledged his role and as an explorer. In a major move to pay homage to its famous traveler, the old fortress town of Gorinchem now boasts a statue of Hamel. A second, similar casting will soon be added to the Hamel monument in the South Korean town of Kangjin.

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Dutch shipyard rebuilds De Ruyter's man-of-war

No blueprints for 17th century vessel


Tags: Dutch Exploration

LELYSTAD, the Netherlands - Dutch artisans at the Batavia shipyard, located east of Amsterdam, are tackling their second 17th century ship building project. Completion date for the replica of the 'The Seven Provinces' is 2006. The original copy of this man-of-war served as flagship to Michiel de Ruyter, the legendary Dutch admiral, who took on the English navy of the mid seventeenth century, and beat them back several times. The ship's original took only two years to build.

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Historic expedition led by Willem Barentsz nears 400th anniversary

Dutch explorer sought northerly route to the Indies


Tags: Dutch Exploration

The name of Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz has for centuries captured the imagination of countless Dutch children and adults. The stories about ship-crunching ice fields, the building of a cabin with salvaged wood from his ship, ‘the Jacob van Heemskerck,’ the strenuous fight for survival during the months-long winter night on Nova Zembla, the battle with hunger and disease, the building of two small boats when summer dawned and the dangerous journey in open boats on wind-swept seas can sound so adventurous and heroic when seated near a warm fireplace. It’s quite another thing to actually experience it out in the open as did Willem Barentsz. The Dutch explorer failed to return home again to the Frisian island of Terschelling, but the survivors of this heroic journey in 1596/7 did and lived to tell the story.

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The Mother of America


Tags: Dutch Exploration

The article below was written by popular editor Edward Bok in the October 1903 issue of mass circulated 'Ladies Home Journal'.

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