In addition to great economic and cultural prosperity, Dutch society in the 17th century also experienced strong dynamism at the expense of the old familiar. Hans Goedkoop explores the origin of the Dutch anthem "the Wilhelmus".
The Fall of Antwerp in 1585 leads to a mass exodus from the southern Netherlands. Protestant families, rich and poor, flee to the north, for example to the city of Leiden.
Maurits van Oranje and Johan van Oldenbarnevelt are leaders of the Republic. Their initially harmonious relationship ends tragically for Van Oldenbarnevelt on the scaffold at the Binnenhof.
The Baltic Sea trade is much less spectacular and exotic than the VOC, but the Baltic Sea trade is much more important and profitable. In the Baltic Sea, the Republic trades in wood, grain and iron. Trade and war goes hand in hand.
In Dutch history, the Dutch East India Company has stood for daring, entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and wealth. But is this true? How do people in Indonesia and the Netherlands look at the role of Jan Pieterszoon Coen and the VOC?
'God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands'. For no period in our history is this assertion so strong as for the Golden Age, the time in which the prosperity of the Netherlands increased as never before.
Hans Goedkoop follows the trail of the newly rich, bourgeois families who are growing up for the first time in peace and prosperity. That opens up unlimited possibilities and new products such as tobacco, silk and porcelain
The majority of the inhabitants of the Republic remain poor. But in times of extreme need, unlike in neighboring countries, there is limited support, made possible by the citizenry or the church.
Millions of paintings are in circulation in the Republic in the 17th Century. The value of those works and the role of the art dealer can't be overstated, then and now. Jan Six is such an art dealer.
Today we often see tolerance as a legacy of the Golden Age and as something typically Dutch, perhaps the most important characteristic of the country. But in the 17th century, tolerance is not self-evident and certainly not an ideal.
The 17th-century scientist firmly believes in God and his perfect universe. For a brilliant researcher like Johannes Swammerdam, nature is nothing more than the opportunity to study the secrets of creation.
After the exhausting struggle of eighty years against the Spaniards, the population is relieved. No fight for a while. But not for long: within four years there will be another war, this time with England. Place of battle: the sea.
1672. A year of disaster. The people without reason, the government desperate, the country without salvation. An attack on the Republic from various sides, the gruesome lynching of the De Witt brothers, it still appeals to the imagination.
