Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis - Volume 126, Issue 1, 2013

This article examines the role of religion in the society of Hatra, a desert city in the eastern Jezirah (north Iraq). The city suddenly rose to power in the second century CE, but its flourishing was short-lived. In 240 CE the Persians conquered Hatra, and the formerly invincible city soon fell into ruins. Hatra owed its short period of prosperity to its strategic location between the two superpowers of the day: Rome and Parthia. It w Read More

Early modern literary sources depict converts to Islam, commonly known as renegades, as godless, despicable, treacherous, and wicked. By converting to Islam they had not only renounced their Christian faith, but also forsaken their family and fatherland. This article argues that the relations between Dutch renegades and the Dutch Republic were much more complex than these stereotypes indicate. Even when rene Read More

After the French had evacuated the northern Netherlands, the new Dutch sovereign, William Frederick, Prince of Orange, began to raise a national army, for which he had to commission general officers. In selecting them, during the eighteen months before the battle of Waterloo, three stages can be distinguished. In the first, the sovereign prince could employ only former officers who had remained faithful to his House, but wh Read More

From 1 May until the end of October 1883 there took place in Amsterdam the first world exhibition, of which the keynote was colonial power. Living Surinamers were to be seen as well as ‘authentic’ Indonesians. The public came with great curiosity to look at the exhibited Surinamers, and scientists had the opportunity for anthropological research. For example, prince Roland Bonaparte ordered the taking of anthropological Read More

During the 1970s Belgian academic historians added recent history to the academic history course. Recent history, referring to the period from the First World War to the present day, was recognized as a subdiscipline of contemporary history. Belgian research institutes of twentieth-century history emerged. It is little known that it was the protagonists of Belgian history education, and not academic historians, who from the 1 Read More

In 1997 John Lewis Gaddis presented four hypotheses on the New Cold War History. First, Gaddis believed Stalin was almost the only one responsible for the Cold War. This hypothesis has subsequently been rejected by many historians who stress American responsibility as well. Second, Gaddis maintained that the Cold War was not only a struggle between the superpowers, but that smaller nations could also sometimes play a m Read More