The internal organization of overseas empires influenced the choice of ship technology & contributed to Portugal’s decline & the 17th century ascendancy of the Dutch, according to Claudia Rei in an exciting Social Science History paper. OA https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2024.7
One central problem that resulted from the federal nature of the #Dutch republic was secrecy: How could one keep a secret with so many actors involved? This was almost a mission impossible, although one tried several measures such as an oath of secrecy to deal with the problem.
When dealing with Dutch #emdiplomacy you inevitably come across two other big issues: the Protestant character of Dutch #earlymodern#diplomacy and the importance of trade and commercial interests. For @helmers_h and @NinaLamal these are not contradictory interests. However, they argue that “commerce, geopolitics, and protestantism were perfectly reconcilable”. (4/5)
Finally, @helmer and @NinaLamal argue that it is important to analyse #Dutch#emdiplomacy not only in its European context, but in its global dimension. The East India Company (#VOC) and its growing importance in #Asia played an important role in the rise of the Dutch republic. Unfortunately, both dimesions – the European and the global one – are far too often dealt seperately with by modern research. A problem that is generally true for research on #earlymodern diplomacy.
This leads to an overarching problem of how to competently connect national, European and global perspectives on diplomacy without blurring the focus. A question to be discussed elsewhere. (5/5)
»Against clearly made agreements, #Joost was filmed when he had just gotten off stage and had to rush to the greenroom. At that moment, Joost repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be filmed. This wasn’t respected. This led to a threatening movement from Joost towards the camera. Joost did not touch the camera woman. This incident was reported, followed by an investigation by the #EBU and police.«
Looking for literature on German in the Netherlands for a sociolinguistics class next semester!
I'm especially interested the German-speaking communities abroad (who is part of it, what languages do they speak) & language ideologies around German in the Dutch context. Thanks! ☺️
Today in Labor History February 25, 1941: The outlawed Communist Party of the Netherlands initiated a General Strike in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam in protest of the persecution of Dutch Jews. It started one day after a pogrom in Amsterdam. 300,000 people participated. It was the first public protest against the Nazis in Europe. The Nazis brutally suppressed the strike, ending it after three days.
Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Ministry of General Affairs are keeping a firm grip on the #Dutch government’s communications about Israel and Gaza. The outgoing Dutch Prime Minister is sweeping politically unwelcome information about Israel, such as possible human rights violations, under the rug so as not to offend the United States and protect his prospects for his future job as #NATO leader, NRC reports based on an anonymous letter a group of civil servants from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote to the Court of Appeal in The Hague.
“A request from the Ministry of General Affairs to the Legal Affairs Directorate at Foreign Affairs reads as follows,” NRC quoted from the officials’ letter: “What can we say so that it appears that Israel is not committing war crimes?”