Canon of the Netherlands

Committee recommendation for education on Dutch history

This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Ten subjects have been replaced in June 2020.[1]. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2020)

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The Canon of the Netherlands (Dutch: Canon van Nederland; also known as the Canon of Dutch History) is a list of fifty topics that aims to provide a chronological summary of Dutch history to be taught in primary schools and the first two years of secondary school in the Netherlands.[2][3] The fifty topics are divided into fourteen sections.

## Canon

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The Canon of Dutch History was prepared by a committee headed by Frits van Oostrom and presented to the Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Maria van der Hoeven, on 16 October 2006.

A revised version was presented to the Dutch government on 3 October 2007 and in October 2008 it was agreed to include the canon in the school curriculum by 1 August 2009. An updated version was presented in June 2020, with ten topics replaced, parts rewritten and other modifications made to make the canon more diverse and accessible.[4][5]

The canon was designed to provide an overview of "what everyone ought to know, at the very least, about the history and culture of the Netherlands", as well as providing a framework for the teaching of History in Dutch schools.[6] Schools are not obliged to teach the canon, in accordance with the Freedom of education principle incorporated in the Dutch constitution (article 23) that guarantees the right of parents to have their children educated in accordance with their religious and other views.

The website entoen.nu is responsible for developing the canon for use in schools and in society in general.[7]

## The 14 sections

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1. The Low Countries by the Sea
2. On the outer edges of Europe
3. Conversion to Christianity
4. The Dutch language
5. An urban center and trading centre at the confluence of the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt rivers
6. The Dutch Republic emerges from an uprising
7. The flowering of the Golden Age
8. A trading nation and colonial power
9. A nation-state under a constitutional monarchy
10. The rise of modern society
11. The Netherlands during the time of the world wars from 1914 to 1945
12. The welfare state, democratisation and secularisation
13. The diversification of the Netherlands
14. The Netherlands in Europe

## The 50 topics

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| Topic | Section | Date | Description

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1 | Dolmens | 3 | c. 3000 BCE | Early farmers
2 | The Roman limes | 2, 3 | 47 - c. 400 | On the borders of the Roman empire
3 | Willibrord | 3 | 658 - 739 | Spread of Christianity
4 | Charlemagne | 2 | 742 - 814 | Emperor of the Western world
5 | Hebban olla vogala ... | 4 | c. 1100 | Earliest fragment of Old Dutch script
6 | Floris V, Count of Holland | 6 | 1254 - 1296 | A Dutch Graaf and a discontented nobility
7 | The Hanseatic League | 5 | 1356 - c. 1450 | Trading cities in the Low Countries
| The 'Printing press' was originally at No. 8 in the first version. In the revised version it was replaced by 'Christiaan Huygens', now at No. 21 in the list. | 4 | c. 1450 | Printing Revolution
8 | Erasmus | 3 | 1466? - 1536 | An international humanist
9 | Charles V | 2, 6 | 1500 - 1558 | The Low Countries as an administrative unit
10 | The Beeldenstorm | 3, 6 | 1566 | Religious conflict
11 | William the Silent | 6 | 1533 - 1584 | From rebellious nobleman to 'Father of the Nation'
12 | The Dutch Republic | 6 | 1588 - 1795 | An exceptional federal republic
13 | The Dutch East India Company | 8 | 1602 - 1799 | Expansion overseas
14 | The Beemster polder | 1, 6 | 1612 | The Netherlands and water
15 | The Grachtengordel | 5, 6 | 1613 - 1662 | Urban expansion in the seventeenth century
16 | Hugo Grotius | 6, 7 | 1583 - 1645 | A pioneer of modern international law
17 | The Statenbijbel | 3, 4 | 1637 | The Book of Books
18 | Rembrandt | 7 | 1606? - 1669 | The great painters
19 | The Atlas Maior of Joan Blaeu | 7, 8 | 1662 | Mapping the world
20 | Michiel de Ruyter | 7 | 1607 - 1676 | Naval heroes and Dutch naval power
21 | Christiaan Huygens | 7 | 1629-1695 | Science in the Dutch Golden Age
22 | Spinoza | 7 | 1632 - 1677 | Seeking the truth
23 | Slavery | 8 | c. 1637 - 1863 | Trafficking and forced labour in the New World
24 | Buitenplaatsen | 7, 9 | 17th and 18th century | Summer residences in the country
25 | Eise Eisinga | 9 | 1744 - 1828 | The Enlightenment in the Netherlands
26 | The Patriots | 9 | 1780 - 1795 | Crisis in the Republic
27 | Napoleon Bonaparte | 9 | 1769 - 1821 | The Kingdom of Holland
28 | William I | 9 | 1772 - 1843 | The United Kingdom of the Netherlands
29 | The first railway | 10 | 1839 | The Industrial Revolution
30 | The Dutch constitution | 9 | 1848 | A state's most important law
31 | Max Havelaar | 4, 8 | 1860 | Protest against colonial abuse in the Dutch East Indies
32 | Opposition to child labour | 10 | 19th century | Out of factories and into schools
33 | Vincent van Gogh | 10 | 1853 - 1890 | Modern art
34 | Aletta Jacobs | 10, 12 | 1854 - 1929 | Emancipation of women
35 | The First World War | 10, 11 | 1914 - 1918 | War and neutrality
36 | De Stijl | 11 | 1917 - 1931 | Revolution in Design
37 | Crisis years | 11 | 1929 - 1940 | Society in the Great Depression
38 | The Second World War | 11 | 1940 - 1945 | Occupation, resistance and liberation
39 | Anne Frank | 11 | 1929 - 1945 | The Holocaust in the Netherlands
40 | Indonesia | 11, 13 | 1945 - 1949 | A colony wrests itself free
41 | Willem Drees | 12 | 1886 - 1988 | The welfare state
42 | The watersnood | 1, 12 | 1 February 1953 | The perils of a low-lying country
43 | Television | 12 | from 1948 | A breakthrough in media technologies
44 | Port of Rotterdam | 12 | from c. 1880 | Gateway to the world
45 | Annie M.G. Schmidt | 4, 12 | 1911 - 1995 | Going against the grain in a bourgeois society
46 | Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles | 13 | from 1945 | The West decolonises
47 | Srebrenica | 14 | 1995 | The dilemmas of peacekeeping
48 | Veelkleurig Nederland | 13 | from 1945 | A multicultural society
49 | Natural gas | 12 | 1959 - 2030? | A dwindling resource
50 | Europe | 14 | from 1945 | Netherlands and the European Union

## Members of the Committee

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* Frits van Oostrom (professor of Humanities at the University of Utrecht, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Spinoza Prize 1995, AKO Literatuurprijs 1996), chairperson
* Paul van Meenen (leader of the Democrats 66 (D66) party in Leiden, vice chairperson of entoen.nu),[8] vice chairperson
* Herman Beliën (senior lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam)
* Marjolijn Drenth (philosopher, novelist, columnist for de Volkskrant)
* Frans Groot (history teacher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science)
* Els Kloek (history teacher and senior researcher in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Utrecht, project leader of the Online Women's Dictionary of the Netherlands)[9]
* Susan Legêne (professor of political history at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, formerly curator of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam)
* Rob van der Vaart (Professor in Human Geography at the University of Utrecht)
* Hubert Slings (director of entoen.nu,[8] director of education at the Dutch National Museum of History), secretary

## See also

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* Canon of Dutch Literature
* Canon of Amsterdam [nl]
* Canon of Friesland
* Canon of Gelderland [nl]
* Canon of Groningen
* Canon of Limburg [nl]
* Canon of Zeeland [nl]
* Canon of South Holland [nl]
* Canon of Curaçao

## References

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1. ^ "Floris eruit, Marga Klompé erin: de nieuwe Canon van Nederland". nos.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 22 June 2020.
2. ^ "Wat is de Canon van Nederland?" [What is the Canon of Dutch History?] (in Dutch). Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Netherlands). Retrieved 30 May 2011.
3. ^ Frits van Oostrom, Hubert Slings, ed. (2007). A Key to Dutch History (PDF). Amsterdam University Press. p. 228\. ISBN 978-90-5356-498-1.
4. ^ "New Dutch Canon updated to include more diverse perspectives". NL Times. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
5. ^ "More Women, More Colour, More Voices: The Netherlands Overhauls the Canon of Dutch History". the low countries. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
6. ^ "Entoen.nu: Canon van de Nederlandse geschiedenis" [Entoen.nu: Canon of Dutch history]. VKbanen (in Dutch). 2008-10-13. Archived from the original on 2012-03-13.
7. ^ "entoen.nu". entoen.nu. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
8. ^ a b "Over entoen.nu" [About entoen.nu].
9. ^ "Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland" [Online Women's Dictionary of the Netherlands] (in Dutch). Inghist.nl. 2011-04-29. Retrieved 2011-12-24.

## External links

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* Official website (English)
* Oostrom, Frits van; Slings, Hubert, eds. (2007-12-31). A Key to Dutch History: The Cultural Canon of the Netherlands. Amsterdam University Press. doi:10.1515/9789048508068. ISBN 978-90-485-0806-8.
* "De RijksCanon van het Rijksmuseum" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
* "De canon met een kleine c" (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 19 February 2009. Retrieved 30 May 2011.

*[c.]: circa