This thesis examines the patient registers of the Stadsziekenhuis in Hoorn. A database was constructed to analyse the patterns in patient admission and patient mortality between 1867 and 1915....Show moreThis thesis examines the patient registers of the Stadsziekenhuis in Hoorn. A database was constructed to analyse the patterns in patient admission and patient mortality between 1867 and 1915. Firstly, the function of the hospital as an institution is investigated. Subsequently, this thesis explores the characteristics of the patients that were admitted. Finally, the mortality patterns are examined to provide an answer to the question of which patients were most likely to die during their hospitalisation.Show less
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is often praised for the way it encourages women to chase their own dreams and break out of the rigid gender norms that often confine them. However, simultaneously...Show moreLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott is often praised for the way it encourages women to chase their own dreams and break out of the rigid gender norms that often confine them. However, simultaneously, the novel also seems to value and even encourage nineteenth-century ideals and gender roles, and encourage women to be selfless. The question then becomes how the novel is able to promote these seemingly contradicting values alongside each other, and what effect this has on its message. This thesis set out to find an answer to this question by examining in detail how both self-fulfillment and selflessness are being promoted in Little Women. Doing so showed that the novel actually approaches both ideas with incredible nuance. Women are generally encouraged to pursue self-fulfillment, regardless of societal expectations and gender norms, but only when selflessness is part of this self-fulfillment. Similarly, selflessness is encouraged as long pursuing it does not happen at the expense of personal happiness and fulfillment. The novel shows that the two ideas are, in fact, more complicated than they seem, and that though self-fulfillment and selflessness appear to be two opposing values, they are actually not mutually exclusive.Show less
Following the 'opening' of China after the Opium Wars, the European political and economic presence in the Middle Kingdom surged. An important part of this presence concerned the significant...Show moreFollowing the 'opening' of China after the Opium Wars, the European political and economic presence in the Middle Kingdom surged. An important part of this presence concerned the significant increase in Western religious mission orders within China. In this thesis, these often-overlooked missionaries are put central by examining their interactions with the local Chinese social and political environment. By following the actions and ideas of the Belgium Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, shortly known as the order of Scheut, this research asks new and insightful questions concerning the policies employed by the missionaries and their eventual outcome. By tracing the order’s development in the vicariates of Outer-Mongolia and Gansu, in terms of their approach towards the mission and the subsequently ensuing conflict, it shows how seemingly minor changes in attitude can create two widely different scenario’s and contradicts the perception of missionaries as mere agents of Western expansion. Missionaries, as agents of dialogue, managed to adapt their actions based on the environment they encountered and through their adaption, influenced the manner in which their local environment perceived them in the context of China’s turbulent nineteenth century.Show less
Between 1639 and 1854 was the Netherlands the only European country allowed to trade with Japan. After 1854, when Commodore Perry uses gunboat diplomacy to open diplomatic contact with Japan, the...Show moreBetween 1639 and 1854 was the Netherlands the only European country allowed to trade with Japan. After 1854, when Commodore Perry uses gunboat diplomacy to open diplomatic contact with Japan, the unique position of the Netherlands had changed drastically. Nonetheless, the Dutch government was not eager to give up its monopoly on Japan that easily. As a result, after Japan opened, the Dutch government can be observed undertaking many projects in Japan to convince the Japanese that unique relations with the Dutch were still in the Japanese interest. Especially in Nagasaki, where the Dutch had a trading post for since the 17th century, the Dutch undertook many projects and this started to shape the city going forward. This thesis examines how Dutch influence shaped three prominent sectors in Nagasaki throughout the nineteenth century; the rising military & industrial sectors and the declining trade sector in Nagasaki. The developments in these sectors are framed within wider Japanese history of that era and also the decline of Dutch influence in the nineteenth century. The conclusion of this thesis is that the Dutch still fulfilled a prominent position within Japanese, and then especially Nagasaki, after the years of the opening in 1854. The Dutch worked hard to introduce Japan with new military and industrial knowledge, while simulataneously aiming to include within a new trade network. The Dutch supplied new materials, worked as teacher and also worked as intermediaries with other Western nations. Eventually the Dutch could not keep up with other Western nations and by the 1870s most Dutch experts had disappeared from Japan. Nonetheless, by this time their influence had played a major role in Nagasaki. The basis had been laid for the rise of many factories in the city, the city had become a centre for military knowledge and trade had dwindled from the city. Byt the time the last of the Dutch experts left, Nagasaki had been set on a course to become a military-industrial complex, which would play an important part in the next century.Show less
The competition for publishers becomes fiercer every day. To ensure that people will buy more books, new initiatives are always considered. However, the past should not be forgotten. During the...Show moreThe competition for publishers becomes fiercer every day. To ensure that people will buy more books, new initiatives are always considered. However, the past should not be forgotten. During the nineteenth century, the answer to turning reading potential into a reading audience was book series. Book subscriptions are the modern equivalent, but not many publishers in The Netherlands are offering this service. To see whether book subscriptions could be successful, this thesis compares the reading culture of the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. By considering reading and production potential, obstacles, the concept of book series and book subscriptions, and the effects of these initiatives, from both the reader’s and publisher’s side, a comparison can be made between the two centuries. This thesis argues that book subscriptions are very suitable for the twenty-first century and could motivate people in The Netherlands to read more, which is supported by the many similarities to be found between the reading culture of this time period and of the nineteenth century, when a similar phenomenon, i.e. book series, was successful.Show less
The coincidence of increased immigration into Britain in the late nineteenth century with the revitalisation of the trade union movement encourages the investigation of interaction between the two...Show moreThe coincidence of increased immigration into Britain in the late nineteenth century with the revitalisation of the trade union movement encourages the investigation of interaction between the two phenomena. This study seeks to determine the impact that immigrants had upon trade unions that were primarily created for workers born in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, whether through joining these unions, through the impact of their own independent unions, or as unorganised workers. Specifically, the Alliance Cabinet Makers Association, the primary furniture making union, is considered as an example of immigrant integration into British trade unionism of the period, revealing significant levels of immigrant participation, and therefore evidence for considerable acculturation into elements of British society. Trade union records and census data are combined to create an in-depth study of the background and identities of hundreds of trade union members over a thirty year period. Ultimately, the historical investigation is compared to contemporary trends in immigration and trade unionism, both in the United Kingdom and the United States.Show less
